PITA 



PITCHER PLANT 



saxhorns. They have been tried 

 for trombones also, but the same 

 end is better attained by slide.-. 

 Pistons used in the organ are small 

 buttons placed below the manuals, 

 which on being pressed actuate 

 valves so as to effect certain com- 

 binations of stops. See Organ. 



Pita (Span., aloe). Fibre from 

 the American aloe, Agave ameri- 

 c.ana, and other species of agave, 

 which grow in all parts of tropical 

 America. The fibre, variously 

 named pita-fibre, pita-flax, pita- 

 hemp, is tough, and is used for 

 making twine, matting, netting, 

 and paper. A. rig Ida, var. sisalana 

 (see Sisal), gives the best fibre for 

 ships' cables. Pita as a name is 

 wrongly applied to A. ixtli, of 

 Mexico. The name pita is also 

 sometimes given to the cariacus, 

 a South American deer. 



Pitcairn. Island in the Pacific 

 Ocean, area 2 sq. m. It is roughly 

 midway between Auckland, New 

 Zealand, and Lima, in Peru. Of 

 volcanic origin-, it consists of a 

 solitary mountain surrounded by 

 coral reefs, and produces coconuts, 

 bananas, oranges, yams, coffee, 

 maize, sugar-cane, and other plants. 

 Discovered in 1767, it takes its name 

 from a midshipman who first 

 sighted it. It is peopled by descend- 

 ants of the mutineers of H.M.S. 

 Bounty (q.v.). Great Britain for- 

 mally took possession of the island 

 in 1839,and it now has local govern- 

 ment under the high commissioner 

 for the W. Pacific. In religion the 

 islanders are Seventh Day Adven- 

 tists. Pop. 170. See Pitcairn's 

 Island, W. Brodie, 1850. 



Pitcairne, ARCHIBALD (1652- 

 1 713). Scottish physician and poet. 

 Born in Edinburgh, Dec. 25, 1652, 

 and educated at Edinburgh Uni- 

 versity and in Paris, he became 

 the foremost physician in Scot- 

 land. In an age of Puritanism he 

 attracted attention by his scoffing 

 attitude towards religion, which 

 found expression in the satirical 

 poem on Presbyterianism attri- 

 buted to him, Babel, and a comedy, 

 The Assembly, or Scotch Reforma- 

 tion. He died Oct. 20, 1713. 



Pitch. In mechanics, term ap- 

 plied to : (a) The longitudinal dis- 

 tance between the centres of two 

 consecutive threads on a screw. 

 (6) The distance between centres 

 of adjacent teeth of a toothed 

 wheel, measured along the pitcli- 

 line, which is a circle passing 

 through the teeth at about half 

 their depth, (c) The angularity of 

 a screw propeller. A propeller of 

 six-foot pitch would progress six 

 feet during one complete revolu- 

 tion, assuming there be no slip. 

 (d) The distance between centres 

 of rivet holes of riveted plates. 



Pitch. In music, the precise 

 degree of gravity or acuteness of 

 any musical sound, and depending 

 upon the frequency of vibrations. 

 The greater the number of vibra- 

 tions per second, the higher the 

 pitch. As commonly employed, 

 the term denotes some standard 

 lor a given note, but there is no 

 uniformity in this matter, and the 

 nominal pitch has varied very 

 much in different periods. In 1859 

 the French government fixed the 

 standard for France at A =435 

 double vibrations per second, and 

 in 1896 a similar standard was un- 

 officially adopted in Great Britain 

 of A =439 at 68 Fahr., or 435 at 

 59 Fahr. This is now generally 

 used by all the principal orches- 



appearance to pitch. The mineral 

 is one of the chief sources of 

 uranium and radium, as well as 

 of many of the rarer elements, as 

 thorium, cerium, yttrium, polo- 

 nium, etc. Though in 1789 it was 

 shown to be largely a uranium 

 compound, it was not till the end 

 of the 19th century that the 

 mineral came into prominence as a 

 source of radium. The mineral was 

 also the first terrestrial source of 

 the gas helium. Pitchblende is 

 found at Joachimsthal in Bohemia, 

 in Hungary, in various parts of 

 N. America, and in Cornwall. See 

 Radium ; Uranium. 



Pitcher Plant (Nepenthes). 

 Genus and natural order (Nepen- 

 thaceae) of shrubs, natives of the 



Pitcairn Island. Group of women, descendants of the mutineers of the Bounty 



tras, and by the leading pianoforte 

 manufacturers, but unfortunately 

 military bands still retain the 

 former high pitch, owing to the 

 government's refusal to incur the 

 expense involved in procuring new 

 sets of instruments. 



Pitch. One of the products of 

 coal tar, or one of the mixtures of 

 hydrocarbons, which remain after 

 the distillation of oils and fatty 

 acids. A black, soft to hard sub- 

 stance, according to the tempera- 

 ture, it forms a viscous liquid on 

 heating, and is used for mixing 

 with natural asphalt, e.g. that 

 found in the great pitch lake (q.v. ) 

 of Trinidad. Burgundy pitch is 

 the name given to a yellowish- 

 white resinous substance obtained 

 from the Norway spruce fir. See 

 Asphalt ; Bitumen ; Coal Tar ; Tar. 



Pitchblende OR URANINITE. In 

 mineralogy, an impure uranium 

 oxide. Dark brown, green to 

 black in colour, it has a very similar 



E. tropics. They have alternate 

 leaves, whose midrib is prolonged 

 beyond the point and enlarged into 

 a flask- or pitcher-shaped organ 

 with a partly opened lid. The 

 mouth of the pitcher is strength- 

 ened by a thick, corrugated rim, 



Pitcher Plant. Example showing 

 the banging pitchers in which in- 

 sects are entrapped 



