RAYNES PARK 



65O5 



RAZOR SHELL 



F. J. M. Raynouard, 

 French author 



brought on by exposure to cold or 

 emotional disturbance. The con- 

 dition, which may be associated 

 with severe pain, usually passes off 

 in an hour or two. After repeated 

 and severe attacks, gangrene of the 

 fingers and toes may occur. Fre- 

 quently the same digits on either 

 side of the body are affected ; hence 

 the alternative name, " symmetri- 

 cal gangrene." In severe cases the 

 patient should be kept in bed, and 

 the toes wrapped in cotton -wool. 



Raynes Park. District of 

 Greater London. It lies S. of Wim- 

 bledon, between Merton Park and 

 New Maldon, in the co. of Surrey, 

 and has a station on the L. & 

 S. W.R., 8J m. from Waterloo. Pop. 

 5,800. 



Raynouard, FRANCOIS JUSTE 

 MARIE (1761-1836). French author 

 and philologist. Born at Brignoles, 

 Provence, 

 Sept. 8, 1761, 

 he was edu- 

 cated as a 

 lawyer, and 

 became an 

 advocate. He 

 was confined 

 to prison 

 during the 

 Revo lution, 

 owing to his 

 Girondist sympathies, and while 

 there wrote a tragedy, Caton. His 

 single dramatic success was with 

 Lea Templiers, at the Com^die 

 Fran9aise, 1805. Two years later 

 he was elected a member of 

 the French Academy, and in 1817 

 was appointed its secretary. In 

 1816 he began the publication of 

 his Choix de Poesies Originales des 

 Troubadours ; the sixth and last 

 volume was issued in 1821. His 

 great Lexique Roman, a word- 

 book of the medieval Proven9al 

 language, was posthumously pub- 

 lished in six volumes, 1838-44. He 

 died at Passy, Oct. 27, 1836. See 

 Origin of Romance Languages, Sir 

 G. C. Lewis, 1839. 



Rayonne (Fr. rayonner, to 

 radiate). Arrangement of trenches 

 or fortifications in which the para- 

 pets of the series radiate from a 

 central point. See Fortification. 



Rayonne. In heraldry, any 

 charge decorated with rays. The 

 rays are usually of gold, silver, or 

 red, and re- 

 presenting 

 light or 

 flames. The 

 term is also 

 applied to a 

 line of demar- 

 cation, com- 

 posed of a 

 series of rays 



Rayonne in with wavy 



heraldry outline. 



Razor (Fr. rasoir, from Lat. 

 radere, to scrape). Keen-edged cut- 

 ting blade employed for shaving. 

 The custom of removing the hair 

 from the face, either altogether or 

 from certain parts, is one that 

 goes far back in the history of the 

 human race. For this purpose the 

 razor was made of various mate- 

 rials before the bronze or iron ages, 

 a sufficiently sharp edge being 

 ground on flints, shells, or bones. 



In modern times the manufac- 

 ture of razors has formed a special 

 branch of the cutler's trade, involv- 

 ing the use of the finest materials, 

 and expert care at every stage of 

 the process. The best razors are 

 Btill made from special hand-forged 

 steel, though moulded or pressed 

 steel has been employed for mass 

 production with satisfactory re- 

 sults ; but whatever method is em- 

 ployed much depends upon the 

 tempering of the steel, and in this 

 matter the ordinary purchaser may 

 have good or bad luck. 



Sheffield, England, has long held 

 the supremacy for high quality 

 razors, as well as other tools, and 

 when the hollow-ground razor was 

 introduced from Germany, Shef- 

 field was soon able to produce high 

 quality razors of the same type. 



A Sheffield man, too, Michael 

 Hunter, is credited with the inven- 

 tion of the first safety-razor in 

 1875. This was an ordinary razor 

 provided with a guard. Successive 

 improvements, 

 particularly in the 

 U.S.A., resulted 

 in the modern type 

 of safety-razor, in 

 which the blade 

 is a thin double- 

 edged leaf of fine 

 steel about an inch long, which 

 in many cases can be re-stropped 

 by a special device. This form 

 proved universally popular, but in 

 many people's opinion, including 

 that of the barbers, the old form of 



razor at its best gives, of course in 

 capable hands, the best results. 

 See Beard ; Steel. 



. Razorbill (Alca torda). British 

 sea bird of the auk family. It is 17 

 ins. long in body, and the plumage 



Razorbill. British sea bird allied to 

 the extinct Great Auk 



is greenish black on the upper 

 parts, brown on the throat, and 

 white below. The beak is very 

 massive, and is flattened laterally ; 

 and the bird generally much re- 

 sembles the extinct great auk, of 

 which it is the nearest living rela- 

 tion. It occurs sparsely around 

 the British coasts. It spends nearly 

 all its time on the water, resorting 

 to the cliffs in the breeding season. 

 Razor Shell OR RAZOR FISH. 

 Popular name for the solen, a 

 common bivalve mollusc of which 



Razor Shell. 



The common bivalve Solen siliqna 



about five species occur around the 

 British coasts. The shell is long and 

 very narrow. Solens are to be found 

 between tide marks on every sandy 

 beach. They burrow deeply and 

 rapidly into the wet sand. 



Razor. 1. Primitive pattern, bronze. 2. Bronze razor of very early date, 



found in Athens. 3. Early Phoenician, with engraved bronze blade. 4. Modern 



razor with hollow-ground blade. 5. Type of safety-razor 



13. Britith Museum 



