OSTWALD'S PROCESS 



OS WESTRY 



Wilhelm Ostwald, 

 German scientist 



ising in chem- 

 i s t r y, he 

 became in 1882 

 professor at the 

 Baltic poly- 

 technic at Riga, 

 and in 1887 

 professor of 

 physical c h e- 

 mistry at Leip- 

 zig, resigning in 

 1906. He was 

 also visiting professor at Har- 

 vard and Columbia Universities. 

 U.S.A., and in 1909 was awarded 

 the Nobel prize for chemistry. 

 The results of Ostwald's ex- 

 perimental work made him one of 

 the foremost chemists of his age. 

 Several of his works have been 

 translated into English, among 

 them Textbooks of General Chemis- 

 try and Inorganic Chemistry. 



Ostwald's Process. Method 

 of oxidising ammonia to form 

 oxides of nitrogen from which 

 nitric acid and nitrates are made. 

 Wilhelm Ostwald, while professor 

 of chemistry at Leipzig, worked out 

 a process in 1900 by which a mix- 

 ture of ammonia and air is passed 

 over a catalyst, consisting of plati- 

 num with a specially prepared sur- 

 face. It was the use of this process 

 and the modifications developed 

 during the Great War that enabled 

 Germany to continue the manu- 

 facture of explosives after the 

 Allies had cut ofi the importation 

 of Chile nitrate. 



Ostyak OR OSTIAK. Tartar 

 name, meaning barbarian, for three 

 primitive tribes in W. Siberia. 

 The Ugra, of Finno-Ugrian stock 

 and speech, numbering in 1911 

 18,591, inhabit the Ob and Irtish 

 banks in Tobolsk and Tomsk. The 

 Samoyedic Ostyak, 6,559, north- 

 ward to the Taz basin, are properly 

 Samoyeds. The Yenisei Ostyak, 

 1,370, preferably called Yeniseians 

 or Tubas, are aboriginal fishers and 

 hunters, retaining an archaic 

 Tibeto-Chinese dialect. Shaman- 

 ism prevails throughout. 



Osuna. Town of Spain, in the 

 prov. of Seville. It is built on a 

 hill on the edge of the plain of the 

 Guadalquivir, 51 m. E.S.E. of 

 Seville. Woollens, soap, and hats 

 are manufactured The castle and 

 Gothic collegiate church crown the 

 hill. The first has been, since 1562, 

 the seat of the dukes of Osuna, of 

 whom the third, Pedro, 1579-1624, 

 achieved military distinction under 

 Philip III ; the second was built 

 in 1534 on a Moorish substructure. 

 The town was captured from the 

 Moors in 1240. The university was 

 suppressed in 1820. Pop. 16,000. 



Oswald (d. 642). King of 

 Northumbria and saint. A son of 

 King Ethelfrith, he passed some 



years in exile, being at one time in 

 lona. Returning to Northumbria, 

 where a British king had killed his 

 brother, the king of Bernicia, he 

 crushed the invaders near Hexham 

 in 635 and became king of both 

 Bernicia and Deira. In 642 he 

 was defeated and killed at Oswes- 

 try by Penda, king of Mercia. 

 Oswald is chiefly known for his 



Oswego Tea. Stem with leaves and 

 flower whorls of the N. American herb 



efforts to promote Christianity, 

 one of his acts being to found the 

 bishopric of Lindisf arne. He made 

 his kingdom for a short time the 

 most powerful in the land. 



Oswald (d. 992). English pre- 

 late. A nephew of Archbishop 

 Odo of Canterbury, who educated 

 him, he went to France and be- 

 came a monk, but was recalled 

 about 959 and made bishop of 

 Worcester. He founded Ramsey 

 Abbey, Huntingdonshire, and be- 

 came archbishop of York in 972, 

 but still retained charge of the 

 diocese of Worcester. An energetic 

 prelate and a great encourager of 

 learning, he died Feb. 29, 992. 



Oswaldtwistle. Urban (list, of 

 Lancashire, England. It is 3 m. 

 from Blackburn, on the L. & Y. 

 Rly. and the Leeds and Liverpool 

 Canal. The chief industries are the 

 making of cotton goods, chemicals, 

 paper, and pottery, while around 

 are stone quarries and coal mines. 

 The district of Peelfold is known 

 for its association with the Peel 

 family. Pop. 16,000. 



Oswego. City of New York, 

 U.S.A., the co. seat of Oswego co. 

 It stands at the mouth of the 

 Oswego river on Lake Ontario, 36 

 m. by rly. N.N.W. of Syracuse, and 

 is served by the New York Central 

 and Hudson River and other rlys., 

 and by the New York State Barge 

 Canal, of which it is a terminus. 

 A port of entry, it has a good har- 

 bour with accommodation for 

 large vessels, and carries on a 

 trade in coal, lumber, and grain. 

 Manufactures include starch, corn- 

 flour, pumps, engines, boilers, tools, 

 woollen goods, hosiery, matches, 

 and boxes. A fall of 34 ft. in the 



Oswego river furnishes water 

 power. Founded in 1724, Oswego 

 was incorporated in 1828, and be- 

 came a city in 1848. Pop. 23,600. 



An important strategic point 

 during the various American wars, 

 it was fortified in 1755, captured 

 and demolished by Montcalm in 

 1756. In 1759 Amherst left here 

 with 10,000 men on his journey 

 down the St. Lawrence to meet 

 Wolfe at Quebec; in 1766 Sir 

 William Johnson received here the 

 submission of Pontiac ; and it was 

 captured by the English in 1814. 



Oswego Tea (Monarda didyma) 

 OR BEE BALM. Perennial herb of 

 the natural order Labiatae, native 

 of N. America. It has square, some- 

 what hairy stems, and opposite, 

 oval-lance-shaped, bristly leaves, 

 which have a mint-like odour. The 

 bright scarlet, two-lipped, tubular 

 flowers are arranged in one or two 

 whorls. The bracts beneath the 

 flowers are coloured red. The folk- 

 name indicates a use sometimes 

 made of its leaves. 



Oswell, WILLIAM COTTON (1818- 

 93). British hunter. Born at Ley- 

 tonstone, April 27, 1818, he entered 



the East India 



Company's ser- 

 vice in 1837, and 

 spent the next 

 ten years at 

 Madras, where 

 he developed a 

 gift of acquir- 

 ing native lan- 

 guages and 

 became a 

 skilfulelephant- 

 catcher. Visiting South Africa ior 

 his health, he spent two years ex- 

 ploring and hunting, accompanying 

 Livingstone in 1849 on the journey 

 in which Lake Ngami was dis- 

 covered. Oswell hunted much big 

 game during this expedition, as also 

 in 1851, when he and Livingstone 

 discovered the Zambezi. After 

 wanderings through N. and S. 

 America, 1855-56, he settled in 

 England, where he died May 1, 

 1893. See W. C. Oswell, Hunter 

 and Explorer, W. E. Oswell, 1900. 



Oswestry. Mun. borough and 

 market town of Shropshire, Eng- 

 land. It is 17 m. from Shrewsbury, 

 with stations on 

 the G.W. and 

 Cambrian Rlys 

 The chief building 

 are S. Oswald'* 

 Church, restored 

 in the 19th cen- 

 tury, town hall, 



corn market, and 

 Oswestry arms ft grammar scboo , 



dating from 1407. The industries 

 include tanning and malting, while 

 here are the works of the Cambrian 

 Rly. There is also an agricultural 



