BLOOMINGTON
230
BLUEBERRY
large wholesale trade and numerous manufacturing industries. Here is the Illinois Wesley an University, which has a faculty of 40 and about 1,000 students. The public schools are of high grade, and there is a fine public library. Two miles distant, and connected by electric railway, is Normal, where are located the State Normal University and the State Soldiers' Home. Bloomington is the home of Ex-Vice-President Adlai Stevenson. Population, 25,768.
Bloomington, Ind., a city, the county seat of Monroe County, 51 miles southwest of Indianapolis, on the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railroad. It is the seat of the Indiana State University, with 75 instructors and 1,700 students. The city dates from about the year 1818, and is governed by a mayor and municipal council. Its chief industries embrace furniture, hub and spoke and leather-working factories, woolen mills and tanneries. There are extensive limestone quarries in the neighborhood of the city, which add to its industrial activities. Population (1910), 8,838.*
Blouet (bldb'd'), Paul, a French author, journalist, and lecturer, who wrote under the nom de plume of Max O'Rell, was born in Brittany, March 2, 1848, and educated in Paris. He took part in the Franco-Prussian war and was made prisoner at Sedan (Sept. 3, 1870); he afterward fought against the Commune, was wounded and pensioned. For a time he taught French at St. Paul's School, in London, and wrote his first work, which became instantly popular, John Bull and His Island. He subsequently published John Bull's Daughters; Jacques Bonhomme; and, after a lecturing visit to this country, he issued Jonathan and His Continent. He died May 24, 1903.
Blowing Machines, machines for producing artificial currents of compressed air, their uses being well-nigh as manifold as their forms, from the simple, early blacksmith's bellows to the modern rotary jet disk and fan blowers or exhausters of more or less ingenious mechanical types. Among the uses to which they are to-day put are, as contrivances for producing forced draught for boiler furnaces; warm or cool air in school rooms and crowded public buildings; to remove dust and refuse from the same or from factories and work rooms; to supplant vitiated air by pure air; and to furnish, by means of elec-*fric fans or the blowing engine, a drying cur-r^ent of air for grain or other substances, likely to spoil by being stored in crowded and heated elevators or warehouses. One of their chief and important uses is for supplying the airblast for Bessemer converters and blast-furnaces, by means of
high-pressure steam-cylinders, which are frequently compounded.
For ventilation purposes the disk-blower is largely used and driven by an electric motor or by belting connected with an engine; other contrivances are what is known as the positive blower, such as the Root type, which exerts a higher pressure than the disk or fan blowers; also the steam jet blower, which creates induced currents of air on the principle of the injector, such as are used in locomotives and fire engines for creating a powerful draft.
Blow'pipe, a small instrument used for glass ^ blowing and soldering metals, and also in chemistry to determine the nature of substances. By means of it a jet of air is thrown_into a flame, causing the flame to burn with great rapidity, and increasing its effect by making it occupy a smaller space. The blow-pipe consists of a funnel-shaped tube of metal, about eight inches long, closed at the wider end and open at the upper end, which forms the mouthpiece. Near the lower end a small tube passes out, through which a fine current of air can be blown. When directed against a candle or gas jet, it makes the heat of the flame very intense, so that hard substances may be quickly melted.
Bliicher (bldo'ker), Qebhard von, a distinguished Prussian general, was born at Rostock in 1742. In 1793 ne fought against the French on the Rhine^ and showed great genius as a cavalry leader. War with the French was renewed in 1806, and Bliicher, as lieutenant-general, led the vanguard at the battle of Auestadt, and soon after was captured. He was, however, exchanged, and took a prominent part in the ensuing struggle with Napoleon. Together with the other powers allied against Napoleon, the Prussians, with Bliicher as commander-in-chief, defeated the French conqueror at Leipsic in 1813. I He was raised to the rank of field-marshal, and the next year led the Prussians against France. He was repeatedly defeated, but finally marched victoriously into Paris, when his king made him Prince of Wahlstadt. After Napoleons return, in 1815, Bliicher again took general command, and, though defeated at Ligny, his timely arrival at the field of Waterloo decided that great victory. He received new honors, and four years later died on his estate of Krie-blowitz, in Silesia, September 12, 1819. He was called Marshal Forwards, and is still a great hero among the German people.
Blueberry, the term for a small fruit commonly applied in New England to a berry of the Vaccinium species. It is sometimes confounded with the bilberry or huckleberry, though it is of a distinct though allied class. See HUCKLEBERRY. /
