Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 08.djvu/24

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REVERBERATORY FURNACE 8 REVIVAL World War the service beginning with 44 vessels had them added to and acted as a complement to the navy in so far as its coastwise duties enabled it so to do. The captain commandant of the service is under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, and un- der him are the five divisions of the service, each with a senior captain. The vessels have done duty on the Alaskan coast and occasionally make prolonged voyages, and have often done good work in cases of disasters at sea. In 1915 the Life Saving and Revenue Cutter services were merged into the Coast Guard. REVERBERATORY FURNACE, a furnace in which ore, metal, or other material is exposed to the action of flame, but not to the contact of burning fuel. REVERE, a city of Massachusetts, in Suffolk co., on the Boston and Maine railroad. It forms a suburb of Boston, which it joins on the northeast. An ex- cellent beach makes it a favorite bath- ing resort, and the State has constructed a magnificent public bath house. Among its notable buildings are a city hall and a public library. Pop. (1910) 18,219; (1920) 28,823. REVERE, PAUL, an American pa- triot, famous for his midnight ride from Boston to Lexington; born in Boston, Mass., Jan. 1, 1735. He was the son of a goldsmith from Guernsey, whose trade he followed after servin * as a lieutenant of artillery in the expedition against Crown Point (1756). He also engaged in copperplate printing, and before the Revolution constructed a gunpowder mill. A keen patriot, he was one of the party that destroyed the tea in Boston harbor, and he was at the head of a volunteer committee, consisting of 30 young me- chanics, who formed a secret society to watch the British. When it was known that the latter intended to move, Revere crossed over to Charlestown, and April 18, 1775, the night before Lexington and Concord, at a signal rode on to Lexing- ton and to Lincoln, rousing the minute- men as he went; at Lincoln he was stopped, but a companion succeeded in reaching Concord. His ride is the sub- ject of a well-known poem by Longfel- low. During the war he rose to lieu- tenant-colonel of artillery; afterward he returned to his goldsmith's work, and in 1801 founded the Revere Copper Com- pany at Canton, Mass. He died in Bos- ton, May 10, 1818. REVERSION, a right or hope to fu- ture possession or enjoyment; right of succession; succession. Also a rever- sionary or deferred annuity, i. e., an an- nuity which does not begin to be paid at once, but at a certain future day. In biology, the tendency of an animal or a plant to revert to long-lost characters. Darwin contends that it is by no means so potent as is generally believed. It is easy to breed cart or race-horses, long and short-horned cattle, and esculent vegetables without their reverting to the characters of the aboriginal stock. He also believes that reversionary and analogous characters can be easily con- founded. In law, the returning of an estate to the grantor or his heirs after a partic- ular estate is ended. An estate in re- version is the residue of an estate left in the grantor, to commence in posses- sion after the determination of some par- ticular estate granted out by him. The term is sometimes improperly extended to any future estate in reversion or re- mainder. Reversion of series, in mathe- matics, when one quantity is expressed in terms of another, by means of a series, the operation of finding the value of the second in terms of the first, by means of a series, is called the reversion of the series. REVETMENT, in fortification, a facing to a wall or bank, as of a scarp or parapet. The material depends upon the character of the work. In perma- nent works it is usually of masonry; in field works it may be of sods, gabions, timber, hurdles, rails, or stones. In civil engineering, a retaining or breast wall at the foot or on the face of a slope. REVISED VERSION, a revised edi- tion of the Authorized Version of the Bible. The resolution to undertake it was come to by the Convocation of Can- terbury in February and May, 1870, and various members were nominated to carry out the work. Co-operation was sought from scholars in the other churches and from an American com- mittee. A better text was constructed, manuscripts being used which had been discovered since the Authorized Version had been made. Revision, not retrans- lation, was aimed at, as few alterations rs possible being introduced, and these only if adopted by the votes of two- thirds of the translators. Poetry was printed in lines, showing the rhythm. The New Testament was published in May, 1881, the Old in May, 1885. REVIVAL, the act of reviving; the state of being revived; most commonly used in a religious sense. Revivals oc- cur in all religions. When one takes place a large number of persons who have been comparatively dead or indif- ferent to spiritual considerations, simul-