RARE EARTHS 



6493 



RASPBERRY 



S.S.W. of Strasbourg. It produces 

 excellent red and white wines, and 

 its industries include textile manu- 

 facture, printing, and dyeing. There 

 are a calcium-sulphate mineral 

 spring recommended for gravel and 

 similar disorders, and a carbon- 

 dioxide spring bottled for use as 

 table water. 



The town is connected with the 

 main rly. line by a normal gauge 

 rly., 2J m. long, laid on the high 

 road. To the W. are the ruins of the 

 castles of Hohrappolstein, Ulrichs- 

 burg, and Girsberg, formerly the 

 seats of the lords of Rappoltstein. 

 The chapel of the Jungfrau Maria 

 von Dusenbach is dedicated to the 

 patron saint of the Alsatian pipers 

 and pilgrim minstrels. Above the 

 town a barrier of unhewn stones, 

 8-10 ft. high, encircles the crest of 

 the Vosges. Pop. 6,000. 



Rare Earths. Name given to 

 certain metallic oxides formerly re- 

 garded as elementary bodies, as 

 yttria, erbia, ceria, lantbana, sam- 

 aria, and didymia. They are con- 

 veniently classified according to 

 the elements they yield : I. The 

 yttrium group, consisting of dys- 

 prosium, erbium, holmium, ter- 

 bium, thulium, yttrium, and ytter- 

 bium. II. The cerium group, con- 

 sisting of cerium, decipium, euro- 

 pium, gadolinium, lanthanum, 

 neodymium, praseodymium, sam- 

 arium, and scandium. III. Thori- 

 um. IV. Zirconium. The oxides 

 are known as rare earths because of 

 the comparatively small quantities 

 which are found in minerals. 



The thorium salts are the most 

 important, and are employed in the 

 manufacture of Incandescent gas 

 mantles. The only known deposits 

 of monazite sand of commer- 

 cial importance are those worked 

 on the coast of Brazil and in Trav- 

 ancore, India, the latter being the 

 richest in thoria. Cerium and its 

 compounds are used in medicine, 

 also for making pyrophoric alloys, 

 carbons for flaming arc lights, and 

 for optical glass. Zirconium has 

 been suggested for use as a refrac- 

 tory metal. See Element. 



Rarotonga. Largest of the 

 Cook Islands, in the Pacific Ocean. 

 Of volcanic origin, it is the most 

 fertile in the group. The moun- 

 tainous interior, 3,000 ft., is for- 

 ested, and a belt of alluvial soil, 

 1 to 3 m. wide, stretches inland 

 from the coast. Avarua is the 

 seat of administration. Pop. 3,000 

 natives and 160 whites. 



Ras. In Arabic, geographical 

 name used in the sense of " cape," 

 as Ras-el-abyad, the white cape ; 

 Ras-el-kebir, the great promon- 

 tory. The word also means " head" 

 and " chief." It is specially applied 

 to the chief minister of Abyssinia, 



whose power was greater than that 

 of the negus, the nominal ruler. 



Raschette Furnace. Form ol 

 blast furnace largely used in Ger- 

 many and in the United States in 

 the smelting of lead and copper 

 ores. It was invented by a Russian 

 mining engineer, Wladimer Ras- 

 chette, of St. Petersburg, in 1862, 

 and first applied on a practical 

 scale in the Upper Harz in Ger- 

 many. Its distinguishing features 

 are, a rectangular form in plan, a 

 widening out of the body or shaft 

 of the furnace from the hearth up- 

 wards, numerous tuyeres 

 for the introduction of air 

 blast, arranged so that no 

 one is directly opposite 

 another, a melting zone or 

 crucible constructed inde- 

 pendently of the shaft, and 

 the use of water jackets 

 for preserving from injury 

 those parts of the structure 

 where the most intense heat 

 occurs. The advantage of 

 the rectangular cross section lies 

 in the fact that it permits the 

 capacity of the furnace to be greatly 

 increased beyond what would be 

 possible in a circular design. See 

 Furnace; Smelting. 



Raskolniki. Russian word 

 meaning schismatics, used as a 

 general term for all bodies which 

 dissent from the Holy Orthodox 

 Church. Such sects are somewhat 

 numerous in Russia, most of them 

 dating from the 17th and 18th cen- 

 turies. Russian dissent is emi- 

 nently conservative, and usually 

 marks a resistance to some reform 

 or change, often trivial, in the Or- 

 thodox Church. Thus sects have 

 arisen over the question of how 

 many times the Hallelujah was to 

 be repeated in the service, or how 

 many fingers should be used in 

 making the sign of the Cross. 



Rasp. Variety of file. In a rasp 

 a series of burrs are made by a 

 pointed punch to provide the filing 

 surface. See File. 



Raspail, FRANCOIS VINCENT 

 (1794-1878). French scientist and 

 politician. Born at Carpentras, 

 Jan. 25, 1794, 

 he was edu- 

 cated for the 

 Church, but re- 

 fused to take 

 orders. He 

 studied and 

 taught p h y- 

 sics in Paris, 

 and was active 

 iu advanced 

 political cir- 

 cles, 1830, being president of the 

 Amis du Peuple. Serving imprison- 

 ment after 1830, he worked on 

 chemical research, publishing his 

 Systeme de Chimie Organique, 



1833. In 1848 he proclaimed the 

 republic in Paris, was sentenced 

 to five years' imprisonment, 1852, 

 and then retired to Belgium. Re- 

 turning in 1859, he sat as deputy 

 for Lyons, 1869, and for Marseilles, 

 1876. He died at Arcueil, Seine, 

 Jan. 7, 1878. His medical re- 

 searches on antiseptics and the 

 decay of tissues anticipated in some 

 aspects the discoveries of Pasteur. 

 Raspberry (Eubus idaeus). 

 Shrub of the natural order Ros- 

 aceae. Natives of Britain and other 

 European countries, raspberries 

 will thrive in any soil 

 except clay, or one 

 that has a clay subsoil. 

 The canes should be 

 planted in autumn or 

 spring, at a distance 

 of two ft. apart, and 

 four ft. between the 

 i - ows. As they require 



Francois Raspail, 

 French scientist 



Raspberry. Fruit and leaves of a 



cultivated cane ; top, left, spray 



of flowers 



some support, they thrive best if 

 trained to wires stretched hori- 

 zontally at intervals of 18 ins. 

 above the ground. 



After planting, the canes should 

 ' be cut down to within six ins. of the 

 ground, and a dressing of well- 

 rotted manure applied to the sur- 

 face of the earth as a mulch. Young 

 canes are produced during the 

 course of the year, but these should 

 be limited to three or four from 

 each parent plant. As fruit is 

 borne only on one-year-old canes, 

 the old wood should be cut away 

 ruthlessly at the end of each sea- 

 son, and the young canes reduced 

 to about one foot in height. The 

 principal disease, raspberry spot, 

 may be dealt with by spraying 

 the canes with a weak solution 

 of sulphate of copper, or Bor- 

 deaux mixture. Raspberries are 

 shallow-rooting subjects, hence, in 

 preparing ground for then- recep- 

 tion, it is always advantageous 

 to keep the best of the soil 

 nearest to the surface. By way 

 of summer stimulant superphos- 

 phate of lime or nitrate of soda 

 may be applied, and liberal doses of 

 liquid manure during the period of 

 the ripening of the fruit. See Fruit 

 Farming. 



