COFFIN 



1465 



COHESION 



souri Pacific, and the Saint Louis, Iron Moun- 

 tain & Southern railroads. It is the terminus 

 of two interurban lines. In 1910 the population 

 was' 12,687; in 1916 it was 15,228. The area 

 of the city is nearly three square miles. 



About Coffeyville is a rich agricultural coun- 

 try. Extensive oil and gas wells, zinc and lead 

 mines, cement rock and shale beds furnish 

 abundant raw materials for a great number of 

 manufactories. The most important of these 

 are a large zinc oxide smelter, the product 

 of which is the base of paint, three oil re- 

 fineries and an oil tank car factory. 



The city has a Federal building costing 

 about $75,000, a $50,000 city hall, a Carnegie 

 Library, four banks, two hospitals, an opera 

 house and Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. or- 

 ganizations. There are two small parks, 

 Brown's and Forest Park. 



Coffeyville was settled in 1869 and named in 

 honor of A. M. Coffey, a member of the state 

 legislature. In 1871 the town was removed 

 about a mile from the original site and was 

 then incorporated. The commission form of 

 government was adopted in 1912. D.D.B. 



COFFIN, the burial case, usually a box or 

 chest, in which the dead are placed. Coffins 

 at the present time are most generally made of 

 wood, though metal, stone, glass and terra 

 cotta are sometimes employed. The outside 

 is ordinarily covered with cloth or velvet, white 

 being used for young persons, and black and 

 various shades of gray for the more aged. 



The Greeks made their coffins of burnt clay; 

 sometimes this was first molded around the 

 body and then baked. Urn-shaped and tri- 

 angular coffins, the body being placed in the 

 latter in a sitting position, were also common. 

 The Romans at first burned the bodies of 

 their dead (see CREMATION), but at the begin- 

 ning of the Christian Era stone coffins were in- 

 troduced. Many examples of these, dating 

 from the Roman period, have been excavated 

 in England. Among the wealthy Romans 

 limestone coffins were in favor. As this stone 

 was supposed to consume the body, the name 

 sarcophagus (which see) was applied to lime- 

 stone coffins, for the word sarcophagus means 

 in Greek, flesh-eating. 



A wooden coffin made of a tree trunk, cut 

 through the center and hollowed out, formed 

 the burial case of primitive man. This. variety 

 was used in England in the Middle Ages by 

 those who could not afford stone coffins, while 

 the poorest people were buried with only a 

 cloth for a covering. References in English 



fiction show that in later times wooden coffins 

 were in common use. George Eliot's carpenter- 

 hero of her novel Adam Bcde made his own 

 father's coffin, and in the masterpiece of Dick- 

 ens, when little David Copperfield was on his 

 way from school to attend his mother's funeral 

 and stopped at a shop in Yarmouth to be 

 measured for his mourning, he heard in an 

 adjoining room the tap, tap of the workman 

 who was making the coffin for his mother. 



Coffins are also used at the present time to 

 enclose bodies which are cremated, in which 

 case they are made of .light, easily-consumed 

 material, such as papier mache. See BURIAL. 



COF'FIN, CHARLES CARLETON (1823-1896), 

 an American historian and war correspondent, 

 remembered chiefly as the author of a group 

 of vivid and spirited historical tales for boys, 

 among which are Following the Flag, Winning 

 His Way, Boys of '76, Building the Nation and 

 Boys of '61. He was born at Boscawen, N. Y., 

 the son of a farmer who was able to give him 

 but little schooling. From civil engineering and 

 telegraphy he worked his way into journalism. 

 At the outbreak of the War of Secession he 

 became field correspondent for the Boston 

 Journal, and his graphic descriptions of Bull 

 Run, Antietam, Gettysburg and other battles, 

 of which he was an eye-witness, gave his paper 

 a unique reputation. Later he made a tour 

 of the world. 



COHESION, kohe'zhun, in physics, is one 

 of the properties of matter, the power which 

 makes particles of the same substance stick 

 together. Solids have the greatest amount of 

 cohesion, liquids have much less, and gaseous 

 substances none at all. If it were not for the 

 force of cohesion the particles comprising brick, 

 stone, iron or any other substance would not 

 hold together, and all the buildings of a city 

 would crumble to ruin if its power should sud- 

 denly become ineffective. For example, the 

 different parts of a solid iron wheel are held 

 together by this force, and they therefore co- 

 here when the wheel is in motion. If the 

 strain becomes too great, however, and the 

 limit of their power to hold together is ex- 

 ceeded, each part moves off in a straight line 

 instead of in a curved path, and the wheel flies 

 to pieces. Proof that liquids have this property 

 to but slight degree is seen in the case of 

 water, which changes its shape with every 

 change of pressure. Gases,' if relieved of 

 pressure, tend to scatter; the particles become 

 divided and are dissipated into the air. Co- 

 hesion differs from adhesion (which see) in 



