HALAKITE CASE 



3785 



HALDANE 



Halakite Case. In Jan., 1917, 

 the private room of Sir Theodore 

 Andrea Cook, the editor of The 

 Field, was raided by the military 

 authorities in connexion with the 

 White Powder Syndicate in which 

 Sir T. A. Cook was privately inter- 

 ested. This syndicate was pressing 

 a new explosive named Halakite, 

 for which its inventor, an American 

 named Blanch, claimed extraordi- 

 nary powers. The English expert 

 board under Lord Moulton had re- 

 jected the invention as a fraud. 



An inquiry showed that Sir Theo- 

 dore Cook and others had been 

 dupes of the inventor. Blanch was 

 left to produce his explosive for 

 independent examination, but no 

 Halakite was forthcoming, and the 

 military authorities were left in 

 possession of the field. 



Halas OR KISKUNHALAS. Town 

 of Hungary, in Little Cumania. 

 It is 84 m/by rly. S.S.E. of Buda- 

 pest on the line to Belgrade. It is 

 an agricultural centre with large 

 vineyards. Pop. 24,381. 



Halation. Defects in photo- 

 graphs consisting of the spread of 

 light from some bright part of the 

 subject, e.g. a church window, to 

 dark parts immediately surround- 

 ing it. The chief cause is reflec- 

 tion of light from the glass side of 

 the plate, on which the negative is 

 taken, obliquely back on to the 

 sensitive film. The usual preven- 

 tive is to give the glass side a dark 

 coating (backing) which absorbs 

 the light. See Photography. 



Halberd OR HALBERT (old Fr. 

 halebarde). Late medieval weapon 

 consisting of a combined pick and 

 axe with a pike-head, attached to 

 a shaft 5 ft. or 6 ft. long. The 

 bearers of halberds were known as 

 halberdiers, and came to be em- 

 ployed chiefly on ceremonial occa- 

 sions. The weapon, in a somewhat 

 modified form, is still carried by 

 the English Yeomen of the Guard. 

 The phrase to send anyone to the 

 halberds, i.e. to punish him, arose 

 from the fact that at one time 

 soldiers were flogged while tied to 

 halberds fixed in the ground. See 

 Arms ; Pike. 



Halberstadt. Town of Ger- 

 many, in Prussian Saxony. It 

 stands on the Holzemme, 30 m. 

 S.W. of Magdeburg, and has con- 

 siderable trade and manufactures, 

 including woollen goods, leather, 

 tobacco, soap, oil refineries, and 

 breweries. Halberstadt, which 

 was an episcopal see from the 9th 

 to the 17th century, has preserved 

 many of its old architectural 

 features, and its timbered houses 

 are notable. The most important 

 building is the 13th -15th century 

 cathedral, dedicated to S. Stephen, 

 and consecrated in 1491. 



; 1 i'i H 



Halberstadt, Germany. The Gothic 



Ratskeller, built in 1461, a fine 



example of woodwork 



At the other end of the Dom- 

 platz is the Liebfrauen Kirche 

 (1146), and near the cathedral is 

 the Gothic church of S. Martin, 

 completed about 1350, with fine 

 towers restored towards the end 

 of the 19th century. The Gothic 

 Rathaus dates from the close of 

 the 14th century, with Renaissance 

 additions, and the Roland, or sym- 

 bol of civic liberty, a gigantic armed 

 figure carved in stone, was erected in 

 1433. The Ratskel ler, on the Holz- 

 markt, is the finest of the wooden 

 houses of the town. Pop. 46,481. 



1st Visct. Haldane, 

 British politician 



Russell 



Halberd. 1. Swiss, 14th cent. 2. 

 German, 14th cent. 3. Swiss, 15th 

 cent. 4. Swiss, 16th cent. 5. Ger- 

 man, 16th cent. 



Halbertstadt. German aero- 

 plane of the Fokker type. It is a 

 single-seater biplane used as a 

 fighting scout in the Great War. 

 The Halbertstadt had a fixed en- 

 gine, with a tractor airscrew. '" 



Halcyone. Incorrect transliter- 

 ation of Alcyone (q.v.}, due to a 

 fanciful connexion with the Greek 

 word lials, salt. Pron. Hal-si-onee. 



Haldane, RICHARD BTJRDON 

 HALDANE, IST VISCOUNT (b. 1856). 

 British politician and lawyer. Born 

 July 30, 1856, the son of Robert 

 Haldane, a Scottish lawyer, he was 

 educated at Edinburgh Academy 

 and university, 

 and afterwards 

 in Germany. 

 H i s remark- 

 able gifts won 

 him many dis- 

 tinctions, es- 

 pecially in 

 philosophy,but 

 he chose the 

 barforacareer, 

 and became an 

 English bar- 

 rister in 1879, and Q.C. in 1890. 



In 1885 Haldane was returned 

 to Parliament as a Liberal for 

 Haddingtonshire. He became gen- 

 erally known as a Liberal im- 

 perialist during the S. African 

 War, and Liberals were not unani- 

 mous in approving his appointment 

 as secretary for war in 1905. He 

 held that position until 1912, just 

 after he had been made a peer, and 

 during his term of office he founded 

 the Territorial force. He became 

 lord chancellor in 1912, retiring 

 1915. In Jan. -Nov. 1924, he was 

 lord chancellor in the labour gov- 

 ernment. His many honours include 

 the O.M. Among his writings are a 

 Life of Adam Smith, Translations 

 of Schopenhauer, and the Pathway 

 to Reality. His interest in educa- 

 tion was constant, and he did much 

 to establish the newer universities, 

 of one of which, Bristol, he became 

 chancellor. In 1902-4 he was 

 Gifford Lecturer at St. Andrews, 

 and he was an indefatigable 

 speaker on a variety of subjects. 



Haldane's political position was 

 always a peculiar one. His mod- 

 eration made him suspect to 

 Radicals and to many Liberals, 

 while his interest in philosophy, 

 and the length and argumentative 

 nature of his speeches, did not en- 

 dear him to the average man. 1 is 

 avowed debt to German scholar- 

 ship was a charge against him, as 

 were the consequences of his visit 

 to Germany in 1912, and his objec- 

 tions to Lord Roberts's proposals 

 for national service. He defended 

 his action in his book, Before the 

 s War, 1920, which describes his 

 conversations with the Kaiser. 



