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ENDPLATE REFLECTOR

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SUPPORT

SCALE

DEFLECTING PRISM

EYE PIECES
FIG. 2.-Barr and Stroud.

WINDOW

or on different parts of the same objective, and thus inaccuracy in the recorded range must result. The instruments are expected to give an AN Objective accuracy of less than 2 % at 2000 yds. For ranges over that distance, i.e. for usual artillery ranges, it is END-desirable PLATE double base (100 yds. OBJECT GLASS REFLECTOR in length), in which case the range registered on the drum must be doubled. This operation, although slight, is a distinct disadvant

to use a

a

instrument

B

Base-
FIG. 3.

Reading Ninstrument

and passing through the object-glasses, each is received by an arrange ment of prisms about the centre of the tube, and reflected through since it adds to the age, the right eye-piece. Two partial images are thus seen. The images time of taking a range Rightangle could be united by the rotation of one of the reflectors, but owing to the small base used the necessary movement would be so extremely and is a possible source of error. For field small that it would be practically impossible to measure it. The artillery, however, difficulty has been surmounted by utilizing fixed reflectors and effecting coincidence by means of a prism of small angle. The deflecting range-finder is only an prism is situated in the line of the beam of light from the reflector auxiliary adjunct. The true range can be found by a process Its multiplying action is of of trial and error (see ARTILLERY) in as short a time as the at the right-hand end of the tube. mekometer observers take to report it. It must further be great delicacy. The angle available for subdivision, to measure remembered that as shrapnel is the principal projectile of field ranges between infinity and 250 yds., is only one-third of a degree. In a travel of 6 in. the prism renders accurate measurements possible artillery, not only the correct elevation but also the true length of within the required limits. To bring images of distant objectives time fuse has to be found. This the range-finder cannot do. Hence into coincidence, the prism must be moved towards the eye-piece, it is that the range-finder for field artillery, although a valuable auxiliary, is not of the same importance as in purely defensive and for near objectives in the opposite direction. The range scale is attached to the prism. A consequent advantage is that the The Marindin range-finder was from 1908 gradually introaccuracy of the instrument is not affected by back lash arising from positions, such as batteries for harbour defence, and land forts. wear, or irregularity in the actuating mechanism. When once installed, the instrument is always ready for use. Should adjust-duced in the infantry to replace the mekometer. It was the ment be required it is readily and easily applied. It is not within invention of Captain A. H. Marindin, of the Black Watch (Royal Highlanders). the sphere of this article to enter into the detail of the adjusting mechanism. For further particulars the reader is referred to the Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 30th January 1896. The working of the range-finder is so simple that its use is quickly learnt by any man who can read, and with little instruction " in 8 to 12 seconds. Besides take a range 46 and practice he can its principal purpose, in connexion with gunnery, there are minor uses in navigation and nautical surveying to which the range-finder can be applied.

With the high speeds of modern war-vessels, guns and their objective approach each other so quickly that unless ranges can be communicated from the instrument to the guns with rapidity and accuracy the range-finder is deprived of much of its value. In connexion with the naval range-finder an apparatus is provided, which though not part of the range-finder is sufficiently important to claim passing notice. The apparatus consists of a transmitting and a receiving instrument of clockwork mechanism electrically controlled. In appearance they resemble the ordinary engine-room telegraph, on the dials of which ranges take the place of orders. The transmitter can communicate with a number of receiving instruments, disposed as required in different parts of the ship.

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2. Before the introduction of the Marindin range-finder D described below, the British army in the field used the "mekometer."

ZERO ADJUSTMENT

The instruments used by the cavalry and infantryERO ADJUSTMENT are smaller and lighter than those of the artillery pattern, but the principle involved is identical.

The mekometer is practically a box sextant. Two instruments are used simultaneously at the ends of a base of fixed length. One sextant, called the right-angle instrument, is fitted with index and It consequently horizon glasses permanently inclined at 45°. measures a right angle. In the other sextant, called the reading instrument, a graduated drum takes the place of the usual index arm and scale. The drum is graduated spirally with a scale of ranges. Both reading and right-angle instruments are fitted with a vane of gun metal with a white strip down the centre to facilitate observations. Telescopes of low power can be fitted to the instruments, and two cords of 50 (or 251) yds. are provided with which

to measure the base.

Two observers attach the ends of the cord of fixed length (usually The 50 yds.) to their instruments and separate until it is taut. Meko-observer with the right-angle instrument moves into such a position that coincidence of image will be given between meter. the objective and the vane of the instrument at the other end of the base, i.e. he makes ABC a right angle (fig. 3).

When the right angle is established, the observer at C turns the graduated drum of the reading instrument until the image of the vane of the right angle instrument coincides with the direction of the objective. The range AC is then read on the drum. The ranges on the drum are measures of the angle BAC when the base BC is 50 yds.

TRIPED BAR

the busezi Instrument closed.

EYEPIECE

NIGHT CLASS

Finder.

BRUM

SUN SHADE OT

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word as boring at T la va bahol 4 if yo gobular suff the periw wein ads ban I amuth ndt lo emaljci manquilo ni encong seu fui Sibed dinarsso enganoff fuo effes brun munt els he wens will play over ou bonummen 915 Instrument ready for use.ovhis amu odi a endorse Dollib #FIG. 4.-Marindin Range-Finder. dio od for ranging on upright objects, or vertically, for ranging on horizontal targets.

For instance, in the diagram (fig. 5) of a road running uphill, the instrument could be held in any of the three positions indicated,

b FIG. 5.

and would give good ranges, but probably the best range would The mekometer is open to the objection which is common to all range-finders requiring more than one observer. There is always a danger that observers may cause coincidence on different objectives ❘ be obtained if held as at c. If it is required to use the instrument

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at night, the two caps of the night-glasses should be opened. On | dials. The distance and direction thus communicated are the looking through the instrument, any lamp or other light will appear like a fine, bright line, and the range can be taken in the ordinary way.

This range-finder possesses the superlative advantage of the one-man instrument, and it is claimed for it that it can range on horizontal objects, such as the crest of a hill, which has no detail suitable for use with a mekometer, and that it can be adjusted on service with no greater difficulty than the setting of a watch.

3. For harbour defence, owing to the long range of naval guns, and the fast targets which war-vessels present, an accurate range-finder is of first importance. This is largely the case because "ranging" cannot be resorted to in the same manner as in the field, where the targets are comparatively motionless and the effective ranges are less. Successful artillery practice therefore depends, in a great measure, upon the range-finder.

The instrument used in harbour forts is known as the depression range-finder. As its name suggests, it solves a triangle in the vertical plane, of which the base is the height of the instrument above sea-level. Its appearance resembles some forms of theodolite (fig. 6). A framework, capable of rotating in azimuth on a vertical

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range and bearing from the guns, not as measured from the range-finder. The correction due to the displacement between gun and instrument is automatic. In localities where the height does not admit of using the depression. system, an alternative arrangement is provided, known as the Horizontal Position-Finder. It is open to the objections common to two-man range-finders, and is only employed where necessity compels its use. Briefly, there are two observing stations at either end of a measured and electrically connected base. One is known as he transmitting and the other the receiving station; the latter contains the principal instrument, which usually is capable of independent use for medium and short ranges as a depression instrument.

It will be seen that the difference between the two systems is, that the first described solves the range triangle in the vertical, and the latter in the horizontal plane. There have been various methods proposed for using the position-finder. The best results are obtained by placing range and bearing dials on the gun-mounting in a position where they can be easily seen by the men elevating and training the gun. The gun is kept directed upon the objective and fired as quickly as it can be loaded. A position-finder can be used for firing mines in a mine field, and instruments are issued to the Royal Navy for this purpose.

"

In the United States of America the term position finder" is applied to a range-finder which gives direction as well as distance. This is substantially correct, but custom, in the British service, confines the use of the expression as defined above.

4. Various appliances, not strictly range-finders, are sometimes used to assist in estimating distance. The following examples are not without interest:-

Acoustic telemeters, depending upon the velocity of sound, are obviously unsuited to the requirements of modern warfare. The names of Thouvenin, Rédier and Le Boulengé are connected with such instruments-that of the last-named is perhaps the most convenient. It consists of a graduated glass tube filled with liquid, of suitable density, and containing a small metal traveller. At the flash of discharge of a gun or rifle the instrument is brought to a vertical position, and the traveller starts from zero; at the detonation, it is turned to a horizontal position and the traveller stops at the point on the scale indicating On this principle is the rough method of ascertaining the distance, yards, of a thunderstorm, viz. multiply the number of seconds elapsing between the perception of the lightning and that of the thunder by the number of days in the year.

Other Telemeters.

Optical or perspective telemeters determine the distance to any point by observing the size of some object of known dimensions, as seen in a graduated telescope. Porro's telemeter, Elliott's telescope and Nordenfelt's macrometer illustrate the prin ciple. The chief defect of the system is that the objects most conveniently observed-men and horses-vary considerably in size, so that the assumption of a constant dimension may be productive of error.

pivot, is supported on a plate carried by levelling screws, L, L, L. | the range.
To the framework are pivoted two arms DC and FE, at C and E
respectively. The arm EF is supported at F by a vertical screw Hin
ending in a drum, upon which, in a spiral scale, the ranges are
graduated. Motion in altitude is thus given to the telescope. The
arm CD is supported by a slider G. This slider is set by a rack and
pinion to the height above sea-level (represented on a scale of feet
on EF) at which the instrument may be used. A telescope AB is
suitably fitted in jaws at the top of the frame. There are spirit-
levels at M and Q for adjusting purposes. The telescope is provided
with cross wires which can be illuminated for night use. An
azimuth circle X and pointer Y enable the direction of any vessel
to be indicated, the range of which it is desired to know. The
instrument rests on a base plate R, to which it is locked by the
top-plate O. The observer directs the cross wires of the telescope
upon the water-line of the objective, by means of the drum I and
the azimuth handle P, the top of which just appears in the diagram.
The reader watches the arrow on the drum and calls out the ranges
as the figures arrive beneath it. The ranges are communicated
to the officers at the guns by various devices, which differ according
to local requirements.

On the continent of Europe the perspective telemeter for military purposes has attracted more attention than in England. The French in their precise terminology call such an instrument "Stadia militaire," a term which at once distinguishes it from a " télémètre," and describes its nature. In rapid military sketching, in locating positions upon maps, &c., perspective telemeters find a use. The telescopes issued to field batteries and to coast forts in France are provided with a scale in the field of view. By comparing this scale or the known height of funnels, masts, turrets, &c., of a war-vessel, with known heights, such as the average height of a man on foot, distance can be estimated with fair accuracy.

The "jumelle Souchier," which can be used as an ordinary field. glass, is constructed on the stadia principle. By its means ranges can be estimated within an accuracy of 10%. A stand or rest, however, is necessary for good results.

Position-Finder.-The range-finding instrument known in the British service as the Position-Finder (invented by Colonel Watkin, C.B., R.A.) is practically a large depression rangefinder. It posesses, however, certain additional appliances which render it capable of automatically recording, upon an oriented chart, the position or course of a vessel. And further, General Percin of the French army has shown, in an interesting by electrical means it automatically records to a distant pamphlet, that a piece of wood or card cut to a known fraction of battery the range and bearing of the desired objective. The the distance between the eye and the end of the thumb, when the arm is fully extended, can be used to estimate distances. Thus it is position-finder can therefore, from a concealed and safe position, easy to find a penny in good condition of which the thickness is automatically control the fire of a group of guns,th part of the arm-length in a man of average height. Provided Defence whose detachments need not necessarily see the with such a coin an observer finds its rim to exactly cover a distant target engaged. As the observer follows the objec-man 6 ft. (or 2 yds. high). The range therefore is 400 X 2 = 800 yds. Similarly, if the man's height appeared to be but half the thickness tive with the telescope of the instrument the range of the coin the range would be 4X400 1600 yds. With a little and bearing is simultaneously shown in the battery on convenient practice the eye estimates the proportion between che object of

Coast

Instru

ments.

known height and the stadia used. General Percin gives many | volume of its trade. During the busy season of rice-export, useful applications of this simple device.

Various range-finders have been produced in countries outside the British Isles which, as they are the outcome of similar necessity and required for identical purposes, naturally resemble, more or less, the instruments already described. Field artillery officers of all countries usually claim their gun to be their best range-finder. This may be another way of saying that a durable, one-man range-finder, capable of instantaneously finding modern artillery ranges with accuracy, has yet to be invented. In France the "télémètre Goutier" for field artillery, a two-man instrument, corresponds with the Watkin mekometer.

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The "Gautier," used by the Italian field artillery, is a one-man instrument, but requires a measured base-line. The "Aubry telemeter, used by some of the Russian batteries in Manchuria, is very portable, but requires a measured base-line, and a slide rule to find the range. In the French and Russian infantry the "prismetélémètre," the invention of Colonel Souchier, is used. It is small, very light, and can be carried in the same manner as field-glasses. French machine guns are ranged by the "télémètre instantané," an instrument of the Barr and Stroud type, with an aluminium base I metre in length.

For work in the field the modern tendency abroad is to follow Barr and Stroud. In Germany, Hahn, Goerz and Zeiss have produced handy and fairly light short base range-finders, in outward appear ance more or less similar to Marindin's instrument.

le télémètre

The Zeiss range-finder, however, depends on the stereoscopic principle. It is open to the objection that best results can only be obtained with it by persons who are capable of seeing stereoscopically, and also, in individuals possessing this particular gift (a comparatively small proportion of the human race), stereoscopic vision may vary in power from day to day. Nevertheless the Zeiss rangefinder has found favour in many countries, notably as the infantry range-finder in Italy. For naval and harbour defence purposes the Barr and Stroud range-finder is very largely used throughout the world. In Italy a Barr and Stroud instrument, with the large base of 5 metres, was in 1908 under trial for coast artillery. Of the depression range-finder type in France, Dévé" is used at all heights of about 70 ft. and upwards. Brazil possesses, in the invention of Captain Mario Netto, an excellent range-finder. It is supplied to the harbour defences of that country. It is accurate, handy, easily transported and reerected where required, and is not affected by the concussion of heavy gun-fire. The German coast range-finder of Hahn closely resembles the earlier Watkin instruments. In Italy the Amici instrument is being replaced by the Braccialine. The latter inventor has also supplied his country with a horizontal base instrument. After extended competitive trials in the U.S.A. the Lewis depression range-finder has been found superior to others presented to the Range-Finding Committee, and is recommended for adoption. It is a neat, workmanlike instrument, and gave an average mean error of 24 yds. in the ranges recorded during the trials. The maximum range was 12,000 yds. and the height of base 135] ft. The details of position-finders abroad, as in the British service, are confidential, and but little is published of the "télémètre par recoupement of the French coast batteries, or the "telegoniometro Sollier" of Italy. In the United States, B. A. Fiske has ingeniously adapted the principle of the Wheatstone bridge in the construction of the position-finder which bears his name. See de Marré, Instruments pour la mesure de distances (Paris, 1880); Abridgments of Specifications, Class 97, Patent Office, London; Handbooks and Instructions for Runge-Finder, published by the British War Office: Barr and Stroud, Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng., 30th Jan. 1896; Zeiss pamphlet by Carl Zeiss of Jena, which gives a candid statement of the difficulty attending the stereoscopic principle, &c. (F. M. L.*)

RANGER, HENRY WARD (1858- ), American artist, was born at Syracuse, New York, in January 1858. He became a prominent landscape and marine painter, much of his work being done in Holland, and showing the influence of the modern Dutch school. He became a National Academician (1906), and a member of the American Water Color Society. Among his paintings are, "Top of the Hill," Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and "East River Idyll," Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg.

RANGOON, the capital of Burma, situated on the left bank of the Hlaing or Rangoon river, 21 m. from the sea, in 16° 47′ N. and 96° 13′ E. In 1880 the city was detached from the main district, called Hanthawaddy, and formed into a separate district, with an area of 19 sq. m. Pop. (1901) 234,881, of whom just half were immigrants from India. Rangoon, from being a comparatively insignificant place, has within less than half a century risen to be the third seaport in British India. being surpassed only by Calcutta and Bombay in the

which lasts from the end of December to the middle of May, the pool forming the port of Rangoon presents almost as crowded a scene as the Hugli at Calcutta. Rangoon has the double advantage of being situated near the sea and being served by a great river navigable for 900 m. behind it. The approach With to the port is not difficult at any season of the year. flat and shelving shores, the shoal-banks off the main mouths of the delta form the chief danger to shipping, and this is guarded against by a good service of lighthouses and lightships. For a length of seven or eight miles the river is from a mile to a mile and a quarter in breadth, so that there is plenty of accommodation for shipping. Here is concentrated the whole of the rich trade of the delta of the Irrawaddy. Great part of the river frontage is occupied with rice-mills, teak wharves and similar buildings. The rice exported from Rangoon in 1904-5 amounted to 28 million cwt. with a value of nearly 7 million sterling.

The city is dominated by the great golden pile of the Shwe Dagón pagoda, the centre of Burmese religious life. Rising to a height of 368 ft., this magnificent building is loftier than St Paul's Cathedral in London, and its size is greatly enhanced by the fact that it stands on an eminence that is itself 168 ft. above the level of the city. It is covered with pure gold from base to summit, and once in every generation this gold is renewed by public subscription. Moreover, benefactions to this pagoda are one of the favourite méthods of acquiring religious merit among the Burmese. The pagoda itself has no interior. It is a solid stupa of brick, in the form of a cone, raised over a relic chamber; and the place of worship is the surrounding platform with a perimeter of nearly 1400 ft.

Though traditionally a site of great sanctity, Rangoon owes its first importance to its rebuilding in 1753 by Alompra, the founder of the Burmese monarchy, who gave it the present name of Yan Kon, "the end of the war." An English factory was opened here about 1790. On the outbreak of the first Burmese War, in 1824, it was taken by the British, but subsequently restored. It was captured a second time in 1852, and passed along with the province of Pegu into the hands of the British. It was destroyed by fire in 1850, and serious conflagrations occurred again in 1853 and 1855. Since the last devastation Rangoon has undergone considerable improvements. Until 1874, when the existing municipality was constituted, the administration was in the hands of the local government, which devoted itself to raising the centre of the town above the river level, providing land fit for building purposes from the original swamp, which was flooded at spring-tides, and making roads, bridges, culverts and surface drains. In 1892 was introduced the sewage system, which now includes 6 m. of mains, 22 m. of gravitating sewers, 4 m. of air mains and 44 Shone's ejectors. The water supply, drawn from the Victoria Lake, 5 m. distant, has recently been supplemented by an additional reservoir, 10 m. farther off. The city proper of

Rangoon with the Kemmendine suburb is laid out on the block system, each block being 800 by 860 ft., intersected with regular streets. In the extensions to the east and west it has been decided to have no streets less than 50 ft. wide. The roads are still lighted by kerosene oil lamps, but electric lighting is in comtemplation. Electric tramways run to Pazundaung in one direction and to Alôn and Kemmendine in the other, as well as to the foot of the Shwe Dagon Pagoda hill. Latterly the erection of masonry buildings, instead of plank houses, has been insisted on in the central portion of the city, with the result that fires have decreased in number. There are two large maidans, or commons, which are used as military parade grounds and for racing, as well as for golf links and other purposes of amusement. There is a garden round the Phayre Museum, managed by the Agri-Horticultural Society, and an extremely pretty and wellkept garden in the cantonments under the pagoda. Beyond these lie the Royal Lake and Dalhousie Park, with 160 acres of water and 205 acres of well-laid-out and welltimbered park land. Dalhousie Park has recently been greatly extended, and the new Victoria Park, declared open on the

occasion of the visit of the prince of Wales in 1906, is quite the finest in the East. There are two cathedrals, Church of England and Roman Catholic, and a Presbyterian church, besides the cantonment church buildings for worship. Religious buildings and lands, indeed, occupy an area in Rangoon out of all proportion to its size. Buddhists, Hindus, Mussulmans, Parsees, Armenians and Jews all own lands and pagodas, temples, mosques, churches and synagogues. The Buddhist monasteries, in particular, occupy wide spaces in very central portions of the town and cantonments. Burial-grounds are equally extensive, and exist in every direction in what were once the outskirts, but are now fast becoming central parts of the city. The chief educational institutions are the Government Rangoon college, the Baptist college and St John's college (S.P.G.). Besides the general hospital, a female hospital in connexion with the Dufferin Fund has recently been built, and there are hospitals for contagious diseases and for lepers in the suburbs. The staple industries are mills for husking rice and for sawing timber, and petroleum refineries. Carving in wood and ivory, and embossed silverwork are also carried on. There are three municipal and eight private markets, which are being improved and extended. Everything, from sacking to jewelry, is sold in them. The introduction of pure water and the establishment of compulsory vaccination have greatly improved the health of Rangoon. But the death-rate is still high, due partly to the swampy nature of the outskirts of the city proper, and still more to the mortality among Hindu immigrants from the Madras presidency. The total rainfall in 1905 was 104.96 in. Rangoon is the headquarters of a brigade in the Burma command of the Southern army. (J. G. Sc.) RANGPUR, or RUNGPORE, a town and district of British India, in the Rajshahi division of Eastern Bengal and Assam. The town is situated on the little river Ghaghat. Pop. (1901) 15,960. There are a high school, a normal school and an industrial school. The earthquake of the 12th of June 1897 destroyed many of the public buildings and diverted the drainage channels.

The DISTRICT OF RANGPUR, with an area of 3493 sq. m., is one vast plain. The greater part of it, particularly towards the east, is inundated during the rains, and the remainder is traversed by a network of streams which frequently break through their sandy banks and plough for themselves new channels over the fields. The river system is constituted by the Brahmaputra and its tributaries, chief of which are the Tista, Dharla, Sankos and Dudhkumar. The climate is generally malarious, owing to the numerous stagnant swamps and marshes filled with decaying vegetable matter. The annual rainfall averages 82 in. About three-fourths of the district is under continuous cultivation. Spare land can hardly be said to exist even the patches of waste land yield a valuable tribute of reeds and cane. The staple crops are rice, oil-seeds, jute and tobacco. In 1901 the population was 2,154,181, showing an increase of 4.3% in the decade. Nearly two-thirds are Mahommedans. The Eastern Bengal railway has two branches, one of which crosses the district to the Brahmaputra, and the other runs north towards Assam.

The tract comprised within the district of Rangpur was formerly the western outpost of the ancient Hindu kingdom of Kamrup, which appears to have attained its greatest power and prosperity under Raja Nilambar, who was treacherously overthrown by Ala-uddin Hosain of Bengal at the close of the 15th century. Rangpur passed to the East India Company in 1765 under the firman of the emperor Shah Alam. Since then a great number of changes have taken place in the jurisdiction, in consequence of which the district area has been much diminished. RANJIT SINGH, MAHARAJA (1780-1839), native Indian ruler, was born on the 2nd of November 1780, the son of Sirdar Mahan Singh, whom he succeeded in 1792 as head of the Sukarchakia branch of the Sikh confederacy. By birth he was only one of many Sikh barons and owed his rapid rise entirely to force of character and will. At the age of seventeen he seized the reins of government. He is said to have poisoned his

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mother, though it is more probable that he merely imprisoned her to keep her out of his way. At the age of twenty he obtained from Zaman Shah, the king of Afghanistan, a grant of Lahore, which he seized by force of arms in 1799. Subsequently he attacked and annexed Amritsar in 1802, thus becoming master of the two Sikh capitals. When Jaswant Rao Holkar took refuge in the Punjab in 1805, Ranjit Singh made a treaty with the British, excluding Holkar from his territory. Shortly afterwards acute difficulties arose between him and the British as to the Cis-Sutlej portion of the Punjab. It was Ranjit Singh's ambition to weld the whole of the Punjab into a single Sikh empire, while the British claimed the territory south of the Sutlej by right of conquest from the Mahrattas. The difference proceeded almost to the point of war; but at the last moment Ranjit Singh gave way, and for the future faithfully observed his engagements with the British, whose rising power he was wise enough to gauge. In 1808 Charles Metcalfe was sent to settle this question with Ranjit Singh, and a treaty was concluded at Amritsar on the 15th of April 1809. At this period a band of Sikh fanatics called "akalis," attacked Sir Charles Metcalfe's escort, and the steadiness with which the disciplined sepoys repulsed them, so impressed the maharaja that he decided to change the strength of his army from cavalry to infantry. He organized a powerful force, which was trained by French and Italian officers such as Generals Ventura, Allard and Avitabile, and thus forged the formidable fighting instrument of the Khalsa army, which afterwards gave the British their hardest battles in India in the two Sikh wars. In 1810 he captured Multan after many assaults and a long siege, and in 1820 had consolidated the whole of the Punjab between the Sutlej and the Indus under his dominion. In 1823. the city and province of Peshawar became tributary to him. In 1833 when Shah Shuja, flying from Afghanistan, sought refuge at his court, he took from him the Koh-i-nor diamond, which subsequently came into the possession of the British crown. Though he disapproved of Lord Auckland's policy of substituting Shah Shuja for Dost Mahomed, he loyally supported the British in their advance on Afghanistan. Known as "The Lion of the Punjab," Ranjit Singh died of paralysis on the 27th of June 1839.

In his private life Ranjit Singh was selfish, avaricious, drunken and immoral, but he had a genius for command and was the only man the Sikhs ever produced strong enough to bind them together. His military genius showed itself not so much in actual generalship as in the organization of his plans, the selection of his generals and his ministers, the tenacity of his purpose and the soundness of his judgment. The British were the one power in India that was too strong for him, and as soon as he realized that fact he was unwaveringly loyal to his engagements with them. His power was military aristocracy resting on the personal qualities of its founder, and after his death the Sikh confederacy gradually crumbled and fell to pieces through sheer want of leadership; and the rule of the Sikhs in the Punjab passed away completely as soon as it incurred the hostility of the British.

See Sir Lepel Griffin, Ranjit Singh (Rulers of India Series), 1892: General Sir John Gordon, The Sikhs, 1904; and S. S. Thorburn, The Punjab in Peace and War, 1904.

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RANK (O.Fr. ranc or renc, mod. rang, generally connected with the O.E. and O.H.G. hring, a ring), a row or line, as of cabs or carriages, but especially of soldiers drawn up abreast in a line; in "rank and file "the "rank is the horizontal line of soldiers, the "file" the vertical. From the sense of orderly arrangement rank " is applied to grades or classes in a social or other organization, and particularly to a high grade, as in such expressions as a "person of rank." This word must be distinguished from the adjective " 'rank," overluxuriant, coarse, strong, generally connected with the Low Ger. rank, thin, tall (cf. Du. rank, upright). The O.E. rinc, warrior, i.e. full-grown man, may be also connected with the word; Skeat refers also to "rack," to pull out straight.

RANKE, LEOPOLD VON (1795-1886), German historian, | At Rome, as he said, he learned to see events from the inside. was born on the 20th or the 21st of December 1795, in the small town of Wiehe, in Thuringia, which then formed part of the electorate of Saxony. His father, Gottlob Israel Ranke, was an advocate, but his ancestors, so far back as the family can be traced, had been ministers of religion. Leopold received his education first at Donndorf, a school established in an old monastery near his home, and then at the famous school of Schulpforta, whence he passed to the university of Halle and later to that of Berlin. His studies, both at school and university, were classical and theological. The great political events which occurred during his boyhood and youth seem to have had less effect on him than on many of his contemporaries, and he was not carried away either by enthusiastic admiration for Napoleon or by the patriotic fervour of 1813. Nor was he implicated in the political movements which during the following years attracted so many students; on the contrary, he already displayed that detachment of mind which was to be so characteristic of him. In 1818 he became a master in a school at Frankfort-on-the-Oder, thereby entering the service of the Prussian government. The headmaster of this school was Ernst Friedrich Poppo (1794-1866), a celebrated Grecian, and Ranke was entrusted with the teaching of history.

With the scholar's dislike of textbooks, he rapidly acquired a thorough knowledge of the ancient historians, quickly passed on to medieval times, and here it was that he formed as the ideal of his life the study of universal history, the works of God as displayed in the history of the human race. Here, too, he composed his first work, which deals with the period to which most of his life was to be devoted, Geschichte der römanischen und germanischen Völker 1494-1514 (Berlin, 1824). To this was appended a critical dissertation on the historians who had dealt with the period (Zur Kritik neuerer Geschichtschreiber), which, showing as it did how untrustworthy was much of traditional history, was to be for modern history as epoch-marking as the critical work of Niebuhr had been in ancient history. A copy of the book was sent to the Prussian minister of education, Karl Albert Kamptz (1769-1849), the notorious hunter of democrats. Within a week Ranke received the promise of a post at Berlin, and in less than three months was appointed supernumerary professor in the university of that city, a striking instance of the promptitude with which the Prussian government recognized scientific merit when, as in Ranke's case, it was free from dangerous political opinions. The connexion thus established in 1825 was to last for fifty years. At the Berlin Library Ranke found a collection of MS. records, chiefly Italian, dealing with the period of the Reformation; from a study of them he found how different were the real events as disclosed in contemporary documents from the history as recorded by most writers; and the result of his researches was embodied in his second work, Fürsten und Völker von Südeuropa im 16 und 17 Jahrhundert (1827). In later editions the title of this book was altered to Die Osmanen und die spanische Monarchie. It was now his ambition to continue his exploration of the new world thus opened to him. The Prussian government provided the means, and in September 1827 he started for Italy. His first sojourn was in Vienna, where the friendship of Gentz and the protection of Metternich opened to him the Venetian archives, of which many were preserved in that city-a virgin field, the value of which he first discovered, and which is still unexhausted. | He found time, in addition, to write a short book on Die Serbische Revolution (1829), from material supplied to him by Wuk Stephanowich, a Servian who had himself been witness of the scenes he related. This was afterwards expanded into Serbien und die Türkei im 19 Jahrhundert (1879). In 1828 he at last crossed the Alps, and the next three years were spent in Italy. The recommendations of Metternich opened to him almost every library except the Vatican; and it was during these three years of study in Venice, Ferrara, Rome, Florence and other cities, that he obtained that acquaintance with European history which was to make him the first historian of his time.

He wrote nothing but a critical examination of the story of Don Carlos, but he returned to Germany a master of his craft. For a time Ranke was now engaged in an occupation of a different nature, for he was appointed editor of a periodical in which Friedrich Perthes designed to defend the Prussian government against the democratic press. Ranke, contemptuous in politics, as in history, of the men who warped facts to support some abstract theory, especially disliked the doctrinaire liberalism so fashionable at the time. He hoped, by presenting facts as they were, to win the adhesion of all parties. We need not be surprised that he failed; men desired not the scientific treatment of politics, but satire and invective. Exposed thus to attack, his weakness, if not his venality, was long an article of faith among the liberals. He did not satisfy the Prussian conservatives, and after four years the Historische Politische Blätter came to an end. Twothirds of the matter had been contributed by the editor, and the two stout volumes in which the numbers were collected contained the best political thought which had for long appeared in Germany. For Ranke the failure was not to be regretted; the rest of his life was to be wholly devoted to that in which he excelled. During 1834-36 appeared the three volumes of his Die römischen Päpste, ihre Kirche und ihr Staat im 16 und 17 Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1834-36, and many other editions), in form, as in matter, the greatest of his works, containing the results of his studies in Italy. Henceforth his name was known in all European countries; the English translation by Mrs Austin was the occasion of one of Macaulay's most brilliant essays. Before it was completed he had already begun the researches on which was based the second of his masterpieces, his Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation (Berlin, 1839-47), a necessary pendant to his book on the popes, and the most popular of his works in his own country. In 1837 he became full professor at Berlin; in 1841 Frederick William IV., always ready to recognize intellectual eminence, appointed him Prussian historiographer. Stimulated by this, he brought out his Neun Bücher preussischer Geschichte (1847-48), a work which, chiefly owing to the nature of the subject, makes severe demands on the attention of the reader-he is the "Dryasdust" of Carlyle's Frederick; but in it he laid the foundation for the modern appreciation of the founders of the Prussian state. The nine books were subsequently expanded to twelve (Leipzig, 1874). He took no immediate part in the movements of 1848, but in the following years he drew up several memoranda for the king, whom he encouraged in his efforts to defend the character and identity of the Prussian state against the revolutionaries. Though never admitted into the inner circle of the king's associates, he found the king the most appreciative of readers and stimulating of companions, and the queen one of the most faithful of his friends; in biographical works and on other occasions he always defended the memory of the unfortunate monarch. A friend even more sympathetic he found in Maximilian II. of Bavaria, whom he advised in his expansive schemes for the promotion of learning and letters. In the quieter years that followed he wrote the third of his masterpieces, Französische Geschichte, vornehmlich im 16 und 17 Jahrhundert (Stuttgart, 1852-61), which was followed by his Englische Geschichte, vornehmlich im 16 und 17 Jahrhundert (1859-68). This, the longest of his works, added much to existing knowledge, especially as to the relations between England and the continent, but it lacked something of the freshness of his earlier books; he was over seventy when it was completed, and he was never quite at home in dealing with the parliamentary foundations of English public life. In his later years his small alert figure was one of the most distinguished in the society of Berlin, and every honour open to a man of letters was conferred upon him. He was ennobled in 1865, and in 1885 received the title of Excellenz. When the weakness of his eyes made it necessary for him to depend almost entirely on the service of readers and secretaries,

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