LEYDEN 



3397 



LEYDEN JAR 



fort, the capital, ninety miles southeast of 

 Louisville and eighty miles south of Cincin- 

 nati. The Louisville & Nashville, the Chesa- 

 peake & Ohio, and the Cincinnati, New Orleans 

 & Texas Pacific railways reach the city, and 

 interurban lines connect with towns north, east 

 and west. The area is nearly five square miles. 

 In 1910 the population was 35,099; in 1916 it 

 was 41,097 (Federal estimate). 



Lexington is located in the famous "blue 

 grass country," which produces an abundance 

 of tobacco and has some of the finest stock 

 farms in the world. The race tracks of Lexing- 

 ton have long been noted. The greatest indus- 

 trial product is tobacco, and it is one of the 

 city's principal assets, the annual sales amount- 

 ing to more than four millions of dollars. 

 There are extensive manufactures of distilled 

 and malted liquors, flour, foundry products, 

 carriages, harnesses, saddlery and canned goods 

 and soap. 



Owing to its exceptional educational advan- 

 tages the city is locally called the* Athens oj 

 the South; its -institutions include the Ken- 

 tucky University, Transylvania College, Ham- 

 ilton and McClelland female colleges, Saint 

 Catharine's Academy (Roman Catholic), the 

 State Agricultural and Mechanical College, the 

 Industrial Home for Negroes and a Carnegie 

 Library. The city also has the state reform 

 school and the state insane asylum, Good Sa- 

 maritan and Saint Joseph's hospitals and High 

 Oaks Sanitarium. Among notable buildings 

 are the Federal building and the courthouse. 

 There is also a United States Weather Bureau 

 station. Features of interest are Woodland 

 Park and monuments to Henry Clay, John C. 

 Breckenridge and John H. Morgan. 



The first settlement was made in 1775 by 

 hunters, who built a cabin to confirm their 

 title to the land. News of the Battle of 

 Lexington reaching them at this time, they 

 promptly gave the name Lexington to their 

 settlement. Four years later a permanent set- 

 tlement was made, and in 1782 the town was 

 incorporated by the Virginia legislature, as this 

 section was then a part of that state. In 1792 

 Kentucky became independent of Virginia, 

 Lexington was made the temporary state capi- 

 tal, and the first legislature met here. A 

 city charter was granted in 1832, and the com- 

 mission form of government was adopted in 

 1913. 



LEYDEN, li'den, the birthplace of the dis- 

 tinguished artists Rembrandt, Jan Steen and 

 Gerard Dou, and the seat of what was for- 



merly one of the most celebrated universities 

 in Europe. It is a city of the Netherlands, on 

 the old Rhine River, twenty-two miles south- 

 west of Amsterdam. It is a typical Dutch 

 town, with wide streets, spotlessly clean, and 

 with canals bordered by avenues of trees. 

 Leyden manufactures cloth, cotton, twine, etc., 

 although it is no longer as famous for its 

 textiles as it was during the fifteenth century. 

 It is essentially an educational center, and its 

 university, which once attracted students from 

 all parts of Europe and included in its faculty 

 the greatest names in the world of learning, is 

 still a flourishing institution. In conjunction 

 with it there are an observatory, a museum of 

 natural history, one of the finest of its kind 

 in Europe, and a museum of antiquities. This 

 institution was founded by William of Orange 

 in 1575, as a reward to the citizens for their 

 heroic defense in the siege against the Span- 

 iards in 1573-1574. Population, 1913, 59,500. 



LEYDEN, li'den, JAR. When you hear the 

 loud crackling sparks as a wireless operator 

 makes dots and dashes with his key, electricity 

 is being discharged from a Leyden jar, or elec- 

 tric condenser. But the professors at the Uni- 

 versity of Ley- 

 den, Holland, who 

 accidentally dis- 

 covered about 

 1745 that a glass 

 bottle with a nail 

 through its cork 

 touching water in- 

 side would store 

 "the electric 

 fluid," certainly 

 never dreamed of 

 such an impor- 

 tant use for their 

 toy. 



The usual type 

 of Leyden j a r 

 does not contain 

 water, but has a ORDINARY LEYDEN JAR 



coating of tin foil on more than half of its inner 

 and outer surfaces. The brass rod which passes 

 through the cork is connected with the inner 

 coating by a hanging chain or by springs. If 

 the outer coating is connected with the ground 

 and positive electricity is conducted to the 

 inner side of the glass through the brass rod, 

 the outer side will give off its positive elec- 

 tricity but will retain its negative. If wires 

 from the two are then brought together the 

 electricity is discharged with a bright spark. A 



