Reading (Parliamentary and municipal)
a parliamentary and municipal borough of England; capital of the county of Berks; on the Kennet, near its confluence with the Thames; 36 miles W. of London. The town is well built and laid out, and there are an assize hall, the Royal Berkshire hospital, a town hall of recent erection in the Renaissance style, etc. The industrial establishments include a large and celebrated biscuit factory, iron foundries, breweries, corn mills, etc., and there is a considerable agricultural trade. There are interesting remains of a magnificent abbey founded by Henry I., who was buried within its precincts in 1135. Pop. (1917) 82,475.
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Reagent
in chemistry, any substance employed to bring about a chemical reaction or change in another element, or compound, with the view generally of either detecting its presence or affecting its separation from other substances.
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Real
the old unit of value in Spain. By the monetary law of June, 1864, the silver real was made to weigh 1.298 representative knowledge of it. grammes, .81 fine, and equivalent to 4½ cents. The real has varied in value from 42 to 10 cents.
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Real
in law, pertaining to things fixed, permanent or immovable. Thus real estate is landed property, including all estates and interest in lands which are held for life or for some greater estate, and whether such lands be of freehold or copyhold tenure. So a real action is an action brought for the specific recovery of lands, tenements, and hereditaments.
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Real Composition
in law, an agreement made between the owner of land in countries having an endowed church and the parson or vicar with consent of the ordinary, that such lands shall be discharged from payment of tithes, in consequence of other land or recompense given to the parson in lieu and satisfaction thereof.
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Real Presence
the doctrine of the actual presence of the body and blood of Christ in the eucharist. REAL SCHOOLS (German, Realschulen), those educational institutions of Germany between the elementary school and the university having for their special object the teaching of science, art, the modern languages, etc.; in contraschools and gymnasiums, in which the distinction to ordinary grammar classical languages hold a more important place.
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Real-Schulen
a German name for secondary schools less classical than the gymnasia. In the real-schulen, as the term is used ordinarily, Latin and Greek are not taught. Modern languages are given a prominent place. Like the gymnasia, these schools lead to the university, which begins with what an American terms the junior year. In 1908 there were 338 real-schulen in the German Empire .
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Realf
RICHARD, an English- American poet; born in Framfield, Sussex, England, June 14, 1834. At 18 he published, under the patronage of several literary people, a collection of poems, "Guesses at the Beautiful." In 1854 he came to the United States, enlisted in the army in 1862, and wrote some of his best lyrics in the field. His most admired poems are: "My Slain," "An Old Man's Idyl," and "Indirection." He died in Oakland, Cal., Oct. 28, 1878.
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Realgar
a monoclinic mineral, occurring but rarely in crystals, but mostly granular to compact-massive. Hardness, 1.5-2; sp. gr., 3.4-3.6; luster, resinous; color and streak, aurora-red to orangeyellow; transparent to translucent; fracture, conchoidal; brittle. Occurs in fine crystals in Hungary and Transylvania, localities, fremany localities with orpiment; on exchanges to orpiment. In A sulphide of arsenic formed artificially by heating arsenic acid with the proper proportion of sulphur. It is a fusible and volatile substance, having an orange-red color, is used for painting and for the production
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Ream
a quantity of paper of any size containing 20 quires or 480 sheets. A common practice is now to count 500 sheets to the ream.
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Reaping Hook
a curved blade of steel set in a short handle, and used for reaping; a sickle.
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Reaping Machine
a machine for reaping or cutting down grain in the field. There are numerous varieties. Properly speaking, the REAPING HOOK (q. v.) (represented 1490 b. c. in a harvest scene on a tomb at Thebes, and still in use) and the scythe are reaping machines; but the term is generally confined to the modern machines, in which operations formerly carried out by the human hand are effected by machinery. The idea of a mechanical reaper was probably suggested by Capel Lloft in 1785, and in 1786, Pott, an Englishman, made the first machine. In 1822 a selfsharpening mowing machine was patented in the United States. Between 1852 and 1874 nearly 3,000 patents for reaping machines were taken out for the United States. Two of the most celebrated are McCormick's, invented about 1831, and improved in 1846, and Wood's reaping and automatic binding machine, first used in 1874. Modern reapers are of three classes, manual delivery, selfraking, and self-binding. A binder largely used, and pushed by 4 to 6 horses, clears a strip 12 to 20 feet wide. There are combined headers and threshers which cut, thresh, and sack grain, doing 100 acres a day.
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Reaumur's Scale
a scale for a thermometer, in which the two fixed points being as in the Centigrade, the division is into 80 instead of 100 parts. It is still occasionally used.
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Rebec
or REBECK, the English name of a three-stringed musical instrument played with a bow. It was of Arabian or Turkish origin, and in its earliest form it probably had a long neck and small round body, made of cocoanut shell, or some such material, over which parchment was stretched to form the sound board. After its introduction into Europe, the third string was added. The rebec gradually assumed the form of a viol, of which it was the precursor.
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Rebecca
2026 Editor's Note: This page uses language about other peoples, religions, or nationalities that was commonplace when the book was published and is offensive by today's standards. The text has been left exactly as it was printed, rather than cut or softened, so that the historical record — including how ordinary such language once was — is preserved. (Ed: ET 2026-07-22) in Scott's Ivanhoe, a young Jewess, the daughter of Isaac of York. Generous, courageous, highminded, she withstands all temptations that wealth and pride of place can offer her, remains loyal to her religion although it is despised by those she loves, faces an awful death at the stake with calm dignity, and, in repelling the suit of the villain, Brian de Bois-Guilbert, chooses death rather than dishonor. She is one of Scott's greatest creations and one of the noblest characters in all fiction.
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