territory from the Danube to the Caucasus. Gradually, however, Russia undermined their authority, until in 1783 it became extinct. During the siege of Sebastopol (1855) Bakhtchiserai was the headquarters of the Russian army. BAKHTEGAN, a lake of Persia, in the province of Fars, in lat. 29° 30' N., and between lon. 53° 30′ and 54° 30' E.; length E. and W. upward of 60 m.; breadth 8 m. It dries up in summer, leaving immense quantities of salt. BAKHTISHWA, the name of a Christian Nestorian family, which during the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries gave six famous physicians to the court of Bagdad. Caliph Al-Hadi, after having been restored to health by the skill of Ben Giurgis Bakhtishwa in 786, proposed that all the physicians who had unsuccessfully practised upon him should be put to death; but Bakhtishwa saved the lives of his colleagues by administering poison to the caliph. At the beginning of the 9th century Giabril ben Giurgis ben Bakhtishwa, after helping Haroun alRashid over an apoplectic fit, was sentenced to death because the caliph had a relapse. His life was only saved by the death of the caliph. The most learned of the Bakhtish was was Abu Sa, who flourished about the middle of the 10th century. He is the reputed author of a medical work in 50 chapters, dedicated to Caliph Motaki, and entitled the "Garden of Medicine." BAKONY, or Forest of Bakony, a mountain range in Hungary, S. of the Danube, between the Raab and Lake Balaton, separating the great and little Hungarian plains. Its average height is about 2,000 ft. It is crowned with dense forests, and has quarries of very fine marble. Immense herds of swine are fed in the forest, and the keepers figure as robbers in Hungarian literature. BAKU, or Bakoo. I. Formerly an independent khanate, now a government of Russia, in Transcaucasia, bordering on the Caspian sea, and comprising the territory of Shirvan and part of Daghestan; area, 14,922 sq. m.; pop. in 1867, 486,229, including Russians, Caucasians, Armenians, and Parsees. It is traversed by the easternmost ranges of the Caucasus, and watered by the Kur and the Aras. The peninsula of Apsheron, comprised within this government, is remarkable for its mud volcanoes and naphtha springs. Near the town of Baku there are about 100 bituminous springs, several of which are worked, producing white and black naphtha. The principal sources are situated at a spot called Balegan, about 6 m. from the city of Baku. The quantity annually obtained in the district amounts to about 36,000 lbs. of the pure and 9,600,000 lbs. of the black naphtha. The naphtha is used by the natives for illuminating purposes. The country for several miles round the town of Baku is impregnated with inflammable matter. About 15 m. N. E. of the town is a fire temple of the Guebres nearly a mile in circumference, from the centre of which rises a bluish flame. Here are some small houses, and the inhabitants when they wish to smother the flame cover the place, enclosed with walls, by a thick loam. When an incision is made in the floor, and a torch applied, the gas ignites, and when the fire is no longer needed it is again suppressed by closing the aperture. Not far from the town there is a boiling lake which is in constant motion, and gives out a flame altogether devoid of heat. After the warm showers of autumn the whole country appears to be on fire, and the flames frequently roll along the mountains in enormous masses and with incredible velocity. The fire does not burn, nor is it possible to detect the least heat in it, nor are the reeds or grass affected by it. These appearances never occur when the wind blows from the east. In former times the burning field was one of the most celebrated ateshgahs (shrines of grace) among the Guebres. Previous to its occupation by the Russians a voluntary human sacrifice was annually offered here-a youth who leaped with his horse into one of the fissures. A few adherents of this sect still make pilgrimages to the great ateshgah to worship the fire and perform penitential exercises, chiefly by night. The place is a walled quadrangle with an altar raised on a flight of steps in the centre. At each of the four corners stands a chimney 25 ft. high, from which issues a flame 3 ft. long. Round the walls of this sanctum are a number of cells in which the priests and Guebres reside. The peninsula is also remarkable for its salt formation: in different parts of it there are 10 salt lakes, only one or two of which are worked, yielding annually about 10,000 tons. There are no trees in this peninsula, but portions of the territory have a layer of mould on which are raised wheat, barley, maize, melons, fruits, rice, cotton, and saffron Opium is prepared, and a species of red and highly flavored onion not found elsewhere is cultivated. II. A seaport town on the W. coast of the Caspian, the capital of the preceding government, in lat. 40° 22' N. and lon. 49°40' E., situated on the southern shore of the peninsula of Apsheron; pop. in 1867, 12,383, chiefly Mohammedans. The houses, terraced like those of other oriental towns, are built of naphtha and earth. The town is protected by a double wall built in the time of Peter the Great, has a custom house, military school, 16 Mohammedan private schools, 23 mosques, Russian, Greek, and Armenian churches, and a palace of the ancient khans built about the 7th century, and now used as an artillery arsenal. The walls were once washed by the Caspian, but they are now 15 ft. from it; and in other places the sea has encroached upon the land, and the ruins of submerged buildings are discovered at a depth of 18 ft. The port of Baku is the most important on the Caspian, and a principal Russian naval station. The chief articles of trade are naphtha, iron, silk, shawls, linen and woollen goods, cotton, tobacco, indigo, fruits, fish, salt, and saffron. There are no factories. Baku existed in the 4th century. It fell into the hands of the Saracens, and after the downfall of the caliphate it passed into the power of the princes of Shirvan. In 1509 it was annexed to the Persian monarchy, and later was taken by the Turks, but recaptured by Shah Abbas I. In 1723 the city capitulated to the Russians under Matushkin, but was returned to the Persians at the peace of 1735. Later it was taken by the inhabitants of the Caucasus, and in 1806 it was again taken by the Russians under Gen. Bulkhakoff and finally annexed to Russia. BAKUNIN, Mikhail, a Russian revolutionist, born at Torzhok, Tver, in 1814. He belongs to an old family, left the military service for the study of philosophy, and became conspicuous by his affiliations with revolutionary Frenchmen, Germans, and Poles, and as a resolute and reckless agitator. He resided after 1841, when he left Russia, in Germany, France, and BALAKLAVA, a small seaport town of Russia, Switzerland; and, declining to return to Rus- in the government of Taurida, on the S. W. coast sia, his estates were confiscated. In 1847 he of the Crimea and a small bay of the Black was expelled from France at the request of the sea, about 8 m. S. S. E. of Sebastopol; pop. czar for having made an inflammatory speech about 750. Known in antiquity as Symbolon in favor of a Polish-Russian alliance for the Portus, the bay of Balaklava was called in the overthrow of Russian despotism. After the middle ages Cembalo and Bella Chiava, being a revolution of 1848 he was prominent at the possession of the Genoese, who built a fortress Slavic congress in Prague and in the ensuing on the heights above the harbor. Catharine conflict, after which he fled to Berlin. Ex- II. sent to Balaklava 2,000 Greek and Armepelled from Prussia, he appeared in May, 1849, nian soldiers as guards of the coast, and their as a member of the revolutionary government descendants formed from 1795 to 1859 the and as the most daring leader of the outbreak so-called Balaklava-Greek battalion. In the in Dresden. Captured at Chemnitz after the Crimean war, the British troops under Lord suppression of the insurrection, he was incar- Raglan, a few days after their landing in the cerated for eight months in a Saxon fortress. peninsula, compelled the small Russian garriHis sentence to death in May, 1850, being son to surrender, Sept. 26, 1854, and estabcommuted to perpetual imprisonment, he was lished their naval headquarters there, building surrendered to the Austrian government, which fortifications and a railway to Sebastopol, and likewise condemned him to death and com- laying a submarine cable to Varna. Balaklava muted the sentence, and which in its turn gave was attacked-on Oct. 25 by the Russians, who him up to Russia, where he was confined stormed four redoubts, feebly defended by in St. Petersburg and in Schlüsselburg till Turkish troops, and captured 11 guns; but after the Crimean war, when he was sent to after the repulse of their cavalry by the HighSiberia. He availed himself of a permission to landers and their defeat by the English heavy settle in the Amoor Country for escaping to brigade, they made no further efforts to adJapan, and reached the United States early in vance. The earl of Cardigan, upon an order 1861, after which he returned to Europe, lately alleged to have been given by Lord Lucan for residing chiefly in Switzerland, still engaged the capture of certain Russian guns, led the more or less in revolutionary and journalistic charge of his light brigade, composed only of enterprises. He is the author of Russische Zu- about 600 horsemen, against the formidable stande (Leipsic, 1847), and of other publications. array of the enemy, his men cutting their way BALAAM (Heb. Bil'am), a soothsayer and di- through and back again under the play of the viner of Pethor, on "the river" (Euphrates), Russian batteries. The survivors of this brilwhom Balak, king of Moab, alarmed at the liant but useless exploit did not exceed 150. discomfiture of his neighbors the Amorites by The first who fell was Capt. Nolan, the officer the Hebrews, sent for to pronounce a curse who conveyed the disputed order from Lord upon the invaders. Balaam refused, saying Lucan. The English evacuated the place in that he could not curse the people whom God June, 1856. Owing to the narrowness of the had blessed; but upon being further urged, he entrance, the harbor is now used only for the agreed to say only what should be commanded coasting trade with other Crimean ports. On by God. He set out, riding upon an ass; but an elevated rock, about 4 m. W. of the town, is on the way he was met by the angel of the the old monastery of St. George, with a new Lord, visible to the ass, but not to the rider. Greek church, and a maritime convent, the inThe ass refused to pass the opposing angel, and mates of which officiate as priests for sailors. three times turned out of the way, being each Either the monastery or a neighboring locality time beaten by Balaam. At last the ass spoke in a human voice, asking why he had been beaten. Then Balaam's eyes were opened, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing with a drawn sword to bar his way. The angel told him to go on to Balak, but he must only say what should be commanded to him. Balaam went to Balak, and after due sacrifices delivered his message, which proved to be a blessing upon the Hebrews, instead of the desired curse. This was repeated four times, with the same result; and on the last occasion Balaam predicted that the Israelites should overthrow Moab, Edom, Amalek, and other neighboring tribes. Some Biblical critics consider the story of Balaam (Numbers xxii.-xxiv.) as an interpolation; other expounders have interpreted the speaking of the ass as a vision or trance in which the diviner thought he saw an angel, and fancied that he heard the ass speaking. is supposed to be the site of the celebrated temple of Diana Taurica, of which in the legend Iphigenia was priestess. BALALAIKA, a musical instrument with two or three strings, played with the fingers like the guitar, very popular in Russia for accompaniments, and found in almost all the cottages of the peasantry. Russian ballads have been collected, under the title of this national instrument, in French (1837) and in German (1863). BALANCE, an instrument intended to measure different amounts or masses of matter by the determination of their weight, using as standards of comparison certain fixed units, as the gramme, the pound, the ton, &c. The instrument is founded on the law that gravitation acts in a direct ratio to the mass, and on the mechanical principle that when a solid body is suspended on one point, the centre of gravity will place itself always perpendicularly under that point. If therefore a beam, a', fig. 1, is supported in the middle at c, and movable around this point, its centre of gravity, s, will place itself under the point c; and if disturbed from that position, this centre will oscillate like a pendulum, and the beam will finally come to rest only with the centre of gravity in the perpendicular passing through the point of support. It is evident that when the distances from a to c and from 6 to c are equal, the two sides of the beam equal, and the whole made of homogeneous material, the horizontal position will be arrived at, and also when at a and b equal weights pp are suspended; the gravity of such scales and weights must be considered concentrated in the points of suspension a and b, and their common centre of gravity will be either in, under, or above the point of support, according as the line ab uniting them passes weights with that of the balance 8; if then it is somewhere at m, it is evident that the balance can no longer maintain the horizontal position, but will only come to rest when m is under c, or the line cm has attained a perpendicular position. It is evident that the angle which the beam in this case makes with a horizontal line is equal to the angle scm. If the centre of gravity is in the point of support, the balance is indifferent; that is, it will, when charged with equal weights, remain at rest in any position. And if the centre of gravity is above the point of support, we have a case of so-called unstable equilibrium; the balance will with equal ease tip over to the right or left, and the beam can never be brought into the horizontal position. In either case the balance is useless, and it follows from this that the centre of gravity must be under the point of support, and the sensitiveness of the instrument depends to a great extent on the distance between these two points. This derived degree of sensitiveness varies with the purposes for which balances are to be used. The most delicate balances are those used for physical and chemical investigation; and in order to secure the greatest possible degree of sensitiveness the conditions are as follows: 1. The centre of gravity of the beam must lie as near as possible under the point of suspension; it is evident that when this centre of gravity is raised, the point m will be raised also, and the angle sem will become larger, which results in a greater deflection of the beam in case there is no proper equilibrium. Fine balances are provided with an upright rod above their point of suspension, on which a small weight may be screwed up or down, in order to raise or lower the centre of gravity, and so to increase or diminish the delicacy of the instrument. In fig. 1 this rod is represented below, which is only admissible when no great degree of sensitiveness is required, as in this case the centre of gravity is lowered too much. 2. The beam should be as long as compatible with strength. As the distance cd becomes greater in proportion to the length of the arms, any difference in the two weights with which the balance is charged will be the more perceptible the longer the arms are. 3. The beam should also be as light as compatible with strength; the smaller the weight of the balance itself, the greater the influence of minute differences in the load will be to shift the position of the point d from the centre. Therefore the beams of chemical balances are made like an elongated frame, with large openings between, on the same principle as the walking beams of steam engines are constructed. 4. The points of suspension of the two scales must be such that the line uniting them passes exactly through the point of support; if this line passes under that point, the sensitiveness of the balance will diminish too much when the load is increased. This takes place in any case to a small degree, as no beam is so perfectly inelastic that a slight flexion will not take place under the maximum load. 5. The distances of the points of suspension of the scales a and b from the centre e should be perfectly equal; this is best verified by changing the weights in the two scales, when if the equilibrium remains unchanged their distances are equal. Some balances have screw arrangements to correct small differences in this respect. In fig. 2 a chemical balance is represented as used, in a glass case, which serves to protect it not only from dust, but also against air currents which might prevent a truly sensitive balance from ever coming to rest, and thus make correct weighings impossible. The turning point of the beam, in order to reduce the friction to the least amount, is a knife-edge or triangular prism of hardened steel passing at right angles horizontal plane. This knife-edge is polished and brought to an angle of 30°. The points of suspension are also knife-edges, one set across each extremity of the beam. Great care is required that the line connecting them shall be precisely at right angles with the line passing through the centres of motion and of gravity. The index or pointer is sometimes a long needle, its line passing through the centre, and extending either above or below the beam, or it is a needle extended from each extremity of the beam. In either case it vibrates with the motion of the beam over a graduated arc, and rests upon the zero point when the beam is horizontal. The degrees upon each side of the zero of the scale indicate, as the needle oscillates past them, the intermediate point at which this will stop, thus rendering it unnecessary to wait its coming to rest. In order to save the knife-edges from wear, the beam is made, in delicate balances, to rest when not in use upon a forked arm, and the pans upon the floor of the case in which the instrument stands. The agate surfaces, being lifted by means of a cam or lever, raise the beam off its supports and put it in action; or the supports, by a similar contrivance, are let down from the beam, leaving it to rest upon the agate; the pans in the latter case must always remain suspended. However perfectly a balance may be made, there is always great care to be exercised in its use. Errors are easily made in the estimation of the nice quantities it is used to determine. The sources of some are avoided by a simple and ingenious method of weighing suggested by Borda. The body to be weighed is exactly counterpoised, and then taken out of the pan and replaced by known weights, added till they produce the same effect. A false balance must by this method produce cor rect results. The weights employed for delicate balances are either troy grains, one of each of the units, one of each of the tens, and the same of the hundreds and thousands, as also of the tenths, hundredths, and thousandths of a grain; or they are the French gramme weights, with their decimal parts. The latter are the most commonly used in chemical assays and analyses. The larger weights are of brass, the smaller of platinum, and these are always handled by means of a pair of forceps. The beam of the balance is, according to the method introduced by Berzelius, frequently marked by divisional lines into tenths, and one of the small weights, as a tenth or hundredth of a grain, or a milligramme, is bent into the form of a hook, so that it may be moved along the beam to any one of these lines to bring the balance to exact equilibrium. By this arrange--The Danish balance differs from the common ment the picking up and trying one weight after another is avoided, and the proportional part of the weight used is that indicated by the decimal number upon the beam at which it rests to produce equilibrium. The best materials for a balance are those which combine strength with lightness, and are least liable to be affected by the atmosphere and acid vapors. Brass, platinum, or steel is used for the beam; but probably aluminum will prove to be better adapted for this purpose than either. The pans are commonly of platinum, made very thin, and suspended by fine platinum wires. The support is a brass pillar secured to the floor of the glass case in which the instrument is kept. Doors are provided in front and at the sides, by which access is had to the instrument; but these are commonly kept closed, and are always shut in delicate weighing, that the beam shall not be disturbed by currents of air. So delicate are the best balances, that when lightly loaded and left to vibrate, they may be affected by the approach of a person to one side of the glass case, the warmth radiated from the body causing the nearest arm of the beam to be slightly expanded and elongated, so as to sensibly preponderate. The degree of sensibility is estimated by the smallest weight in proportion to the load that will cause the beam to be deflected from a horizontal line. It is said that a balance is in possession of Bowdoin college, Maine, which, with a charge of 10 kilogrammes in each scale, is sensitive to of a milligramme. Becker and Sons of New York made the balance; and they make ordinary chemical balances which with one kilogramme in each scale are sensitive to one tenth of a milligramme; their small balances now in use in the assay office, New York, show a difference in load of less than part of a milligramme. The torsion balance, invented by Coulomb to measure minute electrical forces, is still more delicate than the best beam balance. It consists of a brass wire, hung by one end and stretched by a light weight, carrying at its lower end a horizontal needle. Any force applied to one end of this needle, tending to rotate | it horizontally, will be measured by the angle through which it causes the needle to move; that is, by the torsion of the wire. (See ELECTROMETER.)—The steelyard, the Roman statera, is one of the forms of the balance, the two arms being of unequal length, the body to be weighed being suspended in a pan or otherwise from the short arm, and the counterpoise, which is a constant weight, being slid along the longer arm until equilibrium is established. As this occurs when the weight on one side multiplied by its distance from the fulcrum is equal to the weight on the other multiplied by its distance from the fulcrum, and as on one side the weight is constant, and on the other the distance from the centre of motion, the unknown weight must be determined by the distance of the constant weight from the centre. steelyard in having the counterpoise fixed at one end, and the fulcrum being slid along the graduated beam. The graduation commences at a point near the counterpoise, at which the beam with the pan suspended at the other end is in equilibrium, and the numbers increase toward the pan. A balance called the bent lever is employed to some extent for purposes not requiring extreme accuracy. The pan is attached to one end of the beam and the other carries a constant weight. From the bent form of the lever this weight is raised to a height varying with the weight placed in the scale pan. A pointer attached to the constant weight and moving along a graduated arc indicates by the number at which it stops the weight of the body in the scale pan. Its indications are the least to be depended upon when the constant weight approaches to the horizontal or vertical line passing through the centre of motion. The scales generally used in the United States for weighing loaded wagons and canal boats are modifications of the steelyard, wherein the weight of these ponderous bodies is divided by means of levers, and a known fraction of it sustained by one end of a beam, the other end of which is graduated for a moving weight. Modern modifications of the steelyard contain a pan hung at the end of the arm to receive larger weights, while the sliding weight is used only to balance the fractional parts.—Spring balances are popular instruments, and consist of a helix of wire enclosed in a cylinder. The body to be weighed is suspended to a wire passing up through the centre of the helix and fastened to the upper coil, which carries a pointer down a narrow slit in the cylinder, thus indicating the weight on the graduated sides of the cylinder. BALANGUINI, or Bangingee, an islet of the Malay archipelago, in the Sulu group, claimed by Spain as part of the province of Zamboangan in the Philippine island of Mindanao, in lat. 5° 57' 30" N., lon. 121° 39' E. It is about 3 m. long and 1 broad, and gives its name to the most daring Malay pirates. In 1848 it was captured by the Spaniards, who had 11 officers and 170 men killed and wounded; 450 of the |