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9th centuries. The ruins of Velia are on a low ridge about 1 m. from the mouth of the Alento (anc. Hales), in the province of Principato Citeriore and m. from the coast. A medieval castle and the village of Castellamare della Bruce or Brucea mark the site of the ancient city. Excavations were undertaken here in 1874 by Salazaro.

VELLEIUS PATERCULUS. See PATERCULUS. VELLETRI (anc. Velitra), a town of central Italy, at the foot of Mt. Artemisio, in the province and 20 m. S. E. of the city of Rome; pop. about 13,000. It has a fine cathedral and several public and private palaces. Wine and olives abound in the vicinity. Originally it was a Latin or Volscian city of considerable importance. According to inscriptions described by Cardinali (Rome, 1823), it had an amphitheatre and fine temples. Garibaldi defeated the Neapolitans here in March, 1849. Velletri was the capital of a papal delegation till 1870, when it was incorporated with the kingdom of Italy.

VELLORE, a town of British India, in the district of North Arcot, Madras, on the S. side of the river Palar, in lat. 12° 55′ N., lon. 79° 11' E., 79 m. W. S. W. of the city of Madras, and 16 m. W. of Arcot; pop. about 50,000. It is tolerably clean and well built, a place of considerable trade, and a station on the railway from Madras to the W. coast. About a mile N. of the town is an extensive fortress. In the public square there is a fine Hindoo pagoda, built about four centuries ago. The climate is intensely hot, but healthful.-Vellore was founded by the rajah of Bijanagur in the latter part of the 15th century. Sevajee took it from his descendants in 1677; and it fell into the hands of the British when they obtained possession of the Carnatic. On the fall of Seringapatam it was selected as the residence of the sons and family of Tippoo Sultan. On July 10, 1806, the sepoys rose in mutiny at Vellore and killed 13 officers and 100 men of the European garrison.

VELLUM. See PARCHMENT.

VELOCIMETER, an instrument for measuring the velocity of projectiles. Prior to 1840 such measurements were made by suspending a gun in a pendulum, and observing the arc described in its recoil. This gave the means of computing the velocity imparted to the projectile, with a probable error of a very few feet per second. In 1840 Wheatstone suggested the use of electricity for obtaining the data required for the computation, and for a quarter of a century it has been used exclusively. The velocity of a moving body becomes known when we know the time it takes to pass through a measured portion of its path. The space is determined by merely choosing certain points (usually about 100 ft. apart) in the path of the projectile, and measuring the distance between them. The time required to pass over this distance therefore becomes the sole object of inquiry; and a velocimeter is merely an in

strument for measuring with extreme accuracy small intervals of time. To accomplish this, a screen of fine wire carrying an electric circuit is placed at each end of the measured interval, in such manner that the passing projectile shall rupture the two circuits, and the two ruptures instantly telegraph themselves to a machine, which records them in such a way that the interval of time between them can be immediately read. The recording instrument is called a chronograph. The number and variety of chronographs are very great, but they all involve one mechanical principle, viz.: the records must be made by means of parts of the machine moving at rates which are known with great exactitude, during intervals which begin and terminate with the two ruptures respectively. This may be illustrated by the following contrivance, which is a modification of the Navez chronograph by Col. J. G. Benton of the United States ordnance department. It consists of a vertical metallic semicircle, b, graduated with the ordinary circular units and supported upon a bed plate, a. Two pendulums, p p', are swung upon the axis of the arc, and have their mass so distributed that

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their times of oscillation are equal. When deflected in opposite directions from a vertical position to 90°, they touch the magnets m m', which hold them in the new or horizontal position. The magnets are excited by circuits, e c, c' c', which pass through the wire screens in front of the gun. If they were both ruptured at the same instant (the instrument being perfectly adjusted), the pendulums would be simultaneously released, and would pass each other opposite the zero mark at the lowest point of the graduated arc; but being ruptured successively, they pass at some point more or less distant from it, this distance being dependent upon the length of the interval of time between the two ruptures. To mark the point where this passage occurs, a stud, attached to the pendulum p, strikes the oblique head of a pin attached to a lever in the other pendulum, and causes it to make an indentation or an ink mark upon a piece of paper clamped to the graduated arc, leaving a record of the angle of deflection of the two pendulums at the instant of passage. By a simple formula the interval between ruptures can be computed from this angle.-A very simple form of velocimeter, probably used more extensively than

any other, is that invented by Capt. Le Bou- | be made. The determination of the velocity lengé of Belgium. A metallic standard, S, through a succession of intervals requires a fig. 2, sustains two electro-magnets, A B. The chronograph of much more complicated strucmagnet A, when excited, holds a bar C as its ture than the simple ones described, for it must armature, called the "chronometer." A zinc record the times of rupture of half a dozen cirtube, D, removable at pleasure, fits over the cuits, or of half a dozen ruptures of the same latter. The magnet B holds a smaller arma- circuit. Usually the screens are all placed in ture, F, called a "registrar;" and immediately the same circuit, which renews itself after each beneath it is an apparatus, L, holding in tension rupture, before the shot reaches the next screen. a cocked main spring, which carries a knife The recording device consists of a cylinder or edge. After the rela- disk revolving at a known rate, and receiving tive altitudes of the at the instants of rupture some visible marks two magnets have from a stationary device or tracing point conbeen adjusted, the trolled by the current. The most ingenious knife edge is caused application of the velocimeter yet made is the to make an indenta- measurement of the varying velocity of a protion upon the zinc jectile in the bore of a gun, which has been tube of the chronom- accomplished by means of a special apparatus eter for a zero mark, devised by Capt. W. H. Noble of the British and then the ma- army, and also by a series of Le Boulengé chine is ready for the chronographs. record. The magnet holding the chronometer is excited by the circuit through the screen nearest to the gun, and the registrar magnet by the other circuit. When the first is ruptured the chronometer falls; when the second is ruptured the registrar falls, springing the knife edge and causing a cut to be made in the zinc tube. The space between this cut and the zero mark gives, by the formula for falling bodies, the time interval between the two ruptures.The two machines described are capable of showing the velocities of projectiles with great precision, their mean errors not exceeding of a second. Col. Benton has used his machine without the aid of electricity. In place of electro-magnets to hold the pendulums and release them, he has employed springs kept tense by means of cotton threads. The threads, being ruptured by the passing shot, release the springs, which dismiss the pendulums. The results so obtained are but little less accurate than those with electro-magnets. Velocimeters are also used for obtaining data by which the resistance of air to the motion of projectiles may be determined. There is no known method of computing it, and the only resource is to measure it directly. This the velocimeter enables us to do by showing how much a projectile is retarded in passing over a series of intervals. But for each set, and for each velocity, a separate trial must

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FIG. 2.

VELOCIPEDE (Lat. velox, swift, and pes, foot), a light carriage so constructed that it may be swiftly propelled by the feet of a person mounted upon it. In its earliest form it was invented at Mannheim in 1817 by Karl von Drais, and called a draisine. As then constructed, it consisted of a bar about 5 ft. long and 6 in. wide, supported at each end upon a single wheel, the front one being so attached that it could be turned to the right or left like the front wheels of an ordinary carriage. The rider sat astride of the bar and propelled himself and the machine by the action of his feet upon the ground. The vehicle in that form did not come into use, but about 1867 it was improved and became a favorite with amateur gymnasts. A saddle was fixed upon the longitudinal bar, and a foot crank was placed upon each side of the forward wheel to serve for propulsion. The machine is kept in position by the action of the rider's body and limbs, and also by its own momentum in a certain plane. As recent examples of rapid riding the following may be cited: 1 mile in 3 minutes, by J. Keen in a match with Frederick Cooper for the championship at Queen's grounds, Sheffield, England, Sept. 18, 1875; 50 miles in 3 h. 9 m. 21 s., by J. Keen at Molineux grounds, Wolverhampton, Nov. 30, 1874, including stoppages; 100 miles in 7 h. 35 m. 43 s., by David Stanton, at Lillie Bridge grounds, Oct. 19, 1874; 132 miles in 17 h. 15 m., by J. T. Johnson, including all stoppages, from London to Worthington and back.

VELPEAU, Alfred Armand Lonis Marie, a French surgeon, born at Brèche, department of Indreet-Loire, May 18, 1795, died in Paris, Aug. 24, 1867. He was brought up to assist his father, who was a farrier, learned almost without assistance reading, writing, and some of the rudiments of medicine, acquired reputation among the peasantry by several cures, and was enabled by a neighbor to study in the hospital of Tours, where he graduated in 1823. In 1830 he became surgeon to the Pitie hospital

at Paris, in 1832 a member of the academy of medicine, in 1835 professor of clinical surgery, and in 1842 successor of Larrey in the institute. His clinical lectures at the Charité hospital were among the most remarkable of his claims to distinction. His works include Traité de l'anatomie chirurgicale (2 vols., 1825); Anatomie des régions (1825-'6; revised and republished under the title Anatomie chirurgicale générale et topographique, 2 vols. 8vo, 1838; 2d ed., by Velpeau and Béraud, 1862); Mémoire sur les positions vicieuses du fœtus (1830); Recherches sur la cessation spontanée des hémorrhagies traumatiques primitives et la torsion des artères (1830); Nouveaux éléments de médecine opératoire (1832), a work of the highest authority; Embryologie ou orologie humaine (1833); Des convulsions, pendant la grossesse, durant le travail, ou après l'accouchement (1834); Leçons orales de clinique chirurgicale, collected by Jeanselme and Pavillon (3 vols., 1840-'41); and Traité des maladies du sein et de la région mammaire (1853). His last work was the article Adénite in the Dictionnaire encyclopédique des sciences médicales (1865).

VELVET (Lat. vellus, a fleece), a textile fabric woven wholly of silk or of silk and cotton mixed, having a loose pile or short shag of threads on the surface, which give it a fine soft nap. Cotton stuffs manufactured in the same way are commonly called velveteens. This manufacture appears to have originated about the 13th century, and was limited for a long time to the Italian cities. It thence passed into France, where it was greatly improved, and in 1685 was introduced into England by French refugees. Velvet is very durable, from the close texture of the under side, and also from the thick nap of the upper, which opposes great resistance to external friction. It is moreover very warm, and suitable for rich ornamental figured work. Its peculiar character is derived from the insertion of short pieces of silk thread, secured under the shoot, weft, or cross threads, their ends standing upright and so closely together as to conceal the interlacing of the threads beneath. They are furnished in an extra set of threads, called pile threads, arranged in the loom parallel to the warp threads, and much longer than these, which in the progress of the weaving are passed, after every third throw of the shuttle, over a thin, semi-cylindrical, straight brass wire, which is laid across the whole fabric over the warp threads. The next working of the treadle carries the pile threads down over the wire, when they are covered and fastened by the next throw of the shuttle. Another wire is placed in the same position for the next row of loops across the fabric, and these are produced, as already observed, with every third throw of the shuttle. Two wires only are used, and these are freed in turns by the same process which converts the loops into a pile. Each of them has a groove along its upper surface, and on this is run a VOL. XVI.-19

sharp-edged knife, thus severing the loops and leaving two ends of each one projecting above the fabric. These are brushed up and dressed to produce the velvety nap. If some of the pile threads are left uncut, the velvet is then of the striped kind; and some is used altogether uncut. Fine velvets contain 40 to 50 rows of loops in an inch length of the fabric, and their production is therefore exceedingly slow and laborious. The process is moreover complicated by the use of two shuttles, a stouter thread being used after the wire than the two which succeed. Hence the production of a yard of plain velvet is considered a good day's work. - Various modifications have been introduced in the manufacture of velvet, among which is that of Mr. Gratrix, who produces the pile by the weft, the cut being then made in the direction of the warp. The pile threads are woven over a series of fine longitudinal knives, over the points of which the portions of the weft intended to form the pile slide successively as the cloth is woven; and the weft is severed in passing over the cutting portion of these knives, which are fixed. By some of the new methods the velvet is cut and embossed at the same time.Lyons is the principal seat of the manufacture of broad velvets, such as those for cloak making called Ponson velvets, and St. Etienne is the principal seat of velvet ribbon manufacture. Trimming velvets of the finest kinds are made by hand in Rhenish Prussia.

VENAISSIN. See COMTAT-VENAISSIN.

VENANGO, a N. W. county of Pennsylvania, drained by the Alleghany river, French creek or Venango river, and Oil, Sugar, and Sandy creeks; area, 850 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 47,925. A large part of the county is traversed by spurs of the Alleghany mountains. The soil along the streams is fertile. Iron ore and bituminous coal are very abundant, and there are traces of silver mines. Lumber and oil are exported largely. This county forms the centre of the great oil basin of Pennsylvania, and there are hundreds of oil wells in the valleys. (See PETROLEUM.) It is traversed by the Oil Creek and Alleghany River, the Alleghany Valley, the Pithole Valley, and the Franklin divisions of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, and of the Atlantic and Great Western railroads. The chief productions in 1870 were 72,158 bushels of wheat, 28,610 of rye, 216,753 of Indian corn, 335,899 of oats, 63,267 of buckwheat, 75,355 of potatoes, 268,405 lbs. of butter, 92,355 of wool, and 27,879 tons of hay. There were 5,113 horses, 6,963 milch cows, 7,412 other cattle, 32,764 sheep, and 10,379 swine; 6 manufactories of boots and shoes, 16 of carriages and wagons, 25 of machinery, 24 of refined petroleum, 10 flour mills, 9 saw mills, and 5 woollen mills. Capital, Franklin.

VENDACE, the name given in Great Britain to a fish of the salmon family and genus coregonus (Cuv.). This fish, C. Willugħbii (Jard.), or C. albula (Cuv. and Val.), is 7 to 8 in. long,

delicate greenish brown above, shading into arms again. Gen. Hoche was sent against silvery below, with the lower fins bluish white; them, and succeeded, after Stofflet and Chairis silvery, tinged with yellow. The mouth is rette and other chief leaders had been shot very small, and without teeth except a few (February and March, 1796), in enforcing subminute ones on the tongue; scales large; first mission. The cruel punishments of 1793-'4 dorsal higher than long; lower jaw the longer. were not repeated. Far less important insurThe arches of the gills are furnished on the rectionary movements took place in 1799 and inner side with numerous long processes barbed 1800, and during the hundred days (1815), on each side and projecting into the cavity of when the marquis Louis du Verger la Rochethe mouth; those of the two sides meet and jaquelein, brother of Henri, the commander of form a complete strainer, arresting the small the last Vendean army, was killed, June 4. crustaceans on which they feed until enough-See Crétineau-Joly, Histoire de la Vendée have been collected to be swallowed, the water militaire (4 vols., Paris, 5th ed., 1865). at the same time flowing freely over the gills. It is highly esteemed for food, having somewhat the flavor of the smelt; it is caught only in nets; it is in best condition about Aug. 1, when it is fat and well flavored; the food consists chiefly of minute crustaceans.

VENDÉE, La, a W. department of France, formed from the old province of Poiton, bordering on Loire-Inférieure, Maine-et-Loire, Deux-Sèvres, Charente-Inférieure, and the bay of Biscay; area, 2,588 sq. m.; pop. in 1872, 401,446. The surface is level or undulating, and marshy along the coast. The marshy district is known as le Marais; the woody tract in the centre of the department as le Bocage; and the rest of the country as la Plaine, a fertile district watered chiefly by the river Vendée. The navigable streams are the Autise, Vendée, Lay, Vic, Sèvre-Niortaise, and Sèvre-Nantaise. The coasts are low, and there are but two harbors, Sables-d'Olonne and St. Gilles. The chief productions are grain, wine, hemp, flax, wool, cattle, coal, and metals. The manufactures are unimportant. It is divided into the arrondissements of Napoléon-Vendée, Sablesd'Olonne, and Fontenay-le-Comte. Capital, Napoléon-Vendée.—La Vendée is famous for a royalist insurrection after the proclamation of the first republic, which spread over Lower Poitou, Anjou, Lower Maine, and Brittany. The movement was semi-religious, and originated with the peasantry in 1793, under the lead of Jacques Cathelineau. (See CATHELINEAU.) The count Henri du Verger la Rochejaquelein became especially distinguished as leader of the insurgents; but they were signally defeated in December, 1793, and hundreds of them massacred. In the following spring the war broke out again under La Rochejaquelein, Stofflet, and Charette. (See LA ROCHEJAQUELEIN, and CHARETTE.) The first was killed at Nouaillé, March 4, 1794, after a desperate struggle. The Chouans, with whom the Vendeans were afterward united, appeared at the same time N. of the Loire, in the departments of Morbihan and Côtes-du-Nord. (See CHOUANS.) The convention made a peace with the Vendeans early in 1795, guaranteeing to them a general amnesty, freedom of religious worship, exemption from military service, and indemnification for their losses. But the landing of a body of French émigrés at Quiberon in June encouraged them to take up

VENDOME (anc. Vindocinum), a town of France, in the department of Loir-et-Cher, on the Loir, 18 m. N. W. of Blois; pop. in 1872, 9,938. It was formerly capital of the district of Vendômois, which comprised parts of the present departments of Loir-et-Cher and Sarthe. It contains the ruined château of the dukes of Vendôme, a lyceum, a public library, and manufactories of leather, gloves, and cotton goods. Several combats took place in the vicinity previous to and after the German occupation of the city (Dec. 16, 1870).

VENDÔME. I. César, duke de, a French prince, the eldest son of Henry IV. by his mistress Gabrielle d'Estrées, born in the castle of Coucy, Picardy, in June, 1594, died in Paris, Oct. 22, 1665. He was legitimated in his infancy, and in 1598 made duke of Vendôme and betrothed to the daughter of the duke de Mercœur, who resigned to him the government of Brittany. In 1610 he was allowed to take rank next to the princes of the blood. During the reign of his half brother Louis XIII., he participated in the conspiracy of Chalais against Richelieu (1626), was incarcerated for four years at Vincennes and Amboise, and banished for several years afterward. In 1641 he was charged with an attempt to poison Richelieu, and escaped to England. After the death of Richelieu he returned home, and was treated with great favor by the queen regent Anne of Austria; but he lost her good will by his active part in the Fronde. In 1650, having made his peace with the government, he was appointed governor of Burgundy. In 1653 he took Bordeaux from the Frondeurs, and in 1655, in the capacity of grand admiral of France, defeated the Spanish fleet off Barcelona. left two sons, Louis and François, the latter of whom was the celebrated duke of Beaufort. (See BEAUFORT, FRANÇOIS DE VENDÔME, duke of.) II. Louis, duke de, son of the preceding, known as the duke de Mercur during his father's life, born in 1612, died in Aix, Aug. 6, 1669. He served abroad, returned to France after Richelieu's death, and became in 1649 viceroy and commander of the French troops in Catalonia. He married in 1651 Laura Mancini, a niece of Cardinal Mazarin, was made commander in Provence, and placed in 1656 at the head of the French army in Lombardy. On his wife's death (1657) he became a priest, was made cardinal, and held the

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office of papal legate in France. III. Louis Joseph, duke de, a French general, son of the preceding, born in Paris, July 1, 1654, died at Tiñaroz, Catalonia, June 11, 1712. He was first known as the duke de Penthièvre, entered the army in 1672, distinguished himself in Alsace under Turenne and in Flanders under Créqui, and became governor of Provence in 1681. He distinguished himself at the battles of Steenkirk, Aug. 3, 1692, and Marsaglia, Oct. 4, 1693. In 1694 he became "general of the galleys," and in 1695 chief commander in Catalonia. In 1697 he besieged Barcelona, defeated the Spanish army which attempted to relieve the city, and forced it to surrender, Aug. 10; but in the same year it was restored to Spain in accordance with the treaty of Ryswick. On the breaking out of the war of the Spanish succession, he was, after the capture of Marshal Villeroi in Cremona, placed in command of the French army in Italy, and arrested the progress of Prince Eugene; but he was overtaken by his opponent at Luzzara, August, 1702, and saved himself from a disastrous defeat only by his generalship and intrepidity. After a fruitless attempt to reach Germany through Tyrol, he returned to Piedmont, where he took several strongholds, and defeated Prince Eugene at Cassano (1705), and Reventlow at Calcinato (1706). After the battle of Ramillies he was called to Flanders to command the French army under the grandson of Louis XIV., the duke of Burgundy; hampered in his movements by those who surrounded the young prince, he could not prevent the junction of Marlborough and Eugene, failed to effect a junction with Berwick, and was defeated at Oudenarde (1708). Disgusted with the treatment he received, and feeling that he had lost the confidence of the king and was hated by Mme. de Maintenon, he retired from active service. In 1710 Philip V. of Spain, deserted by Louis XIV., his grandfather, who was now scarcely able to defend himself, asked that Vendôme should be sent to his assistance. The old warrior went at once to Valladolid, gathered crowds of volunteers, inspired the adherents of Philip with new confidence, and brought him back to his capital; then he defeated and captured at Brihuega an English corps under Stanhope, and finally won at Villaviciosa, Dec. 10, 1710, a decisive victory over the Austrian general Stahremberg, which firmly established Philip on his throne. He was completing the conquest of Catalonia when he died suddenly.

VENEDEY, Jakob, a German author, born in Cologne, May 24, 1805, died near Badenweiler, Feb. 8, 1871. He studied at Bonn and Heidelberg, and was employed in his father's law office at Cologne till 1832, when his work on juries and his participation in the Hambach festival caused him to be imprisoned; but he escaped to France, and in 1835 established in Paris a monthly periodical, which resulted in his expulsion, and having returned he was

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again expelled in 1837. He retired to Havre, and was only permitted to reside in the capital after the appearance in 1840 of one of his works which was favorably received by the French academy, and caused Arago and Mignet to interfere in his behalf. In 1848 he returned to Germany, and became a member of the Frankfort parliament and of the rump parliament at Stuttgart. Subsequently he was expelled from Berlin and Breslau, and resided chiefly at Bonn till 1853, when he became a lecturer at the university of Zürich. In 1855 he returned to Germany. He first published in French, then in German, Römerthum, Christenthum, Germanenthum (Frankfort, 1840). His other works include Irland (Leipsic, 1844); England (1845); Das südliche Frankreich (Frankfort, 1846); Geschichte des deutschen Volks (4 vols., Berlin, 1854-'62); and biographies of Hampden (1843), Washington (1862), Franklin (1863), and Stein (1868).

VENEER, a thin sheet of wood or other material used to give an exterior finish to articles of cabinet or other work, the body of which is of cheaper material. The art of veneering is not modern; according to Pliny it was introduced about his time. Veneers were formerly cut with thin hand and pit saws, from blocks of wood. In 1806 Mr. Brunel patented a method of splitting them from straight-grained wood, but curved and knotted wood required to be sawed. Circular saws replaced the old straight saws. Veneer is now sawed by very thin reciprocating gang saws, which work with so much precision as to saw very wide strips as thin as cardboard. The work is done in establishments usually connected with saw mills. The cabinetmaker in applying the veneer roughens one surface, that the glue may hold it firmly to the body of the work. The outer surface of the veneer is afterward dressed with planes and scrapers, and polished with sandpaper and brushes or pumice.-Veneers of ivory and of bone are used for some purposes; and in Paris a pianoforte has been entirely covered with a single sheet of ivory cut in a spiral from an elephant's tusk. The manufacturer advertised to supply such sheets 150 in. long and 30 in. wide. In the United States department of the great exhibition of 1851 there was a veneer of this kind 40 ft. long and 12 in. wide.-The inlaying of thin strips of wood or veneers in wood of other colors has been treated in the article BUHL WORK.-A remarkable variety of veneering has been introduced into the United States, called "pressed work." Any number of veneers are laid together, the grain of each one at right angles to that of the adjacent layers, and all after being well saturated with glue are strongly compressed until the whole is united in one mass. For curved work the pressure is applied upon the mass placed while hot in moulds. By this method the backs of chairs are made in graceful curves and of great strength, the crossing of the grain preventing

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