GIRDER 



2498 



GLACE BAY 



financial advisor of the United States govern- 

 ment in the War of 1812 and at his death willed 

 $5,000,000 to found Girard College. He was 

 born at Bordeaux, 

 France, the son 

 of a sea captain, 

 and at the age of 

 twenty-three be- 

 came a captain 

 himself. In 1776 

 he settled in 

 Philadelphia and 

 after the Revo- 

 lutionary War 

 became much in- 

 terested in the 

 first United STEPHEN GIRARD 



States Bank, buying most of its stock and 

 buildings in 1812. This he made one of the 

 soundest and most successful institutions in 

 the United States, and in 1814 he took up 

 almost an entire loan of $5,000,000 for the 

 government. Later he became one of the prin- 

 cipal stockholders and directors in the second 

 United States Bank. He left his immense 

 fortune to charitable and municipal institu- 

 tions in Philadelphia and New Orleans. 



GIR'DER, a beam, the two ends of which 

 rest upon a pier, wall or other support and 

 carry a load such as a floor or superstructure 

 of a bridge. In buildings where great strength 

 is necessary the girder may rest on an extra 



GIRDERS 



(a) Perspective of a corner steel column, show- 

 ing girders and wind-braces; (b) compound I 

 girder; (c) I girder; (d) box girder; (e, f) 

 wrought-iron girders. 



support in the middle, in which case it is known 

 as a continuous girder. Wood, cast iron and 

 wrought iron are occasionally used, but steel 

 girders are fast superseding other material. 

 The simplest form of girder is the solid I 

 beam; a more complex and stronger beam is 

 the compound I girder, in which the weight 

 is spread over a larger surface at the two 

 ends. A box girder is a solid beam with 

 flanges connected by two web plates, resem- 



bling a large rectangular box. In order fur- 

 ther to strengthen girders, braces are used at 

 corners, as shown in (a) in the illustration. 

 All steel girders are made in rolling mills, by 

 methods similar to those employed in rolling 

 rails for railroad tracks. See ROLLING MILL. 



GIRONDISTS, jiron'dists, a political party 

 in the Legislative Assembly and National Con- 

 vention during the French Revolution (1791- 

 1793). The name was applied because of the 

 fact that the most brilliant exponents of its 

 point of view were deputies from the district 

 near Bordeaux called the Gironde. 



Madame Roland, whose salon became their 

 gathering place, exercised a powerful influence 

 on the spirit and policy of the Girondists, but 

 such party cohesion as they possessed was due 

 to the energy of Brissot, who was regarded as 

 their spokesman in the Assembly and the 

 Jacobin Club. They were distinguished for 

 visionary ideals, rather than for a well-defined 

 policy. They became an easy prey for the 

 more radical Jacobins, and their overthrow 

 was accomplished in June, 1793. See ROLAND 

 DE LA PLATIERE, MADAME; JACOBINS; FRENCH 

 REVOLUTION. 



GIZZARD, giz'ard, a portion of the digestive 

 apparatus found in certain animals, especially 

 in birds, where hard, solid food is ground to 

 fineness. The gizzard of birds is a muscular 

 bag in the stomach, lined with a thick, tough 

 membrane. Food first enters a pouch called 

 the crop, where it is moistened in a fluid se- 

 creted there. Passing next to the stomach, it 

 is mixed with gastric juice. It then goes into 

 the gizzard, where it is crushed by the mus- 

 cular action of the thick walls; gravel swal- 

 lowed by the bird assists in the grinding proc- 

 ess. Birds that eat grain have more powerful 

 gizzards than those which eat insects, but in 

 birds of prey the gizzard is only slightly de- 

 veloped. Among other animals possessing a 

 gizzard are the earthworm, the crayfish and its 

 allies, and certain insects. See POULTRY, for 

 picture. 



GLACE, glase, BAY, a coal-mining town in 

 Nova Scotia, at the east end of Cape Breton 

 Island. It is connected with Sydney, fourteen 

 miles to the west, by the Sydney & Louisburg 

 Railway. Glace Bay is the center of the 

 Dominion Coal Company's properties, which 

 yield most of Nova Scotia's output of coal and 

 employ over 10,000 miners. From the harbor, 

 which is on the Atlantic, coal is shipped to 

 Canadian and foreign ports. There are fish- 

 eries and a rich farming district in the vicinity, 



