BBIAB 171 BRICK ister of Public Instruction. He was anti-clerical in his sentiments, but he handled the delicate question of the re- lation of Church and State with tact and moderation. He was three times Prime Minister; in 1909, 1913, and 1916. In case of national exigency, he did not hesitate to act with great decision, as in the great French railway strike, which he broke by calling the employees to the colors. During the war he was a pow- erful and determined supporter of the Allied cause. BBIAB.. See Rose. BBIABE (bre-ar), a town of France, in the department of Loiret, on the Loire, 25 miles S. of Montargis. The canal, to which the town is indebted for its importance, is the oldest work of the kind in France, having been begun in the reign of Henry IV., though it was not finished till 1740. It estab- lishes, by means of its junction with the canal of Loing at Montargis, a com- munication between the Loire and the Seine, and conveys the various products of the province, watered by the former, to Paris. BBIABEUS, a famous giant, son of Ccelus and Terra, who had 100 hands and 50 heads, and was called by men ^geon, and only by the gods Briareus. He assisted the giants in their war against the gods, and, according to the accounts of some, was thrown under Mt. ^tna. BBIBEBY, in the United States, the word applied to an attempt to corruptly influence, by means of offers of reward, the course of legislation, the result of an election, the verdict of a jury, the deci- sion of a magistrate, etc. It is not neces- sary to constitute an indictable offence that the bribe be accepted. The tender of the bribe is the essence of the crime. If a bribe be offered a witness to swear falsely the crime is not bribery, but is merged into subornation or perjury. The penalty for bribery is fine or im- prisonment, or both. BRICE, ST., Bishop of Tours in the beginning of the 5th century, is com- memorated as a confessor. St. Brice's Day, in 1002 (in the reign of Ethelred II.), is notorious in old English history for a great massacre of the Danes. It was believed that it was a concerted at- tempt to exterminate all the Danes in England; but, failing of its bloody pur- pose, it led to reprisals by the Danish King Sweyn. BRICK, a kind of artificial stone, made of clay, molded, dried in the sun and baked in a kiln. The word is also applied to the block in its previous con- dition as a molded plastic mass, and as a dried block in which the water hygro- metrically combined with the clay is driven off. When this condition is ac- cepted as a finality, the block so dried is an adobe. The burning of the previ- ously dried brick drives off the chem- ically combined water, and forever changes the character of the mass. An adobe may become resaturated with water, and resume its plasticity; a brick may become rotten and disintegrated, but not plastic. There are two principal kinds of brick, building brick and fire brick, and their composition depends upon the use to which they are put; a good building brick will contain about 50 per cent, silica, 25 per cent, alumina and oxide of iron, 3 per cent, carbonate of lime, 1 per cent, carbonate of mag- nesium, and 21 per cent, of water and other constituents ; while a fire brick will contain about 59 per cent, silica, 35 per cent, alumnia, 3 per cent, of oxide of iron, and only 3 per cent, of carbonate of lime, carbonate of Magnesia, and water, combined. Fire brick is used to line furnaces, crucibles, and in other places where a high heat is maintained; and must contain as little fusible matter as possible. Some of the best clays in the world for brick making are found in New Jersey, at Perth Amboy, Wood- bridge, and Trenton, and one of the largest brick making establishments in the world is situated at Haverstraw, N. Y. Building bricks come under various names according to the use to which they are put, or the position they oc- cupy in a building. Some of these are: Air brick is an iron grating the size of a brick, or a perforated brick, let into a wall to allow the passage of air. Arch brick usually means the hard burned, partially vitrified brick from the arches of the brick climp in which the fire is made and ma ntained. A brick made voussoir shape 1 is known as a compass brick. A capping brick is one for the upper course of a wall; clinker, a brick from an arch of the clamp, so named from the sharp, glassy sound when struck; a coping brick, one for a cop- ing course on a wall; feather edged brick, of prismatic form, _ for arches, vaults, niches, etc.; fire bi'ick, made of intractable material, so as to resist fusion in furnaces and kilns; hollow brick, with openings for ventilation; stocks, a name given to the best class of bricks, and also locally to peculiar varieties, as gray stocks, red stocks, etc.; pressed brick another name for
