Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 05.djvu/545

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LEWISTOWN
469
LEYDEN JAR

the Grand Trunk and the Maine Central railroads, 34 miles N. of Portland. The river is spanned by several bridges. The city is the trade center for an extensive farming region. Manufactures cotton and woolen goods, boots and shoes, files, trunks, ticking, burlap, furniture and brick. It is the seat of Bates College and Cobb Divinity School; has public library, city park, electric light and street railroad plants, waterworks sup- plied from the river, National and savings banks, daily, weekly and monthly periodicals. Lewiston was founded in 1770; incorporated in 1795, and chartered as a city in 1861, but the city government was not organized till 1863. Pop. (1910) 26,247; (1920) 31,791.

LEWISTOWN, a city of Pennsylvania, the county seat of Mifflin co. It is on the Juniata River and on the Pennsylvania railroad. It is the center of an important agricultural and mining region and its industries include foundries, furnaces, steel works, silk mills, hosiery mills, etc. It has a hospital and a public library. Pop. (1910) 8,166; (1920) 9,849.

LEXINGTON, a city and county-seat of Fayette co., Ky., on the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific, Chesapeake and Ohio, Louisville and Nashville and Southern railroads; 80 miles S. of Cincinnati, O. It is the trade, social, and political center of the famous "blue grass" region; is a noted horse-breeding, hemp and tobacco grow- ing region; and manufactures flour, planing-mill products, saddlery, harness, carriages and wagons. It is the seat of Kentucky University, Transylvania University, State College, Hamilton College; and Sayre Institute; contains a Protestant Infirmary, Colored Industrial Home, St. Joseph's Hospital, National and State banks, public library, and court house. Lexington has wide and well-paved streets, electric light and street railroad plants, daily and weekly periodicals. Pop. (1910) 35,099; (1920) 41,534.

LEXINGTON, a town in Middlesex co., Mass., on the Boston and Maine rail- road; 12 miles N. W. of Boston; contains the villages of Lexington, East Lexington and North Lexington; and is principally engaged in farming, dairying and market-gardening. There are a public high school, Hancock and Adams grammar schools, Tidd primary school, Cary library, electric light plant, savings bank and newspapers. Lexington was settled in 1642 and was long known as Cambridge Farm, and was incorporated as a town in 1713. It was the scene of the first conflict between the colonists and British troops in the Revolutionary War, on April 19, 1775. The British obtained the advantage and destroyed the stores of the colonists, but lost in the action 273 men killed and wounded. Pop. (1910) 4,918; (1920) 6,350.

LEXINGTON, a city and county-seat of Rockridge co., Va.; on James river, and the Baltimore and Ohio, and the Chesapeake and Ohio railroads; 48 miles W. of Lynchburg. It is the seat of Washington and Lee University and the Virginia Military school; is engaged in agriculture and has deposits of sulphur ore, electric light plant, waterworks supplied by mountain streams, and National and State banks.

LEYDEN (lī'den), a city on the Rhine, in South Holland; practically composed of small islands, which are connected by at least 150 bridges. It contains a university, founded by the Prince of Orange in 1575, which was at one time one of the most celebrated in Europe. Among its pupils were Descartes, Arminus, Grotius, Goldsmith, and others. It has a valuable library of over 100,000 volumes, with 14,000 MSS., of which about 2,000 are Arabic, besides many scientific collections. Printing was formerly one of its chief industries. Pop. about 60,000.

LEYDEN, JOHN, a Scotch Orientalist; born in Denholm, Sept. 8, 1775. Soon after obtaining his medical degree he went to India, where his proficiency in Oriental and especially Indo-Chinese languages led to an appointment as Professor of Hindustani at Fort William College, Calcutta. He is the author of "An Historical Account of Discoveries in Northern and Western Africa" (1789), "Scenes of Infancy," a poem; and a number of Scotch ballads, which were much admired by Sir Walter Scott and others. He died at Batavia, Java, Aug. 28, 1811.

LEYDEN JAR, a glass bottle having its interior coated with tin foil or filled with thin leaves of copper or of gold leaf. The outside is also coated with tin foil up to a certain distance from the neck. The neck has a cork, through which passes a brass rod terminating at one end in a knob, and communicating with the metal in the interior. The inner coating is called the internal, and the outer one the external armature or coating. It is charged by connecting one of the armatures with the ground and the other with the source of electricity. If the hand grasps the external coating while the knob is presented to the conductor of the machine, positive electric-
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