Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 05.djvu/587

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LOCKJAW 603 LOCTTST TREE LOCKJAW. See Tetanus. LOCKPORT, a city and county-seat of Niagara co., N. Y., on the Erie Canal and the New York Central railroad; 25 miles N. N. E. of Buffalo. The 10 mas- sive locks of the canal, which here makes a descent of 66 feet, give name to the •? town. The canal affords great water- power, which is utilized in a large num- ber of flour and lumber mills, machine shops, foundries, cotton and woolen mills, and other establishments some of which ire of great extent. The canal here masses through a deep cut several miles In length, excavated in the solid rock. The city is the trade center for the county, with an annual trade of $5,000,- OpO; has churches, public schools, Na- tional and other banks, female seminary, and daily and weekly newspapers. Large quantities of Niagara limestone and sandstone are here quarried for building purposes. Pop. (1910) 17,970; (1920) 21,308. LOCKYER, JOSEPH NORMAN, an English astronomer; born in Rugby, England, May 17, 1836. In 1869 he was elected an F. R. S., and in 1870 was ap- pointed secretary to the Royal Commis- sion on Scientific Instruction, made Lec- turer on Astronomy at the Normal School of Science at South Kensington, and sent out to Sicily as head of the eclipse expedition. In the following year he headed a similar expedition to India and was elected Rede lecturer at Cam- bridge. He had already in 1866 discov- ered a new method of observing the sun; and in 1874 he gained the Rumford medal of the Royal Society and was ap- pointed editor of "Nature." He was an able popular lecturer on astronomical physics, and wrote "Elementai-y Lessons in Astronomy" (1868) ; "Studies in Spec- trum Analysis" (1878) ; "Contributions to Solar Physics" (1873) ; "The Spectro- scope and its Applications" (1873) ; a primer on "Astronomy" (1874) ; "Star- Gazing" (1878); "The Chemistry of the Sun" (1887); "The Meteoritic Hypothe- sis" (1890); "Dawn of Astronomy" (1894) ; etc. He died in 1920. LOCOMOTIVL. See RAILWAYS. LOCRI. See Gerace. LOCUS, a Latin word meaning a place or spot. In geometry, the locus of a point is the line generated by the point when moving according to seme deter- minate law. The locus of a line is the surface generated by a line moving ac- cording to some fixed law. Thus, if a point moves in the same plane in such a manner that the sum of its distances from two fixed points of the plane is con- stant, the locus of the point is an ftllipse. Locus delicti : The place where an of- fense is committed. Locus poenitentije: Time or opportunity for repentance be- fore a probative writing is executed. Locus sigilli (usually abbreviated L. S.) : The place where the seal, usu- ally appended to a person's signature, is to be affixed to a deed or public docu- ment. Locus standi: The right of any person or persons to appear and be heard on any matter before a particular tribunal. LOCUST, any migatory species of the orthopterous family Acridiidse, specially CEdipoda migratoria, the migratory lo- cust. An allied species, (E. cinerascetis, is found in the S. E. of Europe. The fe- males excavate holes in the earth and de- posit their eggs in a long mass enveloped in a glutinous secretion. The larva commence their destructive career al- most as soon as they are hatched. The migrations of locusts are probably in search of food. Their range in the Old World stretches from Spain and the S. of France, through Russia to China; S. of this boundary line they are equally destructive. The Rocky Mountain lo- cust is Caloptenus spretus. There seems to be no special periodicity in the ap- pearance of swarms of locusts. Locusts are by preference vegetable-feeders; but they will attack dry animal substances, and even become cannibals when other food fails. Next to man, their chief enemies are insectivorous birds, parasitic beetles of the family Cantharidse, and dipterous flies of the family Bombyliidai. LOCUST, SEVENTEEN YEAR, all American Cicada. LOCUST TREE, a name given in dif- ferent parts of the world to different trees of the natural order Lefji(7)iinosai. The Carob tree is often so called in the countries bordering on the Mediterra- nean, and its pods are the locust beans of the stores. The locust tree of the United States {Robinia pseud-acacia), also called the false acacia, or thorn acacia, and on the continent of Europe and in Great Britain very generally the acacia, is a valuable and extremely beautiful tree. The wood, known as lo- cust wood, is useful for all purposes in which gi'eat strength, and especially toughness, is required; "locust," indeed, is the slang term in the United States for a policeman's baton. The honey lo- cust tree of the United States is a gled- itschia. The locust tree of the West In- dies is Hymenaea conrhanl, a gigantic tree whose pods also supply a nutritious matter, a mealy substance in which tli«