SABLE 167 SACCHARUM times known as the Hudson Bay sable. Sable hair is used in the manufacture of artists' pencils. SABLE, in heraldry, black, one of the tinctures used in blazonry. In engrav- ing it is expressed by perpendicular crossed by horizontal lines. SABLE ISLAND, a low-lying island in the Atlantic; in lat. 44° N. and Ion. 60° W.; 110 miles E. of the central part of Nova Scotia (and not near Cape Sable, at the S. E. corner of Nova Scotia, where there is also a Sable Island). It consists of two parallel sand ridges, with a la- goon between them. Scrubby grass, cran- berries, etc., grow on the island, which is so dangerous to navigation, and has so frequently been the scene of wrecks, as to be called "the sailor's grave." The Canadian Government maintains two lighthouses here. The island is gradually sinking. Early in the 19th century it was 40 miles long; it is now reduced to 20 miles. Near it there are sandbanks. SABLES D'OLONNE, LES, a seaport of France; department of Vendee; on the Atlantic coast, 50 miles S. by W. of Nantes. It owes its early importance to Louis XI., who excavated (1472) the port and erected the fortifications. There is a trade in grain, wine, salt, cattle, tim- ber, and tar. Salt making, shipbuilding, and fishing (sardines and oysters) are the chief occupations. The town is visited for its sea-bathing. Pop. about 15,000. SABOT (sab'o), a wooden shoe made of one piece hollowed out by boring tools and scrapers. The kinds of woods used are willow, poplar (Lombardy), beech, birch, aspen, ash, hornbeam, walnut. Sa- bots are worn by the peasants of France, Belgium, etc. SABOTAGE, an expression which is believed to have had its origin in the practice, in France, during the early period of industry, whereby the weavers inserted a wooden shoe, or sabot, in the machinery to destroy it. From its com- mon usage among French workers, the term has acquired a broader and an in- ternational significance among organized workers. It signifies a systematic imped- ing of the wheels of industry by destruc- tion or disabling of machinery, for definite tactical aims. Emery dust is thrown into complicated machinery, tools are dulled, material is destroyed, all for the purpose of bringing the employer to terms in a labor dispute. Another method with the same aim is the obeying of rules to the letter, as in the railroad industry, caus- ing delay in traffic. Systematic slacken- ing of effort in the workshops is also another practice which comes under the term of sabotage. As a substitute for the strike as a means to bringing the employer to terms, sabotage was at one time generally recog- nized among the radical labor elements as a legitimate weapon to attaining their ends. Within recent years, however, there has been a decided reaction against this form of "direct action." In 1912 the So- cialist Party of the United States defi- nitely declared itself, at a national con- vention, against all forms of direct action, including sabotage. It is still regarded as a legitimate weapon by the Industrial Workers of the World, who, on the other hand, consider political action futile as a method by which to achieve benefits for the working classes. SABOTIERE, a French apparatus for making ices. It differs little from the common American ice-cream freezer. The space between the wooden pail and metal container is filled with pounded ice and salt, or sulphate of soda and hydrochloric acid. SACBUT, or SACKBUT, a musical in- strument of the trumpet kind with a slide; in fact an old variety of Trom- bone (q. v.). The instrument called sab- beka in the Hebrew Scriptures has been erroneously rendered as sacbut by the translators. The exact form of the sabeka has been much disputed, but that it was a stringed instrument is certain, for the name passed over into Greek and Latin in the forms sambuke, sambuca, a harp- like instrument of four or more strings. SACCHARIN, in chemistry, C 7 H5N03S=C6H 4 .<gg> NH; a sweet substance which was discovered by Fahlberg and Remsen in 1879, and named by them anhydro-orthosulphamine- benzoic acid. It may be prepared by oxidizing orthotoluene with potassium per- manganate. It forms white crystals, solu- ble in hot water, alcohol, and ether, and melts at 220° with partial decomposition. Its sweetness exceeds that of cane sugar about 500 times. When taken into the system it passes through unchanged. It is used to disguise the taste of medicines and in cases of diabetes where sugar is prohibited. It was used extensively in place of sugar during the World War. SACCHARUM, sugar cane; a genus of grasses, tribe Andropogoneae ; inflores- cence in loose panicles, with lanceolate spikelets; glumes two-valved, two flow- ered, enveloped in long wool; lower neu- ter with one pale, upper hermaphrodite with two ; mostly tropical or sub-tropical ; known species about 32. S. officinarum is the common sugar-cane. Other Indian species — S. fuscum, S. mara, S. munja, S. semidecumbens, S. canaliculatum, and
