MOLYBDENUM 



MOMENT 



263 



tailed kingfisher, and numerous species of parrots 

 and pigeons noted for their gorgeous plumage. 

 Insects, such as the long-armed beetle of Amljoyna 

 and several butterflies, here attain their largest 

 size and display their brightest colours. The 

 shallow waters, especially of the southern group, 

 are also noted for the vivid hues of the anemone!!, 

 sponges, shells, and corals covering the l>ed of the 

 sea,^ and for the immense number of their fishes. 



Notwithstanding their small size, Ternate and 

 Tidor have always leen the chief centres of political 

 power in the northern, and Amboyna in the southern 

 Moluccas. These islands have long l>een occupied 

 by civilised Malays, who easily asserted their su- 

 premacy over the surrounding lands, which are in- 

 nabitea chiefly by rude wild tribes at a low stage 

 of culture. Formerly the Mohammedan sultans of 

 Tidor ami Ternate were amongst the most powerful 

 rulers in Malaysia, their dominions stretching west- 

 wards to Celebes and eastwards to New Guinea, 

 and comprising all the intermediate islands. It 

 was as heirs to these potentates that the Dutch 

 claimed all the western part of New Guinea, as far 

 as the 141st meridian. For the same reason the 

 present Dutch residency of Termite includes that 

 part of East Celebes which is watered by the Gulf 

 of Tomini, together with the adjacent islands. In 

 Ternate is still centred most of the trade of the 

 northern Moluccas, which export spices, tortoise- 

 shell, trepang, lieeswax, bark, and birds of para- 

 dise in considerable quantities. The mUcney 

 of Amboynit, one of the oldest Dutch settlements 

 in the hast, comprises the whole of Hum, the 

 western half of Ceram, and all the neiglilmnring 

 islets. The town of Amlmyna, capital of all the 

 Dutch o-se-Mnns in the Moluccas, carries on a 



, 



flourishing export trade in cloves, of which half a 

 million pounds have been raised in favourable 

 years in the famous clove-gardens Monging to the 

 government. liaiida, the third Dutch residency, 

 comprises, besides the Banda group (Great Handa, 

 A pi, Neira, and Pisang), a large part of Ceram, the 

 Ke and Am groujis, Timor Laut, and the Serwati 

 Arehipelaoo. lianda is the true home of the nut- 

 meg, which here grows naturally, and arrives at 

 the greatest perfection on the alopec of all the 

 volcanic islands, which are disposed round an inner 

 basin like the fragments of some disruptured crater. 

 Neii a or Handa, called also Nassau, seat of the 

 rc-i.lency, occupies the southern extremity of Neira 

 Island on the north side of the basin over against 

 Gunung-Ajii. IJcsides the nutmeg and mace, 

 lianda jrieMf sago and cocoa-nuts for the export 

 trade, which has long been monopolised by the 

 so-called ' Perkeniers, descendants of Europeans 

 settled in this group since the beginning of the 17th 

 century, and now perfectly acclimatised. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. A. R. Wallace, Tlie Mnlni, Arehi- 

 ptlasio; \. Bastian, Indonerien, I. Die Molukken; Bem- 

 rtem Rtiten in den N&rdlichen Mulukkeii ( Petermann's 

 Mittheilungen, 1873); Von Kosenberu's Malaginehe 

 Archill ; S. Mailer's Reaen in dm Afolutechen Archi- 

 ptl ; Kcclus, Univtrml f.W/,-,/,,/,,/ ( Eng. ed. voL xiv.). 



>lol\ lidr IIIMII (gym. Mo; atomic weight, 9(i ; 

 sp. gr. H-itt) is a rare metal, which, in a state of 

 puritv, is of a silvery white colour, has a strongly 

 metallic lustre, is brittle, and very difficult of 

 fusion. It never occurs native, and it's principal ore 

 is the bisulphide, which much resembles graphite. 

 It is also occasionally found oxidised, in molylxlate 

 of lead. The metal may be obtained by roasting 

 the bisulphide in a free current of air, when the 

 snlplmr gm-s oir oxidised as sulphurous acid, and 

 tin- molybdenum is also oxidised into Molylidic 

 Acid (MoO.), and remains in the vessel. By I lie 

 action of charcoal, the reduced metal is then 

 obtained from the acid. Molyl>denum forms three 

 compounds with oxygen the protoxide (MoO), the 



binoxide (MoO,), and molvbdic acid (MoO 3 ). Of 

 these three the last alone has any practical value. 

 Molybdic acid is a white, glistening, crystalline 

 powder, which is sparingly soluble in water, fuses 

 at a red heat to a straw-coloured glass, and unites 

 with bases to form well-marked salts, the molyb- 

 dates, which are either colourless or yellow. A 

 solution of molybdate of ammonia is one of the 

 most delicate tests for phosphoric acid. Molyb- 

 denum forms various compounds with sulplmr, 

 chlorine, &c., none of which are of any practical 

 importance, except the native bisulphide. 



Mombasa, or MOMBAZ, a seaport and the head- 

 quarters of British East Africa (till 1895 of the 

 I.B.E.A. Company), .stands on a coral Island 

 3 miles long by 2J broad close to the coast, in 4 4' 

 S. lat, about 150 miles N. of Zanzibar. The shores 

 of the island are rocky and abrupt, and the greater 

 part of its surface is covered with dense bush. The 

 town has the usual Arab characteristics of ruin and 

 neglect. The only object of interest is an extensive 

 fort, built in 1594 by the Portuguese, and restored 

 by them in 1635. Mombasa was visited by Vasco 

 da Gama in 1497 ; it was then a large and prosperous 

 town (as it was when Ibn-Batiita was there in 1331 ), 

 with a colony of Christians of St Thomas and Ban- 

 yans from India. It was held by the Portuguese 

 during the greater part of the period from 150-5 to 

 1698, though not without frequent captures. The 

 native chief put it under British protection in 1823 ; 

 but, they soon abandoning it, it was seized by the 

 sultan of Zanzibar, who in 1888 ceded it provision- 

 ally to the British East Africa Company. They 

 were made definitive masters of the place two years 

 later, when they also were put in possession of a 

 vast tract of country, extending 400 miles along the 

 coast, from the river Julia to the river Uniba, and 

 inland up to Victoria Nyanza, and beyond it to 

 the frontiers of the Congo Free State an area of 

 probably 700,000 sq. m., more than six times the 

 size of Great Britain ami Ireland together. Gold, 

 copper, plumbago, ami iron ore, as well as india- 

 rubber, exist in this region in considerable abund- 

 ance. The company have connected Mombasa 

 with Zanzibar by telegraph, and in 1890 commenced 

 a railway inland to \ ictoria Nyanza, a distance of 

 600 miles. The harltour, one of the largest, safe.-t, 

 and healthiest on the east coast of Africa, was in 

 1890 made a British naval coaling station, and the 

 headquarters of the fleet in that part of the world. 

 There is a pier; and other harbour- works were begun 

 in 1890. Pop. about 20,000, mostly Africans, with 

 some Arabs and Banyans. On the mainland oppo- 

 site is Frere Town, the see of the Anglican bishop 

 of East Equatorial Africa. 



Moment of a dynamical quantity is the import- 

 ance of that quantity in regard to its dynamical 

 sflect relatively to a given point or axis. The most 

 familiar example is the Moment of a Force. For 

 simplicity, take a body movable about a fixed n\i- 

 say, a door on its hinges. Everyday experience 

 seacnes us that such a door is most easily moved 

 t>y a push or pull applied as far as possible from the 

 linge. In moving the door slowly 

 through a certain angle, we must Ci 

 do so much work in, first, causing 

 ;he necessary acceleration, ana 

 :hen in overcoming the friction of 

 .he hinges. If we apply the force 

 it a greater distance from the 

 linge, it works through a propor- 

 ;ionally greater arc, and is there- 

 ore proportionately less. Such 

 considerations lead to the defini- 

 ion of the moment of a force 

 ibout a point as the product of its amount into 

 ts perpendicular distance from the point. The 



