Bakunin, Mikhail

born at Torshok, Ru ia, in 1814; the reputed founder of Nihilism. Exiled to Siberia, 1851, he escaped to Japan and thence to England, where he founded the Alliance of the Social Democracy, 1869, immediately absorbed by the International Workmen's A ociation. Died in 1876. Balance Wheel. ( Horol .) The wheel which controls the movement of a watch. Connected with it is an escapement and a balance spring, whose action is to convert its rotary into a vibratory motion. The balance spring consists of a coil of very fine steel wire, so delicate that 4,000 of these springs weigh little more than an ounce. One end of this spring is attached to the B. W. near its axis, the other to an independent point. When an impulse is given the B. W. by the escapement apparatus, it swings round just so far as the elastic resistance of the spring will permit, and is then brought back to receive another impulse. The result is a very delicate and exact controlling influence over the rate of movement of the watch. The existing danger of magnetization from electric dynamos and motors has made it nece ary to construct the B. W. and springs of watches out of non-magnetic metal. Alloys of palladium have recently been used for this purpose, which it is claimed also overcomes the disturbing effects of change of temperature. Balch, GEORGE B., an American naval officer, born in 1821, whose exploits in the Mexican War and throughout the Civil War fill a brilliant page in the annals of our navy. A midshipman, 1837; lieutenant, 1850; commander, 1862; captain, 1866; commodore, 1872; admiral, 1872; rear-admiral, 1878; superintendent of Naval Academy, 1879-81; commanding Pacific Station until retirement, 1881.