R Eighteenth letter of the 

 English and Latin alpha- 

 bets, one of the two liquid 

 consonants, I being the other. Its 

 normal sound is that in rat, road, 

 and softer in lard. It is almost 

 inaudible at the end of words, 

 unless a vowel follows : in a good 

 mother the r is almost inaudible, but 

 in the mother of three it is distinctly 

 heard. In words like centre the posi- 

 tion of r and e is reversed as in -le, 

 centre being pronounced, and in 

 the U.S.A. generally written, center. 

 R exercises a distinct influence on 

 the sound of the vowels ; for in- 

 stance, it changes short a into the 

 long Italian a, e.g. can, car, and 

 short o into broad o or CM, as in not, 

 nor. R is mute in worsted (yarn), 

 but is audible in ivorsted (defeated). 

 See Alphabet ; Phonetics. < 



R. Name given to a type of Brit- 

 ish rigid airship, constructed 1914- 

 21. They are distinguished by the 

 letter R followed by a number. 

 The best known were R31, R32, 

 R33, R34, R36, R38, and R80. 



R33 and R34 were sister ships. 

 The former made notable voyages, 

 and was used to control traffic by 

 wireless on Derby day of 

 1921. The latter became [ 

 famous by its flight to ' 

 America and back in 1919. 1 

 (See Atlantic Flight.) Built j 

 by the Clyde engineering 

 firm of W. Beardmore & 

 Co. Ltd., and launched in 

 1919, R34 had a gas capa- 

 city of nearly 2,000,000 cub. 

 ft., was 643 ft. long, and 

 over 90 ft. from top to 

 bottom. ' Her total weight 

 fully loaded was 59 '2 tons, 

 of which 30 tons was 

 available for crew, fuel, and 



passengers. Fitted with five Sun- 

 beam aero engines of 250 h.p. each, 

 she was capable of a maximum 

 speed in still air of 62 m. per hour. 



There were four cars suspended 

 from beneath the hull. In Jan., 

 1921, the airship met with disaster, 

 colliding with a hill in Yorkshire. 

 She managed to reach the Howden 

 aerodrome, but later became a total 

 wreck. (See The Log of H.M.A. 

 R34, E. M. Maitland, 1921.) 



R36 is a rigid commercial air- 

 ship and was built at Beardmore's 

 aerodrome, Inchinnan, making her 

 trial flight in April, 1921. She is 

 slightly longer than R34 and has a 

 huge central gondola, with accom- 

 modation for 50 passengers, and 

 cost 350,000. She was slightly 

 damaged at Pulham in June. R37 

 was being constructed in July, 

 1921. R38, the largest airship in 

 the world, was built at Cardington, 

 Bedford, for the American navy. 

 Its gas-containing capacity was 

 about 2,700,000 ft. ; length, 695 

 ft. ; diameter, 85 ft. 4 ins. ; en- 

 gines, 6 Sunbeam Cossack of 350 

 h.p. On Aug. 24, 1921, she was 

 wrecked while flying over the 



Raab, Hungary. The Town Hall 



Humber, only five out of her com- 

 pany of 49 being saved. 



R80 was built at Barrow by 

 Messrs. Vickers, launched in July, 

 1920, and put back for alterations, 

 making her trials in Feb., 1921. 

 She is 530 ft. long, 70 ft. in dia- 

 meter, with a gross gas capacity of 

 1,250,000 cu. ft. She can make 

 65 m. per hour for 4,000 m., and 

 has a cruising speed of 50 m. per 

 hour for about 6,500 m. See N.V. 

 R.A. Abbrev. for Royal Acad- 

 emy or Academician ; Royal Artil- 

 ery ; Rear- Admiral. 



Ra OR RE. Egyptian Sun- god. 

 Represented as a solar disk tra- 

 versing the sky in a bark, incense 

 was offered to him at dawn, noon, 

 and sunset. At Heliopolis his 

 principal temple was erected in the 

 Xllth dynasty. Assimilated to 

 Horus of Edfu, he became hawk- 

 headed, with sun-disk and uraeus 

 (serpent head-dress). From the 

 Vth dynasty every king bore a 

 Ra-name. See Amen-Ra ; Egypt. 

 Raab. River, city, and co. of 

 Hungary, the Magyar name being 

 Gyor. The river, also called the 

 Raba 1 , rises in the E. Alps in Aus- 



tria and flows in a curved 



course through Hungary to 

 join the Little Danube at 

 the town ; its length is 160 

 m. The co. lies S. of the 

 Danube in the Upper Hun- 

 garian Plain, and com- 

 prises the lower valley of 

 the river. Its area is 580 

 sq. m. The city, formerly 

 a royal Hungarian free city, 

 is 67 m. W.N.W. of Buda- 

 pest ; it occupies the site of 

 the Roman Arrabona. The 

 chief edifices are the hand- 

 some town hall, th5 15th 



