BUNTING 



999 



BUNYAN 



BUNSEN BURNER 



German chemist, and for thirty-seven years 

 was professor of chemistry in the University of 

 Heidelberg. 



Bunsen Bat- 

 tery, a form of 

 galvanic battery, 

 the cell of which 

 consists of a glass 

 cup in which is 

 placed a cylinder 

 of zinc open on 

 one side, and 

 within this is a 

 porous earthen 

 cup containing a 

 rod or prism of 

 carbon. The glass 

 cup is filled with 

 weak sulphuric 



acid and the 



,1 .,, Showing, by the hand and 



earthen cup witn test-tube, how it is commonly 



nitric acid. The used - 



electric current is developed by the action of 

 the acids on the zinc. The Bunsen battery 

 works quickly, but it is now little used because 

 more convenient batteries have been invented. 

 See ELECTRIC BATTERY. 



Bunsen Burner, a form of gas burner espe- 

 cially adapted for heating. It consists of a 

 tube, in which, by means of holes in the side, 

 the gas becomes mixed with air before burn- 

 ing, so that it produces a smokeless flame 

 which gives no light but 'produces intense 

 heat. It is widely used in laboratories and 

 sometimes in soldering. 



BUNTING, the popular name of a seed-eat- 

 ing bird of the finch family. The common 

 bunting, or corn bunting, seen in most culti- 

 vated districts of England, does considerable 

 damage to maturing crops, but its food is 

 very largely of weed seeds and it is therefore 

 a friend of the farmer. The snow bunting, or 

 snowbird, is one of the few birds to be seen 

 in the Arctic regions of Canada. In the United 

 States the cowbird, or cow blackbird, is fre- 

 quently called the cow bunting. Many bunt- 

 ings are beautifully colored, and for that rea- 

 son the painted bunting, especially, is valued 

 and sought as a cage bird. See FINCH; BIRDS. 



BUN'YAN, JOHN (1628-1688), the author of 

 the most famous and one of the greatest alle- 

 gories ever written The Pilgrim's Progress. 

 This remarkable book has been translated into 

 seventy-five languages and dialects more than 

 any other book except the Bible; and has been 

 read with eager interest in every part of the 



JOHN BUNYAN 



world. Briefly stated, it is the story of the 

 spiritual life of man, the account of Chris- 

 tian's j o u r n e y 

 through the world 

 and his final tri- 

 umph in the Ce- 

 lestial City. Re- 

 ligious books 

 which mirror 

 forth truthfully 

 the struggle of 

 the soul were 

 written before, 

 and have been 

 written since; 



why, then, should 



Undaunted by environment, 

 this one, the work he wrote one of the world's 



r>{ STI unprliipntpH greatest books while impris- 

 ol an uneducated oned for speakln g in public. 



tinker, have 



taken such a hold on the affections of people 



everywhere? 



The Pilgrim's Progress is not merely a relig- 

 ious dissertation; it is a vivid, dramatic story, 

 with an allegory so plain that it never per- 

 plexes or retards the reader who is anxious to 

 know what happens next. For Bunyan did 

 not content himself with simply stating that 

 his hero passed through periods of despond- 

 ency and doubt; he showed him wallowing in 

 the Slough of Despond and shut up in Doubt- 

 ing Castle by the Giant Despair. Lions and 

 "foul fiends" move through the pages, which 

 are yet so enlivened by humor, kindliness and 

 simple, natural touches that every reader can 

 recognize in the trials of Christian a lifelike 

 picture of his own existence. 



Bunyan's Life. The son of a poor tinker, 

 Bunyan was born at Elstow, near Bedford, in 

 England, and after a very brief period spent 

 in school began helping his father at his forge. 

 At the age of sixteen, however, he ran away 

 from home and joined the Parliamentary army 

 in the civil war against Charles I. He was a 

 boy of intense nature and strong passions, and 

 the spirit of the age turned much of his inten- 

 sity toward religious questions. The fiery 

 preaching of the Puritans terrified him, and 

 all his reckless living and profanity could not 

 deaden his conscience. At last, mainly through 

 the efforts of his wife, he determined to change 

 his manner of life, and after a spiritual strug- 

 gle which lasted for years, peace came to him. 

 With characteristic zeal he threw himself into 

 Christian work, and as a preacher in the Bap- 

 tist Church he awakened others to all the fears 

 which had been his in his early days. 



