by an unknown planet beyond, led to the discovery of Neptune. His math¬ ematical functions for studying plan¬ etary motions became widely used in solving a wide range of differential equations.
Bessemer, Sir Henry (b. Jan.
19, 1813, Charlton, Hertfordshire,
Eng.—d. March 15, 1898, London)
British inventor and engineer. Son of a metallurgist, he set up his own cast¬ ing business at 17. At that time the only iron-based construction materi¬ als were cast iron and wrought iron.
So-called steel was made by adding carbon to pure forms of wrought iron (see wootz); the resulting material was used almost entirely for cutting Bessel, engraving by E. Mandel after a tools. During the Crimean War painting by Franz Wolf
Bessemer worked to devise a stron- the bettmann archive _
ger cast iron for cannon. The result was a process for the inexpensive production of large, slag-free ingots of steel as workable as any wrought iron. He eventually also discovered how to remove excess oxygen from the iron. The Bessemer process (1856) led to the development of the Besse¬ mer converter. See also basic Bessemer process; R.F. Mushet; puddling process.
Bessemer process Technique for converting pig iron to steel invented by Henry Bessemer in England in 1856 and brought by him into commercial production in 1860.
Air blown through liquid pig iron in a refractory-lined converter oxidizes the carbon and silicon in the iron.
Heat released by the oxidation keeps the metal molten. R.F. Mushet con¬ tributed the technique for deoxidiz¬ ing the converted metal that made the process a success. William Kelly conducted experiments with an air-
blown converter between 1856 and 1860 in Kentucky and Pennsylvania, but failed to make steel. Alexander L. Holley built the first successful Bessemer steel plant in the U.S. in 1865. High-volume production of low- cost steel in Britain and the U.S. by the Bessemer process soon revolu¬ tionized building construction and provided steel to replace iron in railroad rails and many other uses. The Bessemer process was eventually superseded by the open-hearth process. See also basic Bessemer process.
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\
Bessemer, detail of an oil painting by Rudolf Lehmann; in the Iron and Steel Institute, London
Bessey, Charles E(dwin) (b. May 21, 1845, near Milton, Ohio, U.S.—d. Feb. 25, 1915, Lincoln,
Neb.) U.S. botanist. He taught at Iowa State Agricultural College (1870-84) before joining the faculty of the University of Nebraska. By then he had so developed the experi¬ mental study of plant morphology that the recently founded university immediately became one of the nation’s outstanding centres for botanical research. He wrote widely popular textbooks that dominated U.S. botanical instruction for more than 50 years.
Besson \bes-'o n \ / Jacques (b.
1540, Grenoble, France—-d. 1576,
Orleans) French engineer. His
1910
Bessey, c.
improvements in the LATHE were of courtesy of hunt institute for botanical
, . . • . . , . DOCUMENTATION, CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY,
great importance in the development Pittsburgh, pa.
of the machine-tool industry and of -
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
210 I Best ► Bethmann Hollweg
scientific instrumentation. His designs were illustrated in great detail in his Theatrum instrumentorum et machinarum (1569). Among many inno¬ vations, Besson introduced cams and templates (patterns used to guide the form of a piece being made) to the screw-cutting lathe, thus increasing the operator’s control of tool and workpiece and permitting production of more accurate and intricate work in metal.
Best, Charles H(erbert) (b. Feb. 27, 1899, West Pembroke, Maine, U.S.—d. March 31, 1978, Toronto, Ont., Can.) U.S.-born Canadian physi¬ ologist. He was a professor and administrator at the University of Toronto 1929-67. With Frederick Banting, he was the first to obtain a pancreatic extract of insulin in a form useful for controlling diabetes mellitus (1921). He did not receive the 1923 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Banting and J. J. R. Macleod because he did not yet have his medical degree, although Banting voluntarily shared his portion of the prize with Best. Best also discovered the vitamin choline and the enzyme histaminase and was one of the first to introduce anticoagulants to treat thrombosis.
bestiary Medieval European work in verse or prose, often illustrated, consisting of a collection of stories, each based on a description of cer¬ tain qualities of the subject, usually an animal or a plant. The stories were allegories, used for moral and religious instruction and admonition. They ultimately were derived from the Greek Physiologus, a text compiled by an unknown author before the mid 2nd century ad. Many traditional attributes of real or mythical creatures derive from bestiaries, such as the phoenix’s burning itself to be born again and the parental love of the peli¬ can, which, believed to feed its young by gashing its own breast, became a symbol of Christ.
beta \'ba-to\ -blocker in full beta-adrenergic blocking agent
Any of a class of synthetic drugs used to treat a wide range of diseases and conditions of the sympathetic nervous system (see autonomic nervous system). Stimulation by epinephrine of beta-adrenergic receptors, which are predominately found in the heart but are also present in vascular and other smooth muscle, results in excitation of the sympathetic nervous system. By preventing that excitation, beta-blockers are useful in controlling anxi¬ ety, hypertension, and a variety of heart conditions (see heart disease). They reduce the risk of a second heart attack.
beta decay Any of three processes of radioactive disintegration in which a beta particle is spontaneously emitted by an unstable atomic nucleus in order to dissipate excess energy. Beta particles are either elec¬ trons or positrons. The three beta-decay processes are electron emission, positron emission, and electron capture. The process of beta decay increases or decreases the positive charge of the original nucleus by one unit without changing the mass number. Though beta decay is in general a slower process than gamma or alpha decay, beta particles can penetrate hundreds of times farther than alpha particles. Beta decay half-uves are a few milliseconds or more. See also radioactivity.
Betancourt V.be-.tan-'kurV Romulo (b. Feb. 22, 1908, Guatire, Miranda, Venez.—d. Sept. 28, 1981, New York, N.Y., U.S.) President of Venezuela (1945-48, 1959-64). As a youth he was active against the dic¬ tatorial regime of Juan Vincente Gomez (1857/64-1935). After a brief period in the Communist Party, he turned against it and helped found the left-wing anticommunist party Accion Democratica, which came to power in 1945 after a coup. As provisional president, he pursued a policy of moderate social reform before resigning to permit election of a succes¬ sor. Elected to a second term in 1959, he steered a middle course between pro-Cuban communists and frightened conservatives, initiating an ambi¬ tious public-works program and fostering industrial development, mostly financed by Venezuela’s vast oil exports. He retired in 1964.
betel \'be-t 3 l\ Either of two differ¬ ent plants that are widely used in combination for chewing purposes in southern Asia and the East Indies.
The betel nut is the seed of the areca, or betel, palm ( Areca catechu), fam¬ ily Palmae; the betel leaf is from the betel pepper, or pan plant ( Piper betle), family Piperaceae. For chew¬ ing, a small piece of the areca palm’s fruit is wrapped in a leaf of the betel pepper, along with a pellet of lime to cause salivation and release the stimulating alkaloids. Chewing re¬