Alcohol Lamp
The Clark patent simplicity lamp shown in Fig. 4 is a favorite one with American watchmakers. It has nine facets on the font that it may readily be adjusted to any required position. The wicks of alcohol lamps should not be too tight, and the interior and exterior of the font should be kept free from dirt. The Clark lamp should not be filled more than one-third full. The wick should be removed when it gets so short that it fails to reach well down into the alcohol.
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Alcohol or Benzine Cup
The watchmaker should keep the alcohol and benzine on his bench in a glass cup having a tight fitting cover to prevent evaporation and contamination with dust. It also adds to the appearance of his bench and is a great improvement over an old saucer and bottle. The cup shown in Fig. 3 has a ground glass cover or stopper that fits tightly into the neck of the cup.
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Alcoholism
a resulting from the excessive and persistent use of alcoholic beverages. It has been recognized in recent years as a disease and has been so treated.
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Alcott
LOUISA MAY, an American author, daughter of the preceding, born in Germantown, Pa., Nov. 29, 1832; wrote at an early age, "Little Women" (1868), "Little Men" (1871), "Old- Fashioned Girl," "Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag," "Rose in Bloom," and many others of like character and popularity. She died in Boston, Mass., March 6, 1888.
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Alcott
AMOS BRONSON, an American philosophical writer and educator, one of the founders of the transcendental school of philosophy in New England; born at Wolcott, Conn., Nov. 29, 1799. From 1834-1837 his private school in Boston, conducted on the plan of adapting the instruction to the individuality of each pupil, attracted attention. He was on terms of friendship with Emerson, Hawthorne, Channing, Thoreau, Margaret Fuller. After 1840 he lived in Concord, Mass., and was the projector and dean of the Concord School of Philosophy. Lectures on speculative and practical subjects occupied his later years. His chief works are "Orphic Sayings," contributed to the "Dial" (1840); "Tablets" (1868); "Concord Days" (1872); "Table-Talk" (1877); "Sonnets and Canzonets" (1882); "Ralph Waldo Emerson, His Character and Genius" (1882); "New Connecticut" (1886). He died in Boston, March 4, 1888.
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Alcott, Amos Bronson
Amos Bronson (1799-1888), an American philosophical writer and educator. The son of a farmer, he worked, as a boy, for a country storekeeper; made an unsuccessful attempt to peddle merchandise, and in 1823 opened an infant school. Acquiring some local fame by his methods of teaching, he removed to Boston and for some years conducted there a school of the same sort. His method was that of teaching by conversation, his theory being that the child's mind should be developed independently according to individual faculties, not molded by imposing upon it knowledge from the outside. His system met with disfavor and he retired to Concord. From this time Alcott devoted himself to expounding reform views on a great variety of subjects. He was associated intimately with Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, and Channing, became dean of the Concord School of Philosophy, and was a leader among the Transcendentalists. Emerson and other eminent thinkers have acknowledged an obligation to Alcott. He may be compared with Coleridge, as one who, while his own work was fragmentary, became a powerful agency in changing and directing the current of philosophic thought. 2026 Editor's Note: Bronson Alcott's teac hing methods — no corporal punishment, learning by conversation, respect for the child — were too radical for his day (his Boston school collapsed partly for admitting a Black pupil) but are ordinary now. His utopian commune Fruitlands failed within a year; his daughter Louisa May turned the family's genteel poverty into Little Women . (Ed: BR 2026-06-25)
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Alcyonium
in zoölogy, a genus of polyps; the typical one of the family alcyonidæ. The alcyonium digitatum is found attached to stones, mussel shells, as "dead men's fingers," "dead men's toes," and "cow's paps." These names are applied to the alcyonium from its resemblance to finger-shaped masses, each of which masses consists of a colony of several hundred polyps united to form a composite organism. They are found attached to stones, mussel shells, and other objects. The alcyonium carneum abounds on the shores of America N. of the latitude of Cape Cod.
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Aldehydes
in chemistry, compounds formed by the oxidation of alcohols, and are reconverted into alcohols by the action of nascent hydrogen; by further oxidation they are converted into acids. They differ from alcohols in having two atoms less of hydrogen, which are removed from the carbon atom containing the radical HO' (hydroxyl) con connected to it in the alcohol; thus the aldehyde monatomic radical is (O=C-H)'. Many aldehydes of monatomic alcohols have been prepared by oxidation of the alcohols, or by distilling a mixture of the potassium salt of the corresponding acid with potassium formate, which yields potassium carbonate and the aldehyde. Aldehydes form crystalline compounds with acid sulphites; they also unite with aniline. Ketones are aldehydes in which the atom of hydrogen united to the radical (CO)" is replaced by a hydrocarbon radical.
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Alden
WILLIAM LIVINGSTON, an American humorous writer and journalist, born at Williamstown, Mass., Oct. 9, 1837. He introduced the sport of canoeing into the United States. He was for a time United States Consul- General at Rome. Among his principal writings are "Domestic Explosives" (1878); "Shooting Stars" (1877); "Moral Pirates" (1880); "The Comic Liar" (1882); "A New Robinson Crusoe" (1888), etc; London correspondent "New York Times," 1900. He died Jan. 14, 1908.
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Alden (HENRY MILLS an American editor)
HENRY MILLS, an American editor and prose writer, born at Mount Tabor, Vt., Nov. 11, 1836. He was graduated at Williams College and Andover Theological Seminary; settled in New York in 1861, became me managing editor of "Harper's Weekly" in 1864, and editor of "Harper's Monthly Magazine" in 1868. He published "The Ancient Lady of Sorrow," a poem (1872); "God in His World" (1890); and "A Study of Death" (1895). He died in 1919.
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Alden (JOHN a magistrate)
JOHN, a magistrate of the Plymouth colony, born in 1599. His name is familiarized by the poem of Longfellow, "The Courtship of Miles Standish." He was originally a cooper of Southampton, was employed in making repairs on the ship "Mayflower," and came over in her with the Pilgrim Fathers. He was for over 50 years a colonial magistrate. He died in 1687.
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