COMPROMISE OF 1850 



1523 



COMTE 



When the air expands it cools very rapidly, 

 and unless means are provided for preventing 

 the lowering of temperature the machines 

 operated by compressed air soon become cov- 

 ered with frost and ice. To avoid this the 

 compressed air is usually passed through a 

 warming chamber before being admitted to 

 the machine. 



Uses. Compressed air is used for so many 

 purposes that to name them all would be im- 

 practicable. One of the most common uses 

 is for the operation of pneumatic tools (which 

 see), such as drills, riveting machines and the 

 various tools employed in engraving stone. 

 The air brake system on trains is operated by 

 compressed air (see AIR BRAKE). A machine 

 for shearing sheep is operated by compressed 

 air, another device rings the bell on locomo- 

 tives, and another is used in foundries for 

 tamping the sand in large molds. 



Compressed air locomotives are employed in 

 mines for hauling cars and also in tunneling 

 operations. There is no risk from fire in their 

 use, and they do not give off poisonous gases. 

 In some countries of Europe street cars are 

 operated to a limited extent by compressed 

 air, but its use on street cars in America is 

 confined to a few so-called "owl" cars cars 

 that run after midnight, when for economical 

 reasons the electric power used during the day 

 is shut off. 



Compressed air is sometimes used by physi- 

 cians for expanding the lungs beyond their 

 natural capacity. In such uses the pressure 

 is a little higher than that of the atmosphere 

 in its natural state, which is about fifteen 

 pounds to the square inch. W.F.R. 



COMPROMISE, kom'promize, OF 1850, a 

 series of measures passed in August, 1850, in 

 the Congress of the United States, their pur- 

 pose being to allay the strife between the pro- 

 slavery and anti-slavery factions, by granting 

 concessions to both parties. It contained the 

 propositions (1) that Texas be paid $10,000,000 

 to relinquish its claims on New Mexico; (2) 

 that California be admitted as a free state; 

 (3) that the remaining territory obtained from 

 Mexico be organized into the territories of 

 New Mexico (then including Arizona) and 

 Utah, without reference to slavery; (4) that 

 the slave trade be abolished in the District of 

 Columbia and (5) that the South be granted 

 an efficient fugitive slave law. The legislation 

 helped to postpone the War of Secession for 

 a decade. These measures were passed largely 

 through the efforts of Daniel Webster, Henry 



Clay and John C. Calhoun. See GUADALUPE 

 HIDALGO, TREATY OF; FUGITIVE SLAVE LAWS; 

 KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL. 



COMPUL'SORY EDUCATION. See EDUCA- 

 TION, subtitle Compulsory Education. 



COMTE, koNt, ISIDORE AUGUSTS MARIE 

 FRANCOIS XAVIER (1798-1857), a French philoso- 

 pher who founded the system known as pos- 

 itivism. The central idea of this philosophy 

 is that the only real knowledge that man can 

 have is the knowledge of things about him. 

 The disciples of Comte think of him as the 

 founder of a new religion, the religion of 

 humanity, for he taught that all should wor- 

 ship humanity, the "Great Being" of which 

 each one is a part. 



The founder of positivism was born in Mont- 

 pellier, where he received his early schooling. 

 At the age of sixteen he entered the polytech- 

 nique school of Paris and two years later began 

 to earn his living by teaching mathematics. 

 At this time he was an enthusiastic admirer 

 of the life of Benjamin Franklin, and, in imi- 

 tation of the late American philosopher, 

 "formed the design of becoming perfectly 

 wise." In 1818 he came under the influence 

 of the socialist Saint Simon, who suggested 

 to him the basic ideas on which his own sys- 

 tem rests. Twice during his life he had attacks 

 of insanity. 



Comte's theories were well worked out by 

 1826, when he began to advance them in a 

 course of lectures, but overwork caused his 

 health to break. After recovery he began to 

 put his philosophic system into permanent 

 form, and in 1830 published the first volume 

 of his Course of Positive Philosophy, the last 

 and sixth volume appearing in 1842. This 

 work was really an introduction to his System 

 of Positive Polity, published between 1851 

 and 1854. Comte held a position in the poly- 

 technique school between 1836 and 1846, but 

 after 1848 he lived on a fund raised by public 

 subscription. 



The key to the philosophy of positivism is 

 what Comte called the Law of Three States 

 that men's thoughts show three' stages of de- 

 velopment. In the first period, the theolog- 

 ical stage, they believe that divine beings pro- 

 duce all phenomena; in the second, the meta- 

 physical stage, they believe that abstract forces, 

 either mental or physical, are the cause of all 

 activity; in the third, the positive stage, they 

 cease to inquire into the causes of phenomena 

 and confine themselves, to things about which 

 they have actual knowledge. B.M!W. ' 



