HELIOPOLIS 



2763 



HELL 



clearness of the atmosphere and the size of the 

 mirror used. Under favorable conditions, mes- 

 sages have been flashed more than 200 miles. 

 While it. possesses great advantages, is easily 

 portable and quickly made ready for use, the 

 heliograph has the disadvantage of depending 

 entirely on the sun, since it cannot be used in 

 cloudy weather. 



The instrument consists of a mirror glazed 

 with quicksilver, the mirror-back being covered 

 with some opaque material (see b in illustra- 

 tion), a signaling key, called the collar (a), 

 operated similarly to an ordinary telegraph key, 

 and a sighting vane (c). The whole instrument 

 is mounted on a tripod. Its chief use is in 

 military operations when neither telegraph nor 

 telephone is available. The mirror is so ad- 

 justed as to produce a flash from the sunlight 

 and to guide it in the required direction, which 

 is ascertained by the sighting vane. The 

 Morse telegraph code is used, letters being in- 

 dicated by long and short flashes produced by 

 pressing and releasing the operating key. 



HELIOPOLIS, heleop'olis, from the Greek 

 Hcliou polis, meaning city of the sun, was, in 

 ancient days, a city in Lower Egypt, situated 

 on the east side of a branch of the Nile, near 

 the apex of the Delta. Its site is now occupied 

 by the village of Matariah. The obelisks of 

 Usertesen I were erected here, as were those 

 now known as Cleopatra's Needles, one of 

 which is in New York and another in London. 

 Heliopolis was noted as a religious and educa- 

 tional center; its priests were credited with be- 

 ing great scholars, and Plato, Thales and Solon 

 are said to have studied under them. The 

 ruins of the once flourishing town were fairly 

 well preserved for a long period, but at the 

 present time little remains except one of the 

 obelisks of Usertesen I. 



HELIOS, he'leohs, in Greek legend, the 

 sun god, child of the Titan Hyperion and the 

 Titaness Theia, and brother of Aurora. He was 

 later identified with Apollo. According to the 

 myth, he dwelt in a magnificent palace in the 

 east, which he left in the morning to pursue 

 his light-giving labors and to which he was con- 

 veyed at night in a winged boat of gold. He 

 was widely worshiped, and had temples in 

 Corinth, Argos, Elis and elsewhere, with head- 

 quarters at Rhodes. In art he was represented 

 as a beautiful youth with hair unbound and 

 crowned by rays. See APOLLO. 



HELIOTROPE, he'liotrohp, a delicate, old- 

 fashioned plant which bears -deliriously-fragrant 

 blossoms. It is a plant which requires plenty 



of warmth and sunshine, and the flowers are 

 supposed to turn always toward the sun. The 

 name was there- 

 fore derived from 

 the Greek words, 

 helios, meaning 

 the sun, and 

 tropes, a turning. 

 A number of wild 

 species are found 

 in the warmer 

 parts of the 

 world, and one 

 species grows 

 along sandy 

 shores of Eastern 

 United States. 

 The heliotrope HELIOTROPE 



of greenhouses O sweetest of all the flowerets 



, , , That bloom where angels 

 and gardens, how- tread ! 



ever, is a native STEDMAN: Heliotrope. 



of Peru. It is most easily raised from cuttings 

 and grows from one to two feet high, a shrubby, 

 much-branched plant. The veined, wrinkled 

 leaves are ovally lance-shaped. The sweet, 

 tiny flowers are salver-shaped, and grow in thick 

 clusters. Their color is bluish-purple or pinkish- 

 lilac, and anything having that particular hue 

 is called heliotrope. Perfumes and sachet pow- 

 ders are made from these flowers. 



HELIOTROPE, or BLOODSTONE, a sub- 

 species of quartz, of a deep-green color, usually 

 variegated with blood-red or yellowish spots of 

 jasper. It is hard and translucent, and belongs 

 to the group of semiprecious stones. Accord- 

 ing to Pliny, the ancient historian, it derived 

 its name from the belief that if the stone were 

 thrown into water it changed the sunlight fall- 

 ing upon it into a bloodlike reflection. Helio- 

 trope is found principally in Tartary, Persia, 

 Siberia and in the island of Rum, Scotland. 

 Many fine Greek and Roman antiques set with 

 bloodstones are preserved in famous gem col- 

 lections. 



HELL, a place designated in the Scriptures 

 for the wicked after death, where they are ban- 

 ished from the sight of the Lord. In the early 

 English translations of the Bible, the word, 

 meaning a hidden or unseen place, is used for 

 the Hebrew sheol, the Greek hades and the 

 Greek gehenna (which see). Ancient Greeks 

 and Hebrews, as well as the Teutons, thought 

 that sheol or hades was a place under the earth 

 whither all people, good or bad, went after 

 death, so in the Revised Version of the New 

 Testament hell is used only to translate Ge- 



