DIE (Dea Vocontiorum}, the capital of an arrondissement in ths department of Drome, in France, is situated on the right bank of the Drome, at the foot of Mont Glandaz, in a wide and fertile plain. The manufactures are woollen cloth, paper, leather, and silk ; there is some trade in mules, cattle, and wood ; and the neighbourhood produces excellent fruit, and the white wine called " Clairette de Die." The town was formerly the seat of a bishop, and, previous to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, of a Calvinistic university. The most interesting structures of Die are the old cathedral, with granite columns from an ancient temple of Cybele, and a porch of the llth century ; the episcopal palace, the walls, flanked by towers, and the ruins of a castle all of considerable age ; the triumphal arch on the road towards Gap, known as the Porte St Marcel, portions of an aqueduct, and other Roman remains. In the vicinity are several mineral springs. The population in 1872 was 3876.
DIE SINKING. The preparation of dies for stamping coins and medals is a work requiring considerable skill and care. The steel selected should be of moderately fine grain and uniform texture, and, when polished, should show no spots or patches under a magnifying glass. Two short lengths having been cut from bars of this, and forged into rough dies, are next made as soft as possible by careful annealing,—being put in an iron pot of animal charcoal, heated to a cherry red, and allowed to cool gradually. After being faced up flatly and smoothly in a lathe, they pass into the hands of the engraver, who traces upon them their appropriate images, obverse and reverse, and works these out, with steel tools, in intaglio. (The inscription is generally stamped with punches and hammer.) The new matrices, or maternal dies, when, after repeated impressions on clay, &c., and alteration, they are found correct, are ready for hardening—a process simple enough as regards plain steel, but here very critical, seeing that a delicate engraving has to be kept intact. Each matrix is first protected with a mask, composed of fixed oil thickened with animal charcoal, or of lampblack and linseed oil. They are then placed face downwards in a crucible, and burned in animal charcoal. After being heated to a cherry red, they are taken out with a pair of tongs, plunged in a large body of water, moved about rapidly till all noise ceases, and left in the water till quite cool. If the matrix pipes or sings, there is probably a crack in it. The hardened die is next polished and tempered, the former by holding it against a running iron disc coated with flour- emery and oil ; the latter by putting it in water, which is gradually raised to tlio boiling point, then allowing it to cool slowly, or by placing it on a heated bar of iron till it acquires a rich straw colour. To increase its strength an iron ring may be shrunk upon it like a mechanical jacket. The matrix, treated as here described, might now be used to multiply coins or medals, but it is preferred to use it for first producing punches, or steel impressions in relief. With this view a steel block is procured, softened by annealing, and turned in the lathe, being made flat at the bottom and obtusely conical at the top. The block is put in the bed of a die-stamping press, and the matrix brought down on it with force by means of the central screw Thus a copy is produced in relief on the conical surface. Further strokes may be required to perfect it, and the punch is therefore first re-annealed (its surface having been hardened by compression), then replaced in the press ; the matrix, detached from the screw, is fitted on to it, and pressed in contact by the descent of a block of steel attached to the screw. Thus, after repeated blows and frequent annealing, the impression is completed, and after being retouched by the engraver is hardened and tempered like the matrix. The matrix is now laid aside, and the punch used to produce any number of steel dies by an opera tion substantially similar to that by which the punch itself was obtained. These are, of course, fac-similes of the matrix, and when completed are used for purposes of coinage. Besides coining and medalling, dies are required for a variety of purposes, such as the manufacture of buttons, steel seals, screws, and ornamental articles of metal, calico printing, &c.
DIEBITSCH-SABALKANSKI, Hans Karl Friedrich Anton (1785-1831), Count von Diebitsch and Narden, Russian field-marshal, was born in Silesia, May 13, 1785. He entered the Prussian army at the age of twelve; but four years later, by the desire of his father, a Prussian officer who had passed into the service of Russia, he also did the same. He served in the campaign of 1805, and was wounded at Austerlitz, fought at Eylau and Friedland, and after Friedland was promoted captain. During the next five years of peace he devoted himself to the study of military science, engaging once more in active service in the campaign of 1812. He distinguished himself by the recapture of Polozk ; and by his defence of an important post he saved Wittgenstein s corps in retreat. He was now raised to the rank of major-general. In conjunction with General Yorck he took possession of Berlin. After the battle of Liitzen he was sent into Silesia and took part in negotiating the secret treaty of Reichenbach. Having dis tinguished himself at the battles of Dresden and Leipsic, he was promoted lieutenant-general. In 1814 Diebitsch strongly urged the march of the allies on Paris ; and after their entry the emperor Alexander conferred on him the order of St Alexander Newski. In 1815 he married, attended the Congress of Vienna, and was afterwards made adjutant-general to the emperor. As chief of the imperial staff he accompanied the emperor to Taganrog, and was present at his death. He obtained the confidence of the emperor Nicholas, and was created baron and afterwards count. In the Turkish war of 1828-1 829 Diebitsch had the chief command ; he took Varna, crossed the Balkan, and concluded peace at Adrianople. His passage of the Balkan is commemorated by his surname Sabalkanski ; it procured him the rank of field-marshal. On the outbreak of the insurrection in Poland, in 1830, he was appointed to the chief command. His good genius, however, now failed him. After the battle of Ostrolenka he transferred his head -quarters to Kleckzewo, near Pultusk, where he died of cholera, June 10, 1831.
at Herzogenbusch, and studied painting at Antwerp, where he became one of Rubens s " hundred pupils." Rubens complains in his letters that, being overwhelmed with applications for apprentices indentures, he refused to accept as disciples even the children of some of his best friends. Diepenbeck was one of those who was fortunate enough to obtain admission to Rubens s workshop. But he was not one of the cleverest of Rubens s followers, and he suc ceeded, at the best, in imitating the style and aping the peculiarities of his master. We see this in his earliest pictures a portrait dated 1629 in the Munich Piuakothek,
and a Distribution of Alms of the same period in the same