Epsom Salt
sulphate of magnesium (Mg SO. 7H2O), a cathartic salt which appears in capillary fibers or acicular crystals. It is found covering crevices of rocks, in mineral springs, etc.; but is commonly prepared by artificial procfrom magnesian limestone by esses treating it with sulphuric acid, or by dissolving the mineral kieserite (Mg SO. H₂O) in boiling water, allowing the insoluble matter to settle, and crystallizing out the Epsom salt from the clear solution. It is employed in medicine as a purgative, and in the arts. See EPSOM. American
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Epstein
JACOB, an sculptor. He was born in New York, 1880, and was educated in the New York public schools. He then took up sculpture and after producing several minor works was commissioned in 1907 to execute eighteen figures to decorate the recently erected building of the British Medical Association in London. The work, with the strongly marked anatomy of the figures, aroused much adverse criticism, though it had its defenders. In 1909 he was commissioned to execute the tomb of Oscar Wilde for the Père Lachaise Ceme- 1 tery, Paris; the tomb was carved out of Derbyshire marble. Later he decorated the Church Square, Pretoria, and in 1919 his figure of Christ caused much comment.
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Epworth, Poltergeist, The
In December, 1716, a disturbance of a poltergestic character broke out in the Parsonage of Epworth, the home of John Wesley. The evidence consists in contemporary letters written to Samuel Wesley by his mother and two of his sisters; letters written nine years after the events to John Wesley by his mother and four of his sisters, and a copy of an account by Samuel Wesley the elder. The disturbances, consisting of rappings, loud and varied noises, were heard by every member of the household. Mrs. Wesley says in a letter, "Just as we (Mr. and Mrs. Wesley) came to the bottom of the broad stairs, having hold of each other, on my side there seemed as if somebody had emptied a bag of money at my feet, and on his as if all the bottles under the stairs (which were many) had been dashed in a thousand pieces." The disturbances lasted for about two months, though occasional manifestations were heard after that period. Hetty, one of the five daughters of the Wesley household, is the only one who has not left a record of her experiences, although it would seem that the poltergeist was most active in her neighbourhood.
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Equation Clock
A clock invented about the end of the seventeenth century, which contained a device for partially rotating the dial, so as to make the length of the day indicated by the clock, coincide with that of the solar day.
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Equation of Time
The difference between mean and apparent, or solar, time.
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Equatorial
an astronomical instrument designed to note the course of the stars as they move through the sky. A strong axis is constructed and permanently fixed in a slanting position so as to point exactly to the North pole of the heavens. It turns on its axis, carrying with it a telescope which, if it retained its relative position to that of the revolving portion of the instrument, would enable an observer looking through it to see no more than a single great circle of the sky. It is not, however, fixed to the revolving portion of the instrument, but may be moved up or down so that with it an astronomer can follow the entire course of a circumpolar star in its passage around the sky. It is of importance of a star, to ascertain not only the course a but the apparent rapidity of its movement. This end is attained by attaching to the axis of the equatorial a racked wheel in which works an endless screw or worm, the whole put in motion by an apparatus furnished with centrifugal balls, like those of the governor of a engine, and which render the mosteam tion uniform.
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Equatorial Clock
A clock which drives an equatorial telescope.
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Equatorial Current
a current in the ocean which crosses the Atlantic from Africa to Brazil, having a breadth varying from 160 to 450 nautical miles. Its waters are cooler by 3° or 4° than those of the ocean under the line. Its effect, therefore, is to diminish the heat of the tropics.
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Equatorial Telescope
a telescope so mounted as to have a motion in two planes at right angles to each other; one parallel to the axis of the earth, and the other to the equator. Each axis has a graduated circle, one for measuring declination and the other right ascension.
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Equilibrium
Magical harmony depends upon equilibrium. In occult operations if the will of the operator be always at the same tension and directed along the same line, moral impotence will ensue. (See Levi-Ceremonial Magic.)
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Equinoctial
the same as the celestial equator. The equinoctial points are those in which the equinoctial and the ecliptic intersect. Equinoctial time is time reckoned from the moment in each year when the sun passes the vernal equinox. This instant is selected as a convenient starting-point of a uniform reckoning of time for the purposes of astronomical observers.
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Equinoctial Gale
a gale popиlarly supposed to occur at the time of the spring or autumn equinox. Long-continued observations, however, are decisive against this popular belief.
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Equinox
in astronomy, either one of the two points at which the sun, in its annual apparent course among the stars, crosses the equator; so called because the days and nights are nearly equal when the sun is at these points. The vernal equinox occurs about March 20. When but one equinox is referred to, vernal equinox is meant. The autumnal equinox occurs about Sept. 23.
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Equinoxes
PRECESSION OF THE, the motion of the equinoxes along the ecliptic due to the change ange in the direction of the earth's axis of rotation, caused by the attraction of the moon and sun on the protuberant equatorial ring of the earth.
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Equipment
General appliances, tools, and machinery necessary for conducting a foundry or other manufacturing establishment. Evaporation generally signifies the dissipation of the volatile parts of a compound body. Natural evaporation is the conversion of water into vapor, which, in consequence of becoming lighter than the atmosphere, is raised considerably above the earth, and afterwards, by a partial condensation, forms clouds. See VAPOR.
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