will take one thousand to make an inch in thickness. There are different varieties, what is called Muscovite mica being the most common form. It is formed largely of silica, alumina and potash, and is called a potash mica. It is found in granite rocks, in gneiss and in layers with quartz, making what is called mica schist. Large plates are sometimes found, as in New Hampshire, Sweden and Norway. Mines have been discovered in North Carolina. Mica is used in stoves and lanterns, because it is transparent and will bear heat. It is used in some countries for window-glass.
Mi′chael An′gelo. See Angelo.
Michel (mḗ′shĕl′), Louise, a French anarchist and communist, was born at Chateau Vroncourt in 1839. She was a writer of verse of some power. During the Commune in Paris, after the Franco-Prussian War, she was one of the most active leaders. In 1871 she was sentenced to exile for life and banished to New Caledonia. In 1880, a general pardon having released her, she returned to Paris and became editor of The Social Revolution. Later she resided in London, where she published her Memoirs and a novel entitled The Microbes of Society. She died in 1905.
Michelet (mē′sh’-lắ′), Jules, a great French historian, was born at Paris, Aug. 21, 1798. At 23 he became a professor of history in the College Rollin, and in 1838 professor of history at the College of France. His famous History of the Revolution was begun in 1847. He lost his position by refusing to take the oath of allegiance to Napoleon III, and devoted himself entirely to literary work. He published a series of books on Birds, Insects, The Sea, The Mountains, Woman and Love. His great work, The History of France, begun in 1833, was finished in 1867, and brings down the story of France to the Revolution. His History of the Revolution carries it to the close of that period. His history is injured by his prejudices; but the characters stand out clearly, and there are passages almost unequaled in historical writings — as his account of Joan of Arc and of the Templars. He died at Hyères in southern France on Feb. 9, 1874.
Mi′chelson, Albert Abraham, a brilliant physicist born at Strelno, Poland, Dec. 19, 1852; graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1873; resigned from the navy in 1881 to accept a professorship in physics at Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland, O. When Clark University was founded, he resigned to accept a similar position at the new institution. Since 1893 he has been head-professor of physics at the University of Chicago. His earliest important work was an improvement in Foucault's method of measuring the speed of light. These researches were carried out at the Naval
Academy in 1878-80. His memoirs on the interference of light-waves, on the relative motion of the earth and the ether, on the length of the standard meter in terms of the wave-length of coadmium light and on the new echelon spectroscope are so important as to have become classics.
Mich′igan, one of the central states of the Union, is made up of two peninsulas, separated by the Strait of Mackinac. The lower peninsula is the larger one and is bounded by Lake Michigan and the Strait of Mackinac on the north, on the east by Lakes Huron, St. Clair and Erie, on the south by Ohio and Indiana and on the west by Lake Michigan. The upper peninsula lies between Lakes Huron, Michigan and Superior, being touched on the west by Wisconsin. The state is 400 miles in length and has an average width of 200 miles. Its area is 58,915 square miles.
Topography. A considerable part of the state is water, there being, besides the Great Lakes on its borders, over 5,000 small lakes. It has a coast-line of 1,624 miles, with 120 lighthouses and many fog-signals. The lakes have many islands; Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, among the largest, covers 1,000 square miles. Lake Huron alone has 3,000 islands. The Strait of Mackinac, the passage between Lakes Michigan and Huron, is only four miles wide. Several large bays are on the coast — Saginaw Bay on the east and Great and Little Traverse Bays on the west. The passage from Lake Erie to Lake Huron is through Detroit River, Lake St. Clair and St. Clair River, the Detroit being 20 miles and the St. Clair 40 miles in length. Lake St. Clair Canal, called the Cut, was built in 1871, and is 8,200 feet in length and is used by over 2,500 ships yearly. St. Mary's ship-canal, at the head of St. Mary's River, has the largest lock in the world, and more ships pass through it than through Suez Canal. The largest rivers are the Grand, 270 miles, Saginaw, Au Sable, Kalamazoo and St. Joseph. The upper peninsula has the highest land in the state, the Porcupine Mountains, and the Mineral Range a little farther south. The climate is warmer than that of the same latitude in Wisconsin, and its fruits and flowers more varied.
Natural Resources. Michigan has large salt-wells, the product being greater than that of New York. Coal, though not of the best quality, is found; grindstone-quarries are in operation; while large amounts of fire clay are used in the manufacture of drain-pipes. Marble, freestone, limestone and glass-sand, with copper and iron, also form the mineral wealth of the state, besides its many mineral springs. The iron-ore is the purest in America, and amounts to one fifth of the whole product in the United States, and is found mostly in the northern peninsula. The richest copper-
