SHEFFIELD 381 SHELBURNE was not commenced till 1814, since which time large sums have been expended on its construction. Pop. about 18,000. SHEFFIELD, a city of Alabama, in Colbert co. It is on the Tennessee river, and on the Louisville and Nashville, the Northern Alabama, and the Southern rail- roads. Its important industries include iron products and lumbering. There are also extensive coal mines in the neighbor- hood, and the farming interests are quite important. Pop. (1910) 4,865; (1920) 6,682. SHEFFIELD, a municipal and parlia- mentary borough of England, county of York (West Riding) ; on hilly ground at the junction of the Sheaf and Don, about 160 miles N. of London. The site of the town was originally confined to the angle formed by the Sheaf and Don, but it now extends along the slopes above these rivers and their tributaries, the Loxley, Rivelin, and Porter. In the central parts great improvements have been made in the crowded streets by the corporation, and the suburban districts are well built and picturesquely situated. The chief ec- clesiastical building is the ancient parish church of St. Peter's in the Perpendicular style. There are numerous educational and literary institutions, and the St. George's Museum founded by Mr. Ruskin. The principal buildings are the town hall, the Cutlers' Hall, the corn exchange, the music hall, and the Albert Hall. There are numerous hospitals and charitable institutions. The town is well supplied with parks, chief of these being the Nor- folk, Birth, and Weston parks, the latter of which includes a museum and the Mappin Art Gallery. The trade of Shef- field is chiefly connected with cutlery, for which it has long been famous, and the manufacture of all forms of steel, iron, and brass work. The steel manufacture includes armor plating, rails, engine cast- ings, rifles, etc. There are also manu- factures of engines, machinery, plated goods, Britannia metal goods, optical in- struments, stoves and grates, etc. Shef- field is supposed to have been originally a Roman station. Edward I. granted it a charter as a market town in 1296, and there is indication in Chaucer's writings that the town was then noted for its cutlery. But it was only after the be- ginning of the 19th century that it de- veloped such importance as a manufac- turing center. The chief modern event in its history was the terrible disaster in 1864, occasioned by the bursting of Bradfield Reservoir. Pop. (1919) 473,695. SHEIK, or SHEIKH (Arabian), an elder, a chief, the head of a Bedouin family of importance with its retainers, Y— or of a clan or tribe. When war exists, the sheiks of a region confederate to- gether and choose one of their number as a sheik or chief. The position of Abra- ham with his allies, Abner and Eshcol of Mamre, much resembled that of an Arab sheik with his confederates (Gen. xiv. 13, 14). When a traveler passes through the territories of a sheik he pays for guidance and safe conduct. SHEKEL, in Hebrew weights, the fun- damental weight in the Hebrew scale. It is believed to have weighed 8.78 drachms avoirdupois, 10 pennyweights troy. Half a shekel was called a bekah, which was divided into ten gerahs. Three thousand shekels constituted a talent. In Hebrew money, a coin believed to have been worth 54.74 cents, but money was then, perhaps, 10 times as valuable as now. Shekels of the Maccabee period still exist. In shek- els of three years, struck under Simon Maccabaeus, the obverse has a vase, over which are the Hebrew letters aleph, shin with a beth, and shin with a gimel; the reverse, a twig with three buds and an inscription, Jerusalem Kedushah, or Hakedushah (Jerusalem the Holy). The character is the Samaritan. Other so- called shekels in the square Hebrew let- ters are considered forgeries. SHELBURNE, JAMES M., an Ameri- can educator, born near Taylorsville, Spencer co., Ky., in 1867. He was edu- cated at Georgetown College, Ky., and graduated from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in 1900. In the same year he was ordained to the Bap- tist ministry, and filled pastorates in Ala- bama and Virginia. In 1913 he was elected president of Howard College, serv- ing until 1917, when he engaged in edu- cational work for the War Work Council of the Y. M. C. A. From 1918 he was pastor of the First Church of Gadsden, Ala. SHELBURNE, WILLIAM PETTY, EARL OF, son of the 1st earl, and ma- ternal grandson of the famous Sir Will- iam Petty; born in Dublin, May 20, 1737. After studying at Oxford and serving in Germany, he entered the House of Com- mons for the borough of Wycombe in 1761, but only sat for a few weeks, the death of his father calling him to the House of Lords. When George Gren- ville succeeded Bute in 1763 Lord Shel- burne was placed at the head of the Board of Trade, and when Chatham formed his second administration in 1766 he became one of the Secretaries of State. On the fall of Lord North's ministry in 1782, George III. sent for Shelburne and pro- posed to him to form a government. He declined, not being the head of a party, Cyc Vol 8
