BINGHAMTON 



722 



BIOGRAPHY 



was there devoured by rats and mice. This 

 tower, built before the year 1000, was restored 

 in 1856 and now serves as a signal station for 

 ships. 



Bingen is in the Duchy of Hesse, at the point 

 where the Nahe joins the Rhine. The district 

 is noted for the culture of the vine, and there 

 is a large trade in wine. There are also im- 

 portant manufactures of starch and tobacco 

 products. Opposite the city, on a bluff above 

 the Rhine, stands a great monument com- 

 memorating the founding of the German Em- 

 pire in 1871. Population in 1910, 10,200. 



BINGHAMTON, bing'amtun, N. Y., the 

 county seat of Broome County, is in the south- 

 central part of the state, 215 miles northwest 

 of New York City and eighty miles south and 

 east of Syracuse. It is attractively situated at 

 an altitude of 867 feet, at the junction of the 

 Susquehanna and Chenango rivers, which are 

 crossed by several bridges within the city 

 limits. It is on the Erie, the Delaware & Hud- 

 son and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western 

 railroads; interurban electric lines connect with 

 various suburbs, some of which have important 

 manufacturing interests. The area is nearly 

 ten square miles. In 1910 the population was 

 48,443; in 1915 it was 53,082. 



Prominent features of Binghamton include 

 Ross Park (100 acres) and Ely Park (134 

 acres), O'Neil Park, Industrial Exposition 

 grounds, a Federal building, city hall, public 

 library, "supreme court law library, state 

 armory, an opera house and the armory the- 

 ater. The Binghamton State Hospital for the 

 Insane, and Susquehanna Valley Orphans' 

 Home and Saint Mary's Home are among the 

 leading institutions of the city. 



Binghamton is an important manufacturing 

 center; among the chief factory products are 

 boots and shoes, tobacco and cigars, cameras 

 and photographic supplies, carriages and car- 

 riage trimmings, spices, leather goods, motors, 

 clocks, furniture (Morris chairs a specialty), 

 electrical apparatus, clothing, cotton fabrics, 

 medicine, paper bags and envelopes, glass, pot- 

 tery, etc. The total value of factory products 

 is about $18,000,000 a year, and is increasing 

 at a rapid rate. 



Settled in 1787, and known as Chenango 

 Point until 1800, Binghamton was then platted 

 and named in honor of William Binghamton, 

 an owner of land in the neighborhood. The 

 place was incorporated as a village in 1834 and 

 became a city in 1867. 



BINOMIAL, by no' mi al, in algebra, a quan- 

 tity consisting of two terms or members, con- 

 nected by the sign + or ; thus a+6 or a b 

 is a binomial. Either term of a binomial may 

 itself contain two or more numbers, as 

 (x~\-y) (y x z). One of the most interest- 

 ing and important operations in all algebra 

 is the binomial theorum, perfected by Newton, 

 by which a binomial may be raised to any 

 power. See ALGEBRA. 



BIOGENESIS, by o jen' e sis, the theory 

 that all living things come from living things 

 similar to themselves, as the chick from the 

 egg and the plant from the seed. This theory 

 accounts for all life from the lowest to the 

 highest forms, both animal and vegetable. It 

 is now the theory generally accepted by biolo- 

 gists, and is opposed to the old theory which 

 accounted for each form of life by supposing it 

 to have originated from a separate creation. 

 See BIOLOGY. 



IOGRAPHY, which is derived from two 

 Greek words meaning life and to write, 

 means literally the written lives of men and 

 women. It is a very important department of 

 literature. Biographies range in length from 

 what is probably the shortest one ever written, 

 the Biblical "And Enoch walked with God; 



and he was not, for God took him," to lengthy 

 works of many volumes which touch upon 

 philosophy, upon science, upon history. 



Development of Biographic Writing. It 

 seems natural that biographical writing should 

 be one of the oldest branches of literature, for 

 there has never been a time when men have 



