BBASS 156 BRATTLEBORO BRASS, an alloy of copper and zmc, of a bright yellow color, hard, ductile, and malleable. The best brass consists of two parts by weight of copper to one of zinc. The proportions of copper and zinc vary. Ordinary brass is a yellow alloy of copper and 28 to 34 per cent, of zinc. The density of cast brass is 7.8 to 8.4; that of brass wire 8.54. It is harder and yet more fusible than cop- per, more sonorous and not so good a conductor of heat. It is said that when the Roman Consul, Mummius, after capturing the celebrated Grecian city of Corinth, barbarously burnt the place to the ground, in B. C. 146, various metals, fused in the con- flagration, became united into a com- pound or alloy, called from the circum- stances now stated, Corinthian brass. BRASSES, MONUMENTAL, large plates of brass, or of the mixed metal called latten or laton, inlaid on slabs of stone, and usually forming part of the pavement of a church. The fig^ure of the person intended to be commemorated was generally represented either by the form of the brass itself, or by lines en- graven on it. Such, however, was not always the case, an ornamented or foli- ated cross, with other sacred emblems, being frequently substituted for the fig- ure. Nor was the practice of imbedding them in the pavement uniform, as they were sometimes found elevated on what were called altar tombs. BRASSEY, THOMAS, an English en- gineer and railroad contractor, born in Baerton, Cheshire, Nov. 7, 1805. At the age of 16 he was apprenticed to a sur- veyor, whom he succeeded in business. After building parts of the Grand Junc- tion and the London and Southampton railways, he contracted, in 1840, in part- nership with another, to build the rail- way from Paris to Rouen. In a few years he held under contract, in Eng- land and France, some 10 railways, in- volving a capital of $180,000,000, and employing 75,000 men. In partnership with Betts and Peto he undertook the Grand Trunk of Canada, 1,100 miles in length, including the great bridge at Montreal. His army of men were em- ployed in nearly every part of Europe, South America, Australia, India, etc. He amassed great wealth, but continued to be generous to the needy, and modest and simple in his tastes and manners. Sir Arthur Helps wrote his "Life" (1872). He died in Hastings, Dec. 8, 1870. BRASSICA, a genus of cruciferous plants containing several well known culinary herbs. Among the most famil- iar may be mentioned brassica oleracea (sea cabbage), the original of the cab- bage of our gardens, B. Tnonensis, the wall flower cabbage; and the B. campes- tris, or common wild navew. The B. napus, the rape or cole seed, and the B. rapa, or common turnip, have here and there rooted themselves spontaneously, producing a belief that they are indigen- ous in localities in which they did not originally exist. The colza of the Dutch is B. campestris; B. prsecox, is the sum- mer rape of the Germans; and B. elon- gata is cultivated in Hungary for its oil. BRASSICACE.ffi, an order of plants more generally called cruciferx (cruci- fers). It is placed by Lindley under his cistal alliance. He divides the order into the following sections — pleurorhizese, notorhizeae, 07-thoplocese, and diplecolobese. The brassicacess or crucifers are one of the most important orders in the whole vegetable kingdom. About 1,730 species are known. Their chief seat is in the temperate zones. Among the well known plants ranked under the order may be mentioned the wall flower, the stock, the watercress and other cresses, the cab- bage, the turnip, etc. BRATIANO, JEAN J. C, a Rumanian statesman. His father had been a prom- inent factor in forming the modem Ru- manian state and in the offer of the throne to Prince Charles of Hohenzollern- Sigmaringen in 1866. The son became leader of the Liberal party, and at the outbreak of the World War favored the cause of the Allies. The King, how- ever, was related to the Hohenzollerns and held Rumania out of the war until his death in October, 1914. After that time, Rumania, under the influence of Bratiano, steadily tended toward parti- cipation in the war on the Allied side. The step was finally taken in the sum- mer of 1916 and Bratiano was active in organizing military operations. During the period of disaster that culminated in the signing of the treaty of Bucha- rest, Bratiano's conduct was dignified and courageous. He was a delegate to the Peace Congress in 1919. BRATTLEBORO, a town in Windham CO., Vt.; on the Connecticut river, and the Boston and Maine and the Central Vermont railroads; 11 miles S. E. of Newfane, the county-seat. It is in a picturesque farming region; is the trade center of southeast Vermont; and con- tains the State Asylum for the Insane, Brooks Public Library, and manufac- tories of organs, carriages, furniture, and machinery. Brattleboro is the center of the maple sugar industry of Vermont, and has National banks and several
