earth1 (erth)

[Early mod E. also erth; The whole earth revolves about the sun in an ellipse in one sidereal year, which is 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes, and 9 seconds. The ecliptic, or plane of the earth's orbit, is inclined to the equator by 23° 27′ 12′′.68 mean obliquity for January 0, 1890, according to Hansen. The earth is distant from the sun by about 93,000,000 miles. A nobill tree, thou secomoure; I bli e hym that the on the erthe brought. York Plays , p. 214. One expre ion only in the Old Testament gives us the word earth in its astronomical meaning, that in the twenty-sixth chapter of Job: "He stretched out the north over empty space; He hanged the earth upon nothing." Dawson, Nature and the Bible, p. 104. It appears,... from what we know of the tides of the ocean, that the earth as a whole is more rigid than gla , and therefore that no very large portion of its interior can be liquid. Clerk Maxwell, Heat, p. 21. Sir W. Thomson has calculated that, if no change has occurred in the order of things, it cannot have been more than 200,000,000 years since the earth was in the condition of a ma of molten matter, on which a solid crust was just beginning to form. Clerk Maxwell , Heat, p. 248. 2. The solid matter of the globe, in distinction from water and air; the materials composing the solid parts of the globe; hence, the firm land of the earth's surface; the ground: as, he fell to the earth . God called the dry land earth. Gen. i. 10. IMG:content-0156.png:[blocks in formation] 7. In chem., a name formerly given to certain inodorous, dry, and uninflammable substances which are metallic oxids, but were formerly regarded as elementary bodies. They are insoluble in water, difficultly fusible, and not easily reduced to the metallic state. The most important of them are alumina, zirconia, glucina, yttria, and thorina. The alkaline earths, baryta, strontia, lime, and magnesia, have more the properties of the alkalis, being somewhat soluble in water, and having an alkaline taste and reaction. 8. In elect.: (a) The union of any point of a telegraph-line, submarine cable, or any system of conductors charged with or conveying electricity with the ground. It is generally made by joining the point at which the earth is to be established by means of a good conductor with a metallic plate buried in moist earth, or with metallic water-pipes or gas-pipes, which, on account of their large surface of contact with the earth, usually afford excellent earth-connections. (b) A fault in a telegraph-line or cable, arising out of an accidental contact of some part of the metallic circuit with the earth or with more or le perfect conductors connected with the earth.-Adamic earth. See Adamic. - Axis of the earth. See axis1.- Bad earth, in elect., a connection with the earth in which great resistance is offered to the pa age of the current. - Black earth, a kind of coal which is pounded fine and used by painters in fresco.Chian earth. See Chian. - Cologne earth, a kind of light bastard ocher, of a deep-brown color, transparent, and durable in water-color It is earthy va riety of lignite or partially fo ilized wood, and occurs in an irregular bed from 30 to 50 feet deep near Cologne, whence the name. - Compre ion of the earth. See compre ion. - Dead earth, or total earth, in elect., an earth-connection offering almost no resistance to the pa age of the current, as when a telegraph-wire falls upon a railroad-track, or when the conductor of a submarine cable has a considerable surface in actual contact with the water. - Earth of alum, a substance obtained by precipitating the earth from alum di olved in water by adding ammonia or pota a. It is used for paints. - Earth of bone, a phosphate of lime existing in bones after calcination. Ends of the earth. See end. - Figure of the earth, the shape and size, not of the earth's surface, but of the mean sea-level continued under the land at the heights at which water would stand in canals open to the sea; also, the generalized figure or ellipsoid which most nearly coincides with the figure of the sea-level. If Lac tanti us affirm that the figure of the earth is plane, or Austin deny there are antipodes, though venerable fathers of the church and ever to be honoured, yet will not their authorities prove sufficient to ground a belief thereon. Sir T. Browne , Vulg. Err., i. 7. The first man is of the earth , earthy. 1 Cor. xv. 47. The Sun flies forward to his brother Sun; The dark Earth follows wheel'd in her ellipse. Tennyson, Golden Year. Poets, whose thoughts enrich the blood of the world . Tennyson, Prince , ii. earth 3. The loose material of the earth's surface; the disintegrated particles of solid matter, in distinction from rock; more particularly, the combinations of particles constituting soil, In the four quarters of the globe , who reads an Ameri- mold, or dust, as opposed to unmixed sand or can book? clay. Earth, being regarded by ancient philosophers as Sydney Smith , Rev. of Seybart's Annals of United States. simplin was called an element and in popular language On the head of Frederic is all the blood which was shed we still hear of the four elements, fire, air, earth, and in a war which raged during many years and in every water, quarter of the globe . Macaulay , Frederic the Great. earth1 (erth), v. [= LG. erden = Icel. jardha = Sw. jorda = Dan. jorde, trans., earth, bury; from the noun.] I. trans. 1. To hide in or as in the earth. An you once earth yourself, John, in the barn, I have no daughter vor you. The fox is earthed. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, v. 2. Dryden , Spanish Friar. 2. To put underground; bury; inter. 1820