SIOUX CITY 



SIREN 



475 



Sioux had retired to the northern parts of Dakota, 

 where, under Sitting Bull, they gathered the young 

 braves who were exasperated by the government's 

 failure to send supplies to the several agencies. 

 The war which began and ended in 1876 is chiefly 

 memorable for the disaster in which General Custer 

 (q.v.) perished ; it was ended in a few months, and 

 Sitting Bull took refuge in Canada, but in 1880 

 was induced by the Dominion officials, on a promise 

 of pardon, to surrender. The Brule Sioux and the 

 Ogallalla Sioux were afterwards settled on the 

 Rosebud and Pinewood agencies in South Dakota. 

 In 1890 there was a general rising of the Indians in 

 the North-west, under a ' Messiah ; ' and in its 

 course Sitting Bull was slain whether killed in 

 fight or slaughtered was questioned on loth 

 December. 



Sioux City, capital of Woodbury county, Iowa, 

 on the east bank of the Missouri River ( here crossed 

 by a bridge 2000 feet long), 128 miles (by rail) 

 above Omaha and 512 \V. by N. of Chicago. It 

 has good public buildings and schools, great stock- 

 yards and packing- houses, railway-shops, plan- 

 ing and spice mills, and manufactures linseed-oil, 

 vinegar, flour, doors and sashes, &c. Pop. (1880) 

 7366; (1890)37,806; (1900)33,111. 



Sioux Falls, capital of Minnehaha county, 

 South Dakota, and the largest town in the state, 

 is on the Big Sioux River (which here falls 90 feet), 

 241 miles by rail SW. of St Paul. A place of 697 

 inhabitants in 1878, it now has tramways, water- 

 works, gas, the electric light, a public library, a 

 score of churches, and as many manufactories. A 

 leading industry in the quarrying, shaping, and 

 polishing of the granite which underlies the city. 

 Here are the state penitentiary and school for deaf 

 mutes, and four denominational colleges. Pop. 

 (1890) 10,177. 



Siphon, a bent tube for drawing off liquid from 

 one vessel to another. When in action the tube 

 must be itself full of the liquid, so that the quan- 

 tities of liquid in the two vessels form one con- 

 tinuous liquid mass. In accordance with the prin- 

 ciples of Hydrodynamics (q.v.), there will be, in 

 these circumstances, a flow of liquid along the tul>e 

 until either the free surfaces of liquid in the two 

 vessels are brought to the same level, or the one 



vessel or the siphon 

 becomes emptied of 

 liquid. If it is 

 desired merely to 

 empty one vessel, a 

 second vessel is not 

 necessary. The prin- 

 ciple on which the 

 siphon acts will be 

 readily seen by con- 

 sideration of the figure. The two free surfaces are 

 at the atmospheric pressure, but are at different 

 levels. Take C at the same level as A. Then the 

 pressure at A is obviously greater than the atmo- 

 spheric pressure, while the pressure at C is less than 

 the atmospheric pressure by the amount of pressure 

 due to the column of liquid between C and the free 

 surface in the lower vessel. Hence there must be 

 a flow of liquid from A to C along the tube i.e. 

 from vessel to vessel. In the upper part of the 

 siphon the liquid is sustained by the pressure of 

 the atmosphere on the free surface, just as in the 

 Barometer (q.v.). If then the siphon reaches higher 

 above the free surface than the height of the baro- 

 meter column of liquid used, the continuity of liquid 

 will lie broken at the bend, and the siphon will cease 

 to act. Thus a siphon for water cannot be higher 

 than 33 feet above the water surfaces; and a siphon 

 for mercury is similarly limited to 30 inches. To 

 bring it into working condition, a siphon is usually 



filled by suction applied (either by the mouth or 

 by a pump) at the one end, the other end being 

 immersed in the liquid ; or it is first filled with 

 the liquid and then placed in its proper position. 



Sipuonopuora. See HYDROZOA. 



Sippara. See BABYLONIA. 



Sipiincilllls. a genus of worms belonging to 

 the class Gephyrea. The body is cylindrical, un- 

 segmented, without appendages or bristles, with 

 tentacles around the mouth. The food-canal is 

 spirally coiled, and ends anteriorly. The sexes are 

 separate. A common species is Sipuneuliu nmins, 

 which lives in the sand on the shores of the North 

 Sea, the Atlantic, and the Mediterranean. It 

 measures from 6 to 10 inches in length. The animal 

 swallows the sand for the sake of the organic 

 matter therein contained. The members of an 

 allied genus, Phascolosoma, often live within Gas- 

 teropod shells, narrowing and extending the mouth 

 of the shell into a tube of cemented sand particles. 



Sir (Fr. sieur and fire, contracted from seig- 

 neur; from Lat. senior, 'elder'), a term origin- 

 ally corresponding to dmninus in Latin. It was 

 at one time the practice to use the same title in 

 addressing the clergy, a familiar instance being Sir 

 Hugh Evans in the Merry Wives of Windsor. To 

 so great an extent did this usage obtain that a 

 ' Sir John ' came to be a common sobriquet for a 

 priest. 'Sir' was here a translation of dominus, 

 the term used for a bachelor of arts, originally in 

 contradistinction from the magister, or master of 

 arts, but eventually extended to the clergy without 

 distinction. Used along with the Christian name 

 and surname, 'sir' is now applied exclusively to 

 knights and baronets. Standing alone it 18 a 

 common complimentary mode of address used 

 without regard to rank. Sire is an older form of 

 sir, formerly used in addressing royalty. 



Siracb. See ECCLESIASTICUS. 



Sirajuaiij. a town in Pabna district, Bengal, 

 near the mam branch of the Brahmaputra, 150 

 miles NE. of Calcutta. Pop. 23,037. 



Slr-daria. See JAXARTES. 



Siren, a genus of tailed Amphibians, repre- 

 sented by one species Siren lacertina living in 

 swamps in the southern states 

 of North America. The 

 animal is eel-like, of a dark 

 lead colour, one to two feet 

 long, without hind-limbs, with 

 four-toed weak fore-limbs, with 

 three pairs of persistent exter- 

 nal gills, with no teeth except 

 on a small patch on the roof 

 of the mouth. The food seems 

 to consist of worms and in- 

 sects. 



Siren, an instrument which 

 produces musical sounds by 

 introducing a regularly recur- 

 ring discontinuity into an 

 otherwise steady blast of air. 

 Seebeck's siren consists of a 

 large circular disc pierced with 

 small holes at equal intervals 

 apart in the same concentric 

 circle. The disc is made to 

 rotate more or less rapidly 

 upon its axis ; and while it is 

 so rotating a nozzle, through Siren laoertina : 



which a strong blast of air is he4d OI1 



driven by means of a bellows, 



is brought so as to bear directly upon any desired 



cfrcle of holes. When a hole is opposite the nozzle 



a puff of air escapes ; when an unpierced portion of 



the disc comes before it the air is coecked. Thus 



