RKKD BIRD 



REFLECTION 



centre. The air lieing blown into the thin end 

 i the two reeds to vibrate against <>ne another. 

 The free reed, shown 



in li^'. .'t, riin-i-i- of a 

 metal tongue, b and 

 c, lixed at one end to 

 a metal plate, a, 

 having an elongated 

 ' ' 



slot large enough to 

 allow the free end of 

 the tongue to vibrate 

 through it on the 

 admission of a cur- 

 rent of air ; and this 

 vibration forms the 

 note, the pitch of 

 which is regulated by the length of the reed. 



Reed Bird. See BOB o LINK. 



Reed Mace. See TYPHA, 



Reef. See CdltAL. 



Reel, a lively dance, popular in Scotland, which 

 may be danced by two couples, but admits a greater 

 number. The music is in general written in com- 

 mon time of four crotchets in a measure, but some- 

 times in jig time of six quavers. 



Reels. See BOBBINS. 



Rees, ABRAHAM ( 1743-1825), a native of Mont- 

 gomeryshire, and I nitariau minister for forty years 

 at the Old Jewry, London, compiled an Encyclo- 

 pedia (q.v.) on tlie basis of Kphraim Chamliers'. 



Reeve ( Sax. gerefii ), a title applied to several 

 classes of old Knglish magistrates over various 

 territorial areas : thus, there were borough-reeves, 

 over boroughs ; port-reeves, in trading-towns, in 

 ports, as in London (q.v.); high-reeves, &c. The 

 Sheriff (q.v.) is the shire-reeve. The reeve in 

 Chaucer is what is still called grieve in Scotland, a 

 land-steward. 



Reeve. CLARA, novelist, daughter of the rector 

 of Preston in Suffolk, was born at Ipswich in 

 I, _'.P. lived a quiet life, and died unmarried, 3d 

 Decemlter 1803. She translated Barclay's Argents 

 (177'2), and in 1777 published the Champion of 

 Virtue, a Gothic Story, renamed next year The Old 

 English. Baron. It was dedicated to Richardson's 

 daughter, and was avowedly an imitation of 

 Walpole's Castle of Otranto, with its extrava- 

 gances toned down. She published four other 

 novels, and The Progress of Romance ( 1785). 



Reeves, JnllX, w.-is born in 17.V2, and educated 

 at Merton College, Oxford. Called to the bar alxiut. 

 1780, he became chief-justice of Newfoundland 

 ( 1791-92), one of the king's printers ( 1800), a super- 

 intendent of aliens (1803-14), and law clerk to the 

 Board of Trade, and died in 1829. He published 

 much on law, and a widely popular edition of the 

 Bible, with selected scholia (9 vols. IS'.'., ,. 



Reeves, -I'm N SIMS, one of England's greatest 

 singers, was l>oni at Shooter's Hill, Kent, on 26th 

 September 1SIM. At fourteen he \\a, a ele\ej- | M . r . 

 former on various instruments, and was appointed 



organist and director of the choir in tl hiirch of 



North Cray in Kent. He first appeared in public 

 as a baritone at Newcastle in 1839. This debut 

 was a complete success; and he acquired fresh 

 fame, but as a tenor, in London. In order to per 

 feet his voice and style he studied at Paris ( IH43) 

 for some time, and then appealed at Milan in the 

 tenor part of Edgardo in /,</ // l.'unmermoor. 

 He returned to England in 1847, and, coming out 

 at Drury Lane as Edgardo, was immediately i> 

 nised as the first English tenor, a position he main- 

 tained for many years. He was engaged in 1 His at 

 Her Majesty's Theatre, and in IH.")! sang ai first 

 tenor at the Italian Opera in Paris. After ceasing 

 to sing on the stage (after 1860) he became popular 



all over the country as a ballad singer at concerts. 

 He especially excelled in Hinging oratorio parts, 

 his first oratorio role having Itecn in Judas .)/< 

 'is in 1848 ; from that year onwards he sang 

 almost regularly at the great annual musical festi- 

 vals. His voice was of wide range, and of great 

 natural purity and sweetness. He made his last 

 appearance on llth May 1891, and died at Worth- 

 ing, Sussex, 25th October 1900. See his My Jubilee 

 ( 1889), and the Life by Sutherland Edwards ( 1881 ). 



Refectory. See MONASTERY. 



Referendum. See SWITZERLAND. 



Reflection. A surface on which a beam ot 

 light falls may be either rough or smooth. If it be 

 rough, the greater part of the incident light is irreg- 

 ularly scattered by the innumerable surface-facets, 

 so as to l>e reflected or dispersed in all directions ; 

 if it be smooth, a proportion (hut never the whole) 

 of the incident light is regularly reflected or turned 

 back in definite paths. A smooth, dustless mirror 

 is not visible to an e\e outside the track of rays 

 reflected from it. If the polished surface be that 

 of a transparent substance (e.g. glass) optically 

 denser than the medium conveying the light to it. 

 comparatively little light is reflected ; but the more 

 oblique the incidence, the smoother the iMilish, and 

 the greater the difference between tlie optical 

 density of the glass and that of the medium in 

 which it is immersed, the greater the iiro|>ortioii 

 reflected. Thus less light is reflected from glass 

 under water than from glass in air ; and conversely, 

 if the light travel in the denser medium and strike 

 the bounding surface between it and a rarer 

 medium as where light ascending through water 

 strikes its upper free surface it will, if its obli- 

 quity <>f incidence exceed a certain limit, lie almo>t 

 totally reflected ; the small loss that ensues arising 

 wholly from alisorption, while no light is trans- 

 mitted into the air almve. This may he shown by 

 holding a clear tumbler of water uliove the head : 

 the image of objects beneath is seen reflected in a 

 bright mirror surface ; and a phenomenon of the 

 same order is seen on thrust ing a tet-tul>e contain 

 ing air below the surface of water, when it will 

 appear to have a lustre like quicksilver. If the 

 reflecting surface be that of an opaque liody the 

 bulk of the incident light is reflected, a percentage 

 Ix-ing lost by absorption. What has been said 

 about light applies equally to ether-undulations of 

 all kinds, ana therefore the theory of reflection has 

 general reference to radiant heat, light, actinic 

 radiation, and electro-magnetic undulations (see 

 MAGNETISM). Reflection arises in all cases from 

 a difference in the transmissibility of ethei disturb- 

 ances on the two sides of the liounding surface. 



On reflection from polished surfaces we have, so 

 far as regards the directions of the reflected rn\>. 

 the following laws observed : ( 1 ) The incident ' ray,' 

 the normal (i.e. a line drawn perpendicular) to the 

 surface at the point of incidence, and the reflected 

 ' ray ' all lie in one plane, the ' plane of incidence ; ' 

 ami (2) the angle of incidence (the angle which 

 the incident 'ray' makes with the normal to the 

 reflecting surface) is equal to the angle of reflec- 

 tion (the corresponding angle between the normal 

 ami the reflected 'ray"). These laws apply equally 

 to ether-waves of all lengths, and therefore to light 

 of all colours ; ami they also hold good whatever 

 be the shape of the surface. If the surface lie 

 plane their application is simple; and if the sur- 

 face be curved we have, in effect, to consider the 

 curved surface as made up of indefinitely small 

 facets, to each of which the above laws can lie 

 applied. The geometrical consequences of these 

 laws make up what used to be called Catoptrics, 

 that part of geometrical optics which deals with 

 reflection ; and this coincides in its propositions 



