BLOCKHOUSE 774 



pulley. It can be made to possess a very large 

 mechanical advantage. The lower block is 

 single, but the upper block has two pulleys of 

 different sizes, fastened so that neither one 

 can turn without the other. When the chain 

 is pulled at p it is wound on the larger pulley 

 faster than it unwinds from the smaller. If 

 the circumference of the larger pulley is thirty- 

 sue inches and that of the smaller is thirty-two 

 inches, when the wheels have been turned once 

 the weight will have been raised the difference, 

 or four inches. Meanwhile, the hand pulling 

 at the rope moves thirty-six inches, nine times 

 as far, and has exerted a force only one-ninth 

 that of the weight. The mechanical advantage 

 in this case is thus seen to be nine, but increases' 

 as the difference in the size of the pulleys 

 decreases. C.H.H. 



BLOCK 'HOUSE, a military fortification, 

 formerly erected on frontiers and in pioneer 

 settlements, usually to serve as a place of last 

 resort in case of attack by hostile forces. Such 

 houses were generally built of heavy logs or 

 blocks of hewn 

 timber, banked 

 with earth. They 

 were fitted with 

 loopholes for 

 musketry at the 

 sides and in over- 

 hanging floors of 

 upper stories. 

 Built in the form 

 of a square or 

 cross, they were 

 made large 

 enough for twen- 

 ty - five to 100 

 men. Such 



houses saved many lives in the early wars 

 with Indians. Even later, in the Spanish- 

 American and Boer wars they were employed 

 to good effect. Against such modern artillery 

 tt was developed in the War of the Nations, 

 beginning in 1914, blockhouses were useless, 

 and fighting from trenches became the chief 

 defense of all armies. 



BLOEMFONTEIN, bloom' Jon tone, a Dutch 

 word meaning fountain of flowers, is the name 

 of the capital of Orange Free State in the 

 Union of South Africa, founded in 1846, about 

 600 miles northeast of Cape Town. It is well 

 located on a plateau 5,000 feet above sea 

 level, and has a healthful climate. A small 

 stream, named the Bloemspruit, flows through 

 the town and 'supplies a portion of the city's 



BLOCKHOUSE 



BLONDIN 



water, the remainder being obtained from the 

 Modder River and conveyed a distance of 

 twenty-four miles to the city. 



It is on the main line of the Cape-to-Cairo 

 Railway, and is in direct communication with 

 all the principal South African towns. In edu- 

 cational facilities Bloemfontein is far more 

 advanced than most South African towns. It 

 has good schools and a university, the buildings 

 of which were erected in 1906 at a cost of 

 $625,000. In the South African War Bloem- 

 fontein was occupied by Lord Roberts with- 

 out opposition. In 1910 the city was chosen 

 as the capital of the Orange Free State Prov- 

 ince, then incorporated into the Union of South 

 Africa, and became the seat of the Supreme 

 Court of the Union. Population in 1911, 26,925, 

 of whom 14,720 were white and 12,205 colored, 

 the latter mostly of the Bechuana and Basuto 

 tribes. 



BLONDEL, bloNdel', a French minstrel 

 who figures in a romantic tale of the twelfth 

 century. He was the trusted attendant of 

 Richard the Lion-hearted, king of England, as 

 well as his instructor in music. During Rich- 

 ard's journey homeward from the Crusades he 

 was captured by the Duke of Austria and con- 

 fined in a castle on the Danube. Blondel, as 

 the story goes, wandered all over Germany in 

 search of his royal master. Hearing that a 

 distinguished captive lay within the Castle of 

 Diirrenstein, he stood before that fortress and 

 began to sing a song which he and the king 

 had written together. Joyfully the minstrel 

 heard the loved voice of his master take up the 

 second stanza, and then he hastened home to 

 England to secure the king's ransom. Blondel 

 is mentioned in Sir Walter Scott's Talisman. 

 See RICHARD I. 



BLONDIN, bloNdaN', (1824-1897), the as- 

 sumed name of a famous French tight-rope 

 walker, JEAN FRANCOIS GRAVELET, whose re- 

 markable feats in his dangerous profession in- 

 cluded the crossing of Niagara Falls on a tight 

 rope. After a brilliant career in France he 

 sailed to America with the Ravel family of 

 acrobats, and while visiting Niagara conceived 

 the idea of making the thrilling trip above 

 the seething waters. Having bridged the dis- 

 tance with a rope 1,100 feet long and 160 feet 

 above the water, he made the trip on August 

 17, 1859, in the presence of 50,000 spectators. 

 Not once but many times did he walk across; 

 some trips were made blindfolded and more 

 than once he carried a man on his back over 

 the roaring cataract. 



