ROANOKE 



ROBERT II 



and navigable by steamers for 120 

 m. to Weldon. 



Roanoke. City of Virginia, 

 U.S.A., in Roanoke co. It stands 

 on Roanoke river, 55 m. W. of 

 Lynch burg, on the Virginian and 

 the Norfolk and Western Rlys. 

 Here is Virginia College, and in the 

 neighbourhood are Roanoke, Eliza- 

 beth, and other colleges. A com- 

 mercial and industrial city, Roan- 

 oke has rly. workshops, flour mills, 

 bridge works, and agricultural 

 implement, twine, motor- vehicle, 

 and hydraulic factories. Roanoke 

 became a city in 1884. Pop 

 50,800. 



Roaring. Complaint affecting 

 horses. Roaring or whistling in a 

 horse may result from catarrhal 

 affections of the throat, but the 

 fault more usually arises from de- 

 fects in the air passages, and is in 

 such case hereditary. It is particu- 

 larly a failure of the thoroughbred 

 horse, more especially those of 

 Barb stock, but is rarely found in 

 cobs or ponies. There is no cure, 

 but a tracheotomy tube inserted 

 in the throat prevents the sound. 

 Judicious dieting does much to 

 palliate the trouble. See Horse. 



Roaring Forties. Part of the 

 S. oceans between 40 and 50 S. lat. 

 Here the sailor encounters the pre- 

 valent and frequently boisterous 

 W. winds of the S. hemisphere, 

 the Brave West Winds. Sailing 

 ships rounding the Horn into the 

 Atlantic rely upon these winds ; 

 going in the opposite direction such 

 ships are compelled to tack far to 

 the S. to avoid them, and so enter 

 within the limits of pack ice. These 

 winds, blowing for thousands of 

 miles over the oceans, bring regular 

 rams to the W. coasts of Tasmania 

 and S. Island, N.Z. ; during the S. 

 winter they carry rain to the S. of 

 Australia. 



Roasting. Metallurgical pro- 

 cess wherein ore is heated high 

 enough to cause chemical change, 

 but not sufficiently high to melt 

 ore. Chloridising roasting consists 

 of heating with salt, and the pro- 

 duct is a chloride. Sometimes the 

 roasting is conducted at a low tem- 

 perature and with a limited supply 

 of air to produce sulphates. Such a 

 process is called sulphating. Dur- 

 ing roasting some minerals become 

 magnetic, and can then be separ- 

 ated by means of a magnet. Oxi- 

 dising roasting is heating in a cur- 

 rent of air, and the products are 

 mainly oxides. With reducing 

 roasting a metal is separated from 

 a chemical compound by a reduc- 

 ing agent such as coal or carbon. 

 See Furnace ; Mineralogy. 



Roasting Furnace. In metal- 

 lurgy, a type of furnace in which 

 ores are heated to expel certain 



constituents, or change their form 

 without actually melting the ore. 

 The roasting furnace is frequently a 

 reverberatory furnace, and in that 



Roasting Furnace. Diagram illus- 

 trating construction of a double 

 furnace. See text 



case the ore is not in contact with 

 the fuel, but the heat is reverberated 

 from the top or sides of the furnace 

 on to the ore. The figure shows a 

 double roasting furnace with pre- 

 heating hearth. A, A 1 , roasting 

 beds ; B, hearth ; C, C 1 , hoppers 

 with sliding doors, C, C 1 , for the 

 introduction of ore. D, D, D are 

 openings through which ore is 

 passed from one bed to the bed 

 below ; E, E, E, E, side doors for 

 raking and removal of roasted ore ; 

 F, furnace. A roasting hearth is 

 also a form of roasting furnace, the 

 simplest and oldest type. See 

 under the names of particular fur- 

 naces, e.g. Brown's, Siemens', etc. ; 

 also Calcination ; Furnace. 



Roatan OR RTJATAN-. Island off 

 the coast of and belonging to 

 Honduras, Central America. It is 

 40 m. N.W. of Trujillo and is 

 30 m. long and 8 m. wide. Covered 

 partly with forest and partly with 

 grassy plains, it yields tropical 

 fruits. Roatan on the S. coast is 

 the administrative centre for the 

 Bay islands, of which Roatan Island 

 is the largest. 



Roath. Suburb of Cardiff, S. 

 Wales. It stands on the Rhymney, 

 to the S.E. of the city proper. Here 

 is S. Margaret's Church, rebuilt in 

 the 19th century, to which is at- 

 tached the mortuary chapel of the 

 marquess of Bute. Roath Park is a 

 large public park. See Cardiff. 



Robben. Island of S. Africa. 

 Situated at the entrance to Table 

 Bay, S. Africa, about 8 m. N.W. 

 from Cape Town, it is a leper and 

 convict settlement, with a pop. of 

 1,500. Its Dutch name means 

 Seal Island. v 



Robbery. In law, theft from 

 the person, accompanied by vio- 

 lence. The English law is set out 

 in the Larceny Act, 1916, s. 23, 

 re-enacting an earlier statute. 

 Every person who (a) being armed 

 with any offensive weapon or 



instrument, or in concert with one 

 or more other persons, robs, or 

 assaults with intent to rob, any 

 person ; or (6) robs any person and 

 at the time, or immediately before 

 or after, uses personal violence, is 

 guilty of felony. He may be pun- 

 ished by penal servitude for life 

 or any less period, and in addition 

 may be sentenced to be whipped, if 

 a male. The essence of robbery is 

 violence or terrorism. See Larceny; 

 Theft. 



Robe. Word originally used for 

 a garment, but now applied more 

 especially to one worn on ceremo- 

 nial occasions. Such are the robes 

 worn at coronations, by peers at 

 the opening of Parliament, by 

 mayors and aldermen, and by 

 persons in authority at the univer- 

 sities. There are also distinctive 

 robes for the great orders of 

 knighthood. See Costume ; Gown ; 

 Knighthood. 



Robert. Masculine Christian 

 name of Teutonic origin. It means 

 bright fame. It was early popular 

 in France, whence it passed to 

 England and Scotland, becoming 

 very frequent in both countries. 

 The Italian form is Roberto. Robin 

 is a diminutive. Hob and Rob are 

 contractions used in Scotland ; Bob 

 is more frequent in England. 

 Rupert is a variant of Robert. It 

 is frequent in Germany under the 

 form Ruprecht and became known 

 in England owing to the fame of 

 the cavalier prince Rupert. The 

 feminine form is Roberta. 



Robert I. King of Scotland. 

 Official designation of the ruler 

 who is better known as Robert 

 Bruce. See Bruce. 



Robert II (1316-90). King 

 of Scotland. Born March 2, 1316, 

 he was a grandson of Robert the 

 Bruce, his 

 mother being 

 the king's 

 daughter ; his 

 father was 

 Walter the 

 steward of 

 Scotland and, 

 having taken 

 this for a sur- 

 name, Robert 

 was the first of 

 the line of Steward or Stuart kings 

 who later became also kings of 

 England. When only two years 

 old, Parliament chose him as 

 Brace's successor, but the birth of 

 a son to Bruce in 1324 changed 

 the position. This son, David II, 

 became king in 1329, and from then 

 until 1371 Robert was one of the 

 chief men of his kingdom. Several 

 times he was made regent, and he 

 was a leader at the battle of 

 Neville's Cross, but later he 

 rebelled against David and was 



Robert II. 

 King of Scotland 



