by an electric motor which is kept below the water-line. Napier Brothers’ capstan (fig. 3) is for warping purposes, for working the stern anchor with wire hawser and for coaling.
Fig. 3.—Napier Brothers’ capstan.
It is placed on the upper deck, and is fitted with a drum-head for capstan bars, with pawls and pawl rim on the deck plate, the pawls A being lifted and placed on their rests B when working with the motor. The upper portion of the capstan, together with its drum-head, is portable, being fixed to the centre boss with keys and gun-metal screws. The centre boss is keyed to the spindle, which passes through the deck and carries at its lower end a coupling for connecting to the worm wheel gear. For working by motor, the additional security of two drop bolts is provided. The gearing consists of a single worm and worm wheel, working in an oil-bath, the worm shaft being coupled direct to the motor spindle. The motor is of the semi-enclosed type, the working and live parts being protected by a perforated metallic covering; it is worked off a 100-volt circuit, at a speed under full load conditions of 300 revolutions per minute. The motor is of a 4-pole type and compound wound, the shunt winding limiting the speed on light load to not more than 1000 revolutions per minute. A frictional break is provided, pulled off by means of a shunt-excited magnet. The controller is of the reversing drum type, with not less than four steps in either direction, and is fitted with a magnetic blow-out. The control is effected by a removable hand wheel on a portable pedestal, fitted on top with a circular dial plate and indicating pointer; the hand wheel reverses the current as well as graduates the speed in either direction. All capstans of the British navy, after being fitted on board ship, are tested for lifting power and speed; with foremost (steam) capstans, the steam being at 150 ℔ pressure, the anchor is usually let go in 16 to 25 fathoms water, and the speed ascertained by observing the time taken to heave-in not less than a length of cable, 75 ft.; the length must be hove-in in three minutes, or at the rate of 25 ft. per minute. With the after capstan (motor) of first-class battleships and cruisers, a weight is used instead of an anchor, the test being to lift 9 tons at the rate of 25 ft. per minute. Capstans on dock walls in British government dockyards are usually driven by hydraulic or air pressure, conveyed through pipes to small engines underneath the capstans. (J. W. D.)
CAPSULE (from the Lat. capsula, a small box), a term in botany for a dry seed vessel, as in the poppy, iris, foxglove, &c., containing one or more cells. When ripe the capsule opens and scatters the seed (see Botany). The word is used also for a small gelatinous case enclosing a dose of medicine, and for a metal cap or cover on bottles and jars. In anatomy the term is used to denote a cover or envelope partly or wholly surrounding a structure. Every diarthrodial joint possesses a fibrous or ligamentous capsule, lined with synovial membrane, attached to the adjacent ends of the articulating bones. The term is particularly applied to the sac which encloses the crystalline lens of the eye; to Glisson’s capsule, a thin areolar coat of fibrous tissue lying inside the tunica serosa of the liver; to the glomerular capsules in the kidney substance; to the suprarenal capsules, two small flattened organs in the epigastric region; and to the internal and external capsules of the brain (see Brain, fig. 14 and explanation).
CAPTAIN (derived from Lat. caput, head, through the Low Lat. capitanus), a chief or leader, in various connexions, but particularly a grade officer in the army or navy.
At sea the name of captain is given to all who command ships whether they belong to the military navy of their country or not, or whether they hold the substantive rank or not. Thus a lieutenant when in command of a vessel is addressed as captain. In France a naval lieutenant is addressed as mon capitaine because he has that comparative rank in the army. The master of a merchant ship is known as her captain. But the name is also used in the strict sense of foreman, or head man, to describe many of the minor or “petty” officers of a British or American man-of-war—the captain of a top, of the forecastle, or of a gun. The title “post captain” in the British navy means simply full captain, and is the equivalent of the French capitaine de vaisseau. It had its origin in the fact that captains appointed to a ship of twenty guns and upwards were included in, or “posted” on, the permanent list of captains from among whom the admirals were chosen. The captain of the fleet is an officer who acts as chief of the staff to an admiral commanding a large force. The position is equivalent to flag rank, but is held by a captain. Staff captain is the highest grade of the officers entrusted with the nayigation of a ship or fleet.
The military rank of captain (Fr. capitaine, Ger. Hauptmann, or in the cavalry, Rittmeister), which was formerly the title of an officer of high rank corresponding to the modern general officer or colonel, has with the gradual subdivision and articulation of armies, come to be applied to the commanders of companies or squadrons, and in general to officers of the grade equivalent to this command (see Officers).
The title of “captain-general” was formerly used in the general sense of a military commander-in-chief, and is still similarly used in Spain. In the Spanish army there are eight captains-general, each of whom has command of a “region” corresponding to an army corps district. The same title was formerly given to the Spanish governors of the colonial provinces in the New World. The official title of the governor of Jamaica is “captain-general and governor-in-chief.”
CAPTAL (Lat. capitalis, “first,” “chief”), a medieval feudal title in Gascony. According to Du Cange the designation captal (capital, captau, capitau) was applied loosely to the more illustrious nobles of Aquitaine, counts, viscounts, &c., probably as capitales domini, “principal lords,” though he quotes more fanciful explanations. As an actual title the word was used only by the lords of Trene, Puychagut, Epernon and Buch. It is best known in connexion with the famous soldier, Jean de Grailly, captal of Bush (d. 1376), the “captal de Buch” par excellence, immortalized by Froissart as the confidant of the Black Prince and the champion of the English cause against France. His active part in the war began in 1364, when he ravaged the country between Paris and Rouen, but was beaten by Bertrand du Guesclin at Cocherel and taken prisoner. Released next year, he received the seigniory of Nemours and took the oath of fealty to the French king, Charles V., but soon resigned his new fief and returned to his allegiance to the English king. In 1367 he took part in the battle of Navarette, in which Du Guesclin was taken prisoner, the captal being entrusted with his safe-keeping. In 1371 Jean de Grailly was appointed constable of Aquitaine, but was taken prisoner next year and interned in the Temple at Paris where, resisting all the tempting offers of the French king, he remained till his death five years later.
CAPTION (Lat. captio, a taking or catching), a term still used in law, especially Scots, for arrest or apprehension. From the obsolete sense of a catching at any possible plea or objection comes the adjective “captious,” i.e. sophistical or fault-finding. The term also has an old legal use, to signify the part of an indictment, &c., which shows where, when and by what authority it is taken, found or executed; so its opening or heading. From this is derived the modern sense of the heading of an article in a book or newspaper.
CAPTIVE (from Lat. capere, to take), one who is captured in warfare. As a term of International Law, it has been displaced by that of “prisoner of war.” The position and treatment of captives or prisoners of war is now dealt with fully in chapter ii. of the regulations annexed to the Hague Convention respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, of the 18th of October 1907.
See Peace Conference and War; also Sir T. Barclay, supplement to Problems of International Practice and Diplomacy, for comparison of texts of 1899 and 1907.
