STAMPS
STANFORD
silver, especially pyrites, are caught and saved. As pyrites is heavier than the ore-stuff, it can be separated by a process of shaking and settling. The machine by which this is done is called a concentrator or vanner, and most stamp-mills find it profitable to be well-equipped with these. Consult Huntington and McMillan's Metals: their Properties and Treatment.
Stamps are issued by governments tor use on documents, merchandise, letters etc. Stamp-duties were first imposed in England in 1694. It is a form of indirect taxation, the stamps being bought of the government, the use of them required by law, and any forgery of them punished. During the Civil War in the United States many articles paid stamp-duty, the last of such taxes being repealed in 1883. In 1898 similar duties were imposed to help meet the cost of the Spanish-American war; but Congress in 1901 removed most of these taxes. Stamps for the payment of letters were first generally used in England in 1840, at the suggestion of Sir Rowland Hill, and in the United States in 1847. The first English postage-stamp was black, with a portrait of Queen Victoria, and since then about 1,600 different stamps have been in use in England and her colonies. The first United States stamp had the portrait of Franklin and was worth five cents. There have been a great variety used since, as many as 127 different kinds being in use at one time. Some countries have used the national arms on stamps, and some simply a number with an inscription. Stamp-collecting became fashionable about 1864 and has developed into a science called philately, with periodicals and associations devoted to the pursuit. Rare stamps command large prices, an English one of 1847 with the postal mark bringing about $375.
Stand'ard Oil Company, a company or group of companies originally organized by John D. Rockefeller, which has almost a monopoly of the oil-industry in many states of the American Union. It not only supplies the markets of the United States, but exports great quantities of oil abroad. Many charges have been urged against its business methods in ousting competitors, as also concerning its alleged political influence. In 1907 the company was convicted of accepting railroad rebates and fined $29,000,000, but this was set aside on appeal. In 1911 the United States Supreme Court sustained a decision made in 1909 by the Circuit Court of the United States declaring the company an illegal combination in restraint of trade and by the court's order, the parent company and its nineteen sub-sidaries were separated from each other and conducted under separate management.
Standards are weights and measures defined by proper authorities. National
standards are defined and preserved by the respective governments of those who use them. There practically are only two groups of standards in use, the British and the metric group.
The British system is founded upon the standard yard, the standard pound and the standard gallon. The metric system is based upon the standard meter, the standard kilogram and the standard liter. See KILOGRAM, METRIC SYSTEM, POUND and YARD.
Besides these, the requirements of commerce and of modern science have made necessary standard thermometers, standards of electrical resistance, standards of light etc. Thus the mercury thermometer, which has been compared directly with the nitrogen gas thermometer at the international bureau of weights and measures at Sevres, is practically a standard thermometer. The Hefner lamp, as tested by the Reichsanstalt at Charlottenburg, Prussia, practically is a standard for sources ot light. But these standards, like the ohm, which is the standard of resistance, and the Clark cell, which is the standard of electromotive force, are defined in so definite a manner that they can be copied or made by any one who is equipped to follow the legal prescriptions; and hence they are represented by material or arbitrary standards, as in the case of the meter. See MEASUREMENT.
Stan'dish, Miles, one of the Mayflower company, was born in Lancashire, England, about 1584. He served in the army in the Netherlands and sailed with the Pilgrims in the Mayflower in 1620, though not a member of the Ley den congregation. On reaching Massachusetts he was chosen captain by the Pilgrims, and commanded in expeditions against the savages. He settled finally at Duxbury, Mass., where he died on Oct. 3, 1656. A monument, 100 feet high, crowned by a statue, has been built to his memory at Duxbury. The story of his unsuccessful effort to secure a wife is told by Longfellow in his Courtship of Miles Standisk, which, however, is not free from anachronisms and inaccuracies. Consult Life by Abbot and Footprints of Miles Standish by De Costa.
Stan'ford, Leland, American public man and philanthropist, was born at Watervliet, N. Y., March 9, 1824, and died at Palo Alto, CaL, June 20, 1893. Early in life he studied law and was admitted to the New York bar; but in 1849, attracted by the gold-discoveries in California, he proceeded there and engaged in gold-mining and in business in San Francisco. He was one of the organizers of the Central Pacific Railroad Company, and entering political life was made Republican governor of California (1861-3). From 1885 to. 1893 n.e was United States senator. Out of his
