COMANCHE 



1.-.US 



COMEDY 



elaborate capital. The latter consists of a bell- 

 Bhaped core surrounded by one or two rows of 

 acanthus leaves, above which are pairs of 

 branching scrolls meeting at the corners In 

 spiral volutes. Famous among the examples 

 of Greek Corinthian art Is the Monument of 

 Lystkrates. at Athens. 



The Roman Orders. Under the Romans the 

 column became an architectural feature of won- 

 derful variety and beauty. Five orders are 

 usually assigned to them, the Tuscan, Doric, 

 Ionic, Corinthian and Composite. The Tuscan 

 is an elementary Doric with a column seven 

 diameters in height. Their Doric column, bor- 

 rowed from the Greek, is generally provided 

 with a simple molded base, which rests on a 

 square plinth. The Greek Ionic they adopted 

 with very little change, but the Corinthian 

 was greatly enriched and elaborated, becom- 

 ing a distinct Roman order. To these four 

 they added the Composite, formed by combin- 

 ing into one capital portions of the Ionic and 

 Corinthian capitals, and especially pleasing to 

 the Romans because of its rich ornamentation. 

 Columns designed to serve as memorials to 

 famous personages and events were greatly 

 favored by the Romans, who erected for this 

 purpose massive towerlike columns fitted with 

 interior staircases. Representative of these 

 were Trojan's Column and the Column of An- 

 tonine. 



Columns of Later Periods. In early Chris- 

 tian and medieval European architecture the 

 column was used freely and in a variety of 

 forms, with notable modifications of the shafts. 

 These were often spiral, twisted or knotted, 

 and were employed more often in groups than 

 singly, chiefly as supports for arches. The 

 interior of the beautiful Cathedral of Notre 

 Dame, at Paris, begun in 1163, affords a con- 

 spicuous example of the combination of arch 

 and shaft. With the Renaissance there came 

 a revival of all the Roman types of column, 

 together with the invention of new forms of the 

 shaft. Of special note are the colonnades of 

 Saint Peter's Church in Rome and of the 

 Louvre, in Paris. In modern architecture the 

 Greek, Roman and Renaissance types of col- 

 umns are used in public buildings and in large 

 business structures to give an effect of gran- 

 deur. See ARCHITECTURE. B.M.W. 



COMANCHE, koman'che, a tribe of Indians 

 closely related to the Shoshoni of Wyoming. 

 When first known they occupied Eastern Colo- 

 rado and the territory southward to the boun- 

 dary of Mexico. They were among the most 

 skilful and daring horsemen of the plains, and 



were extremely warlike, being constantly at 

 war with the Spaniards. When Texas became 

 independent they were driven from their best 

 hunting grounds and for years waged war on 

 the Texans. Later they engaged in border 

 warfare with the United States troops, and it 

 was not until 1875 that they surrendered and 

 were placed on a reservation in Western Okla- 

 homa, where they now live. They are slowly 

 decreasing, numbering now about 1,100. For 

 customs and habits, see INDIANS, AMERICAN. 



COMBUSTION, kombus'chun, in the or- 

 dinary meaning of the term, is the union of 

 oxygen with some substance which will pro- 

 duce light and heat. We ordinarily think of 

 combustion only in connection with fire, but in 

 its broadest meaning the term is much more 

 widely extended. From the viewpoint of the 

 chemist any union of oxygen with another sub- 

 stance is combustion. The burning of chlorine 

 in hydrogen is combustion, as is also the burn- 

 ing of any substance in chlorine. 



The temperature of the burning substance 

 depends upon the rapidity of the combustion. 

 The amount of heat generated in the burning 

 of a given substance, as a ton of coal, is always 

 the same, if quality is unchanged, regardless 

 of the time required in its combustion. If 

 the coal burns slowly the temperature is 

 lower than when it burns rapidly, but the 

 slow-burning requires a proportionately longer 

 time. See FIRE, for description of how com- 

 bustion causes fire. 



Spontaneous Combustion. Heaps of rags 

 soaked with oil, or piles of bituminous coal 

 which contains moisture and some other sub- 

 stances, occasionally take fire without being ig- 

 nited from some outside source. Burning of this 

 sort is termed spontaneous combustion. The 

 fire is caused by the union of oxygen with the 

 carbon and hydrogen in the substance with 

 such rapidity as to raise the temperature above 

 the igniting point. Very disastrous fires have 

 been started in this way. 



Superstitious people sometimes think that 

 death is caused by spontaneous combustion. 

 In Bleak House, Dickens attributes the death 

 of the "Lord Chancellor of the Rag and Bottle 

 Shop" to this cause, and vividly sets forth 

 some of the circumstances. In the preface to 

 this work Dickens declares his description to 

 be based on historic facts, but the theory is 

 now rejected. 



COMEDY, kom'edi, that branch of the 

 drama which appeals to the sense of humor, 

 keeps its readers or audience in a cheerful 



