Bloomer, Amelia orig. Amelia Jenks (b. May 27, 1818, Homer, N.Y., U.S.—d. Dec. 30, 1894, Council Bluffs, Iowa) U.S. reformer. In 1840 she married Dexter Bloomer, a Quaker newspaper editor. She wrote articles on education, unjust marriage laws, and women’s suffrage and published the biweekly Lily (1849-54). Among her interests was dress reform, and the full trousers that she wore came to be known as bloomers. Her costume generated considerable publicity and helped to attract large crowds to her lectures in New York City, where she often shared the plat¬ form with Susan B. Anthony and the Rev. Antoinette L. Brown.
bloomery process Process for iron smelting. In ancient times, smelt¬ ing involved creating a bed of red-hot charcoal in a furnace to which iron ore mixed with more charcoal was added. The ore was chemically reduced (see oxidation-reduction), but, because primitive furnaces could not reach the melting temperature of iron, the product was a spongy mass of pasty globules of metal intermingled with a semiliquid slag. This hardly usable product, known as a bloom, may have weighed up to 10 lbs (5 kg). Repeated reheating and hot hammering eliminated much of the slag, cre¬ ating wrought iron, a much better product. By the 15th century, many bloomeries used low shaft furnaces with waterpower to drive the bellows, and the bloom, which might weigh over 200 lbs (100 kg), was extracted through the top of the shaft. The final version of this kind of bloomery hearth survived in Spain until the 19th century. Another design, the high bloomery furnace, had a taller shaft and evolved into the Stiickofen, which produced blooms so large they had to be removed through a front opening.
Bloomfield, Leonard (b. April 1, 1887, Chicago, Ill., U.S.—d. April 18, 1949, New Haven, Conn.) U.S. linguist. He began his career as a phi¬ lologist trained in Indo-European, especially Germanic languages. He taught Germanic philology at the University of Chicago (1927^10) and linguistics at Yale (1940-49). In Language (1933), one of the clearest 20th-century presentations of linguistics, he advocated the study of lin¬ guistic phenomena in isolation from their nonlinguistic environment and emphasized the need for empirical description. His thinking was influ¬ enced by his work on non-Indo-European languages, particularly the Algonquian family; The Menomini Language (1962) is a paragon of lin¬ guistic description and American Indian linguistic scholarship.
Bloomsbury group A coterie of English writers, philosophers, and artists. The name was a reference to the Bloomsbury district of London, where between about 1907 and 1930 the group frequently met to discuss aesthetic and philosophical questions. Among the group were E.M. For¬ ster, Lytton Strachey, Clive Bell, the painters Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) and Duncan Grant (1885-1978), John Maynard Keynes, the Fabian writer Leonard Woolf (1880-1969), and Virginia Woolf.
Blount \'bl3nt\, William (b. March 26, 1749, Bertie county, N.C.—d. March 21, 1800, Knoxville, Tenn., U.S.) U.S. politician. He served in the American Revolution before being elected to six terms in the North Caro¬ lina legislature. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. As the first governor of lands ceded to the U.S. by North Carolina, he worked to secure statehood for what would become Tennessee. In 1796 he became one of Tennessee’s first two senators, but he was expelled from the Sen¬ ate in 1797 on charges of plotting to help the British gain control of Span¬ ish Florida and Louisiana.
Blow, John (baptized Feb. 23, 1649, Newark-on-Trent, Nottingham¬ shire, Eng.—d. Oct. 1, 1708, Westminster, London) British composer, organist, and teacher. He was appointed organist at Westminster Abbey in 1668; in 1774 he became master of the children at the Chapel Royal, and he later held various equally prominent posts, in which he influenced many students, including composer Henry Purcell. Of the many religious and secular ceremonial works he wrote in his official capacities, about 12 services and more than 100 anthems survive. His court masque Venus and Adonis { 1685) represents a landmark in the development of English opera.
blowfish See puffer
blowfly Any member of the dipteran family Calliphoridae, including the screwworm and the bluebottle, greenbottle, and cluster flies. Metallic blue, green, or bronze, and noisy in flight, blowflies resemble the housefly in size and habits. The larvae usually feed on decaying flesh and sometimes infest open wounds. They may help prevent infection by cleaning away dead flesh, but may also destroy healthy tissue. Blowflies were once used to treat gangrene and a human bone disease and were used in World War I to clean soldiers’ wounds. Some species seriously hurt or kill livestock by massive infestation or by carrying diseases such as anthrax, dysentery, and jaundice.
blowgun Long, narrow pipe through which darts or other projectiles are blown. Primarily a hunting weapon, it is rarely used in warfare. It has been used by aboriginal peoples in Malaysia and elsewhere in South Asia, southern India and Sri Lanka, Madagascar, northwestern South America, and Central America. Blowguns vary in length from 18 in. to more than 23 ft (45 cm to 7 m) and are often made of cane or bamboo. Darts are usually made of palm-leaf midribs or wood or bamboo splinters 1.5-40 in. (4-100 cm). The dart must fit the tube snugly, so that a puff of human breath will cause it to fly from the tube. To be effective against quarry larger than small birds, blowgun darts require poison.
blowing engine Machine for pumping air into a furnace. Bellows driven by a waterwheel were the earliest form of blowing engine, later replaced by reciprocating pumps driven by steam or gas engines and by turbo-blowers. A modem blast furnace requires an enormous blowing engine.
Blucher Vblii-koiA, Gebhard Leberecht von, prince von Wahlstatt \'val-,shtat\ (b. Dec. 16, 1742, Rostock, Mecklenburg—d. Sept. 12, 1819, Krieblowitz, near Kanth, Silesia, Prussia) Prussian mili¬ tary leader. He joined the Prussian army in 1760 and commanded troops against the French (1793-94) and in the Napoleonic Wars. In 1813 he came out of retirement to command Prussian troops against the French, defeating them at Wahlstatt and assisting in the allied victory at the Battle of Leipzig. In 1815 he again commanded Prussian forces in the Battle of
Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)
WALTER CHANDOHA
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
236 I blue ► bluebonnet
Waterloo, coordinating his army with the allied forces under the duke of Wellington to bring about Napoleon’s defeat.
blue (butterfly) Any member of the widely occurring lepidopteran fam¬ ily Lycaenidae. Adults, sometimes known as gossamer-winged butterflies, are small and delicate, with a wingspan of 0.75-1.5 in. (18-38 mm). Blues are rapid fliers, and most species have iridescent wings. Larvae are short, broad, and sluglike. Some species secrete honeydew, a sweet by-product of digestion that attracts ants, which stroke the larvae with their legs to stimulate honeydew secretion.
blue asbestos See crocidolite
blue crab Any member of a genus ( Callinectes ) of decapods, particularly C. sapidus and C. hastatus, common edible crabs of the western Atlantic coast prized as delicacies. Their usual habitats are muddy shores, bays, and estuaries. The blue crab shell, green¬ ish on top and dingy white below, is about 3 in. (15-18 cm) long. The legs are bluish. The chelae, or pincers, are large and somewhat unequal in size, and the fifth pair of legs is flattened for swimming. Blue crabs are scav¬ engers.
blue-green algae See cyanobac¬ teria
blue ground See kimberlite
blue law U.S. statute regulating work, commerce, and amusements on Sundays. The name is said to derive from a list of Sabbath regulations published (on blue paper or in blue wrappers) in New Haven, Conn., in 1781. Throughout colonial New England such laws regulated morals and conduct. Most lapsed after the American Revolution, but some, such as prohibitions against the Sunday sale of alcoholic beverages, remain on the books in some areas.