Buhr
or Burrstone, a variety of quartz distinguished by flinty hardness and numerous small air cavities. Buhr of excellent quality is found in the quarries of western Pennsylvania and adjacent parts of Ohio, but the French buhr is by far the best. Cut into wedge-shaped pieces and bound together by heavy metal hoops, buhr is the material of which millstones are made. Before the invention of the steel roller process the flour and meal of the world was ground between upper and nether millstones of buhr. Many millers have not discarded millstones yet. With use, millstones become too smooth to grind and must be roughed by the use of a hammer or pick with a steel edge shaped like that of a chisel. Picking millstones must be done by a uniform tap-tap and is an art in itself. See Flour 2026 Editor's Note: The roller mills the entry mentions finished the millstone off, and with it a vanished trade: the millwright who "dressed" the stone, recutting its grooves with a sharp hammer, and whose hands became flecked with steel splinters — the origin, some say, of the phrase about showing your mettle . Buhr millstones now sit as ornaments in gardens. (Ed: BR 2026-06-16)
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Buitenzorg
a favorite residential town in the island of Java, about 40 miles S. of Batavia, with which it is connected by rail. It contains a fine palace of the governor-general, celebrated botanic gardens, etc. Pop. about 25,000.
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Bukowina
a former Crownland of Austria-Hungary, bounded on the N. by eastern Galicia, on the E. by Russia Rumania, the W. by Hungary, and by Rumania on the . It has an area of 4,030 square miles and a population of about 800,000. Its capital is Czernowitz (pop. about 90,000). It was the scene of severe fighting during the World War and after the conclusion of the conflict was claimed by Rumania on racial and political grounds. It is chiefly an agricultural country and has derground stem with buds upon it, technically called a corm, whereas a proper bulb is analogous not to an underground stem, but to a bud only. Bulbs placed in water tend to rot; they flourish best when fixed in very light soil or even in the air an inch above water, into which their roots enter . They should have abundance of light.
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Bulacan
a town in Luzon, Philippine Islands, in the province of the same name (area 1,173 square miles; pop. about 225,000), about 22 miles N. W. of Manila, with which it is connected by railway; has factories in which silk matting is ; pop. about 15,000. The town made. Sugar boiling is also an industry of importance.
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Bulawayo
the principal town and chief commercial center of Matabeleland, in southern Rhodesia, south Africa . It is connected by railroad with Cape Town and other parts of south Africa , to which point the railroad from Cape Town was completed in 1897, a total distance of 1,360 miles. The place has a white population of about 5,000; several hotels , good business blocks and residences, and is rapidly growing in size and importance.
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Bulkeley
MORGAN GARDINER, an American statesman; born at East Haddam, Conn., Dec. 26, 1838. He was educated at the Hartford high school; higchachon was for several years a merchant in Brooklyn, and served in the 13th N. Y. Regiment during the Civil War. Returning to Hartford in 1872, he organized and was first president of the United States Bank there. He became president of the Aetna Life Insurance Company in 1879; was mayor of Hartford from 1880 to 1888; and from 1889 to 1893 was Governor of Connecticut. In 1905 he was elected United States Senator and served until 1911.
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Bull
John, a nickname for the English people. It originated in a satire by Arbuthnot entitled the History of John Bull. The satire was intended to cast ridicule upon the Duke of Marlborough, but it gave the cartoonist a name for a whole people. The corresponding American term is Uncle Jonathan. Attack of the Picador. the Bull's Last Charge. Bull fighting in Mexico Entering the Arena. Bull fighting 2026 Editor's Note: The entry gets the American counterpart wrong — it is Uncle Sam (Brother Jonathan being the older figure). The two have fared very differently since: Uncle Sam remains instantly recognizable, while John Bull , the stout farmer in a Union Jack waistcoat, has faded almost entirely from British self-image, surviving mostly in period cartoons. (Ed: BR 2026-07-11)
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Bull
the male of any quadruped of the bovidæ family. Also, a sign of the zodiac: Taurus.
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Bull
JOHN, the popular sobriquet or characteristic name applied to the English nation.
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Bull
OLE BORNEMANN, a Norwegian violinist, born in Bergen, Feb. 5, 1810. He secured great triumphs both throughout Europe and in the United States by his wonderful playing. He lost all his money in a scheme to found a colony of his countrymen in Pennsylvania, and had to take again to his violin to repair his broken fortunes. He afterward settled in Cambridge, Mass., and had also a summer residence in his native city, where he died, Aug. 17, 1880.
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Bull (Instrument edict ordinance)
an instrument, edict, ordinance, or decree of the Pope, equivalent to the proclamations, edicts, letters patent, or ukases of secular princes. Bulls are written on the wrong side of parchment, to which a leaden seal is affixed, and are granted for the consecration of bishops, the promotion to benefices, and the celebration of jubilees, etc. The publication of papal bulls is termed fulmination; and it is done by three commissioners, to whom they are usually addressed. Bulls are generally designated by the first words of their text; thus, the B. Unigenitus, or In Cena Domini, etc. GOLDEN BULL is the term particularly applied to a statute or enactment of the Emperor Charles IV., published in 1356, in two diets held in succession at Nuremberg and Metz, for the purpose of fixing the laws in the election of the Emperor, and of regulating the number and privileges of the electors (Churfürsten). The original copy of this instrument is preserved at Frankfort-on-the-Main, and has a seal of gold appendant; the appellation "golden bull" is derived.
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