NICKER NUT 



3737 



NICOSIA 



used for cnins Tin- 

 .-(.ins of the U.S.A. and 

 in in contain 75 p.c. copper 

 IIIK! L'3 p.o. nickel ; wliil.- tin- 



im:iln'_!i>ll- conn df (id in my. 

 i. |)i-niu:irk, lt:ily, Swit/.i-r- 

 bud, :inil South America contain 

 also appreciable proportions of 

 tin, or zinc, or of both. Nichrome is 

 an alloy of nickel and chromium 

 having a very high melting-point, 

 ami is used tor the preparation of 

 wire for electrical purposes ; plati- 

 noid is an alloy containing from 

 1 to 2 p.c. of tungsten ; aphtit is 

 an alloy chiefly of iron and nickel. 

 The most important use of nickel 

 is in the preparation of nickel 

 steel. This use appears to have 

 been duo to Henry Schneider of the 

 Creusot Iron Works, in France, 

 who took out patents for the pre- 

 paration of iron and nickel alloys 

 containing about 63 p.c. of the 

 former and 30 p.c. nickel with some 

 carbon. Many steels are now 

 made which owe their special pro- 

 perties to nickel, both tool steel 

 and structural stecL The propor- 

 tion of nickel contained in these 

 steels ranges from 2 p.c. to 5 p.c., 

 the carbon from 0'2 to 0'5 p.c. The 



freat new railway bridge across the 

 t. Lawrence at Quebec has been 

 built of nickel steel. See Alloys ; 

 Metallurgy ; consult also The 

 Nickel Industry, A. P. Coleman, 

 1913; Handbook of Metallurgy, 

 H. Louis and C. Schnabel. new ed. 

 1921 



Nicker Nut (Caesalpinia bon- 

 duc and C. bonducella). Seed of 

 evergreen shrubs of the natural 

 order Leguminosae. Natives of 

 tropical sea shores, they are trail- 

 ing plants with the leaves twice 

 divided into small leaflets. The 

 rusty yellow flowers form sprays, 

 and are followed by prickly pods 

 containing one to three large hard 

 and polished seeds, which are very 

 bitter-tasting. In native Indian 

 medical practice they are used as 

 a tonic and fever cure, while the 

 oil compressed from them is used 

 in palsy. They are also strung 

 together as necklaces and rosaries. 



Nicobar Islands. British 

 islands in the Bay of Bengal Of 

 the 19 islands 12 are inhabited. 

 They lie 8. of the Andaman Is., to 

 which they are joined adminis- 

 tratively, and from which they 

 are 75 m. distant across Ten 

 Degree Channel. Nancowry Har- 

 bour is a spacious anchorage be- 

 tween Nancowry and Camorta. 

 The natives produce copra. The 

 group was ceded to Britain by the 

 Dutch in 1809. Area, 035 sq. m. 

 Pop. 8,800. 



Nicol, ERSKINE (1825-1904). 

 British painter. Bom at Leith, 

 July 3, 1825, he studied under Sir 



Enkine Nicol, 

 Britiib painter 



of humorous, 



William Allan 

 and Thomas 

 Duncan at the 

 Trustee*' Aca- 

 demy. Elected 

 A U.S.A. and 

 I: - A., be re. 

 moved to Lon- 

 don in 1863. 

 and became 

 A. R. A. in 1866. 

 A* a painter 

 . especially Irish 

 physiognomy, he enjoyed a great 

 vogue. He died March 8, 1904 



Nicolaitans. Heretical sect 

 which arose in the second century 

 in the Christian Church Their 

 doctrines are associated with 

 that of Balaam (Rev. il 14; 

 Jude ; 2 Pet. 1 ). Regarding as 

 obsolete the injunctions of Deut. 

 xxiii, 17-18, and perhaps affected 

 by the pagan rites connected with 

 the worship of Dionysus and Aph- 

 rodite, they seem to have adopted a 

 form of fanatical libertinism which 

 attached to itself other heresies. 

 The alleged leadership of the sect 

 by Nicholas the deacon and pro- 

 selyte of Antioch is unproven. 



Nicoll, SIR WILLIAM ROBERTSON 

 (1851-1923). British journalist 

 and theologian. Born at Lumsden, 

 Aberdeenshire, 

 Oct. 10, 1851, 

 and educated 

 at Aberdeen 

 University, he 

 was Fr e e 

 Church minis- 

 ter of Duff- 

 town, 1874-77, 

 and of Kelso, 

 1877-85. 

 While at Kelso 

 he was liter- **** 



ary adviser to an Edinburgh 

 publisher, and in 1884 was ap- 

 pointed editor of The Expositor. 

 Having resigned his ministry at 

 Kelso owing to ill-health, he settled 

 in London in 1880. He founded The 

 British Weekly, 1886 ; The Book- 

 man, 1891 ; The Woman at Home 

 (in cooperation with Annie S. 

 Swan.), 1893, and other periodicals, 

 and acted as literary adviser to 

 Hodder & Stoughton (q.v.). Under 

 his editorship The British Weekly 

 became a journal of national influ- 

 ence. His weekly article, The Cor- 

 respondence of Claudius Clear, so 

 lone sustained with astonishing 

 freshness, was a popular feature. 



Unrivalled as a critic of modern 

 literature, he was not only a leader 

 in the literary life of his time, but 

 took a prominent part in social 

 reform and politics. He received 

 the degree of LL.D. from AVr- 

 deen in 1890, was knighted in 19U9, 

 and made a companion of honour 

 in 1921. He wrote extensively on 



literature and theology, his work* 

 m. hiding Life of James MaedonelL 



Sir W. R. Nicoll. 

 Brit " h Journalist 



1890; The Return to the Cross, 

 1897 ; Letters on Life, 1001 ; My 



F.itl,.-r. I '.us; l.,f. -..f Iiit. M.i. l.u.ii 



1008 ; and A Bookman's Letters. 

 1013. He edited The Expositor's 

 Greek Testament and the Works 



of Charlotte I'.K.MI . He died May 

 1, Weekly ; con- 

 ultLif.-. .1 irt. 1003. 



Nicol Prism. Name given to a 

 prism consisting of Iceland spar 

 and used as a means of obtaining 

 plane polarised light. If a ray of 

 fight falls on one of the faces of a 

 rhombohedron of Iceland spar, 

 part of the light passes straight 

 through, and part of it is refracted 

 and travel* and emerges along 

 another line, i.e. there are two re- 

 fracted rays for one incident ray. 



In a Nicol prism one of the two 

 rays is eliminated by internal re- 

 flection within the crystal, the 

 prism being cut in two by a plane 

 which is perpendicular to the prin- 

 cipal plane of one face. The two 

 surfaces are then polished and ce- 

 mented together in their original 

 position by means of a thin trans- 

 parent film of Canada balsam. 

 This substance has refractive pro- 

 perties of a kind which so bend the 

 rays coming to it through the face 

 of the Iceland spar that one of the 

 rays is totally reflected within the 

 prism, and the other emerges as 

 plane polarised light. A Nicol 

 prism may be used for producing 

 polarised light, and for determining 

 by analysis whether light is polar- 

 ised or not, and the plane in which 

 polarisation has taken place. It is 

 named after William Nicol, of 

 Edinburgh. See Polarisation of 

 Light 



Nicomedia. Ancient city of 

 Bithynia, Asia Minor, the modern 

 I > in id. It stands at the N.E. end 

 of the sea of Marmora, and was 

 founded 264 B.C. by Nicomedes I of 

 Bithynia. After the quadripartite 

 division of the Roman empire by the 

 emperor Diocletian, it became the 

 seat of the government of Diocle- 

 tian himself. Hannibal committed 

 suicide by poison in Nicomedia, 

 and it was the birthplace of the 

 historian Arrian. 



Nicosia OB LEVKOSIA. Capital 

 of Cyprus. It stands in the centre 

 of the island, 25 m. N.W. of the 

 seaport Larnaca. It retains its 

 high Venetian walls, and contains 

 * fine Gothic edifice, once the 

 cathedral of 8. Sophia and now a 

 mosque, and English and other 

 hurches. It is the see of a Greek 

 archbishop and the seat of the 

 'British governor. Silk, leather, and 

 woollen goods are manufactured. 

 From the time of Constantino the 

 Great until 1567 it was m. in 



