Each of these 8 subjects appears in only one of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. None is long enough to carry a page by itself, so they are gathered here by letter. Anything that grows moves out to a page of its own.
According Hector of Boêce, the king of Sweden, Eric or Henry, surnamed the Windy Hat, could change the wind merely by turning his hat or cap on his head, to show the demon with whom he was in league which way he wished the wind to blow. The demon obeyed the signal so promptly that the king's hat might have served the people for a weather-cock.
Only in An Encyclopaedia of Occultism
Saint, king of Sweden. He ruled 1150-1160. His reign is noted for a crusade against the heathen Finns. He was slain in a battle with the Danes under Magnus Hendrikson near Upsala. Eric the Red, the founder of a Norse settlement in Greenland. He was born in Norway about 950. According to the current account, tradition rather than history, he fled from Norway to Iceland on a charge of murder. He was driven from Iceland for a similar outrage. He found a sheltered harbor in Greenland, but returned after three years to Iceland, whence he led a band of his followers to Greenland and founded a permanent settlement about 985. His son Leif Ericson introduced Christianity. The colony existed about 400 years, and was then wiped out by the Black Death . Eric XIV (1533-1577), king of Sweden. He succeeded his father, Gustavus Vasa, in 1560. He appears to have made overtures to Elizabeth of England and to Mary, Queen of Scots, and finally made a peasant girl his queen. He was a licentious man, given to violent paroxysms of fury, in which his wife alone was able to control him. His subjects, unable to endure misgovernment, shut him up in prison and seated his brother John on the throne. The captive Eric was fond of books, of writing, and of music. He died from a cup of poison.
Only in Aiton's Encyclopedia
the heath, a large genus of branched rigid shrubs, type of the natural order Ericaceæ, most of which are natives of south Africa, a few being found in Europe and Asia. The leaves are narrow and rigid, the flowers are globose or tubular, and four-lobed. Five species are found in Great Britain.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
an Attic hero, said to have been the son of Hephæstus and Atthis, daughter of Cranaus, the son-in-law and successor of Cecrops. He was brought up by Athena, who placed him in a chest, which was intrusted to Agraulos, Pandrosos, and Herse, the daughters of Cecrops, with the strict charge that it was not to be opened. Unable to restrain their curiosity, they opened the chest, and discovering a child entwined with serpents, were seized with madness, and threw themselves down the most precipitous part of the Acropolis. Afterward Erechtheus was the chief means of establishing the worship of Athena in Attica. The Erechtheum was erected in his own honor. This original Erechtheum was burned by the Persians, but a new and magnificent Ionic temple was raised on the same site. ancient
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Leif, lef, an Icelandic navigator. According to the Icelandic sagas, he was the son of Eric the Red. He sailed early in the eleventh century to some part of the coast of North America , and established a colony which he called Vinland from the great number of grape vines growing wild. A statue in his honor adorns Commonwealth Avenue, Boston. See Vinland
Only in Aiton's Encyclopedia
JOHN, an American inventor; born in Langbanshyttan, Sweden, July 31, 1803; entered the Swedish army in 1820; was promoted captain; resigned in 1827. He soon became known as an inventor. In 1828 he made the first application to navigation of the principle of condensing steam and returning the water to the boiler; later he brought out a self-acting gun-lock by means of which naval cannon could be automatically discharged at any elevation without regard to the rolling of the ship. In 1833 he designed a caloric engine; and in 1836 invented the screw propeller, which revolutionized navigation. Ericsson came to the United States in 1839 and two years later built the screw-propelling warship "Princeton" for the government. This vessel was the pioneer of modern naval construction and the foundation of the steam marine of the world. The achievement, however, which made him famous in the United States was the construction in 1861 of the ironclad "Monitor," which arrived in Hampton Roads just in time to defeat, on March 9, 1862, the Confederate ironclad "Merrimac." A fleet of monitors was soon built and did important service during the remainder of the war. Ericsson died in New York City, March 8, 1889. After his remains had been paid marked honor, they were sent back to Sweden on the new cruiser "Baltimore," and interred with imposing ceremonies.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
er'ik-son, John (1803-1889), a noted inventor. He was a native of Sweden. After reaching young manhood and serving a term in the army, he left the service and established himself as an inventor. Among other useful appliances was a contrivance for regulating the aim of a cannon on a pitching ship. Another was a successful hot air engine, and still a third invention was the screw propeller , now used almost universally on steam-ships. It consists essentially of a series of slanting blades attached to one end of a shaft. The propeller rests in the water behind the ship. The shaft runs through the hold of the ship to the machinery, where it is driven by steam power. As the shaft revolves, the screw propeller turns with it, thrusting the ship forward with a powerful stroke. Most ships are provided with a pair of twin propellers. In 1839 Ericsson came to the United States . His fame rests on the construction of the iron-clad, Monitor. It was built for the United States just in time to meet the Confederate iron-clad, Merrimac, in Hampton Roads, March 9, 1862. At his death the United States government sent an armed cruiser to convey his remains to Sweden. See Monitor; Battleship
Only in Aiton's Encyclopedia
JOANNES SCOTUS (e-rij e-nä), an eminent scholar and metaphysician; probably born in Ireland about 800-810. He spent a great part of his life at the court of Charles the Bald of France, and was placed at the head of the school of the palace. The king further imposed on him the double task of translating into Latin the Greek works of the pseudo Dionysius the Areopagite, and of composing a treatise against Godeschale on "Predestination and Free-will." This treatise, and an- "Of the Division of Nature," conother, other, tained many views in opposition to the teachings of the Church. They were condemned by the councils of Valencia in 855 and of Langres in 859, and Pope Nicholas I. demanded the immediate disgrace of the culprit. He died in France about 875.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia