TORRINGTON 



5845 



TORTOISE 



BAROMETER, page 597.) Torricelli was Galileo's 

 assistant during the last three months of the 

 philosopher's career, and on Galileo's death he 

 succeeded him as professor of philosophy and 

 mathematics at Florence. He improved the 

 microscope and telescope, and made several im- 

 portant discoveries in mathematics and physics. 

 In 1908 the tercentenary of Torricelli's birth 

 was celebrated in Italy. 



TORRINGTON, tahr'ingtun, CONN., a town 

 in the northwestern part of the state, in Litch- 

 field County, thirty-five miles west of Hart- 

 ford and 107 miles northeast of New York City. 

 It is on the Naugatuck River and has trans- 

 portation facilities over the New York, New 

 Haven & Hartford Railroad and interurban 

 lines. The area is about two and a half square 

 miles. The chief features of the place are Coe 

 Memorial Park, the Federal building, a Y. M. 

 C. A. "building, public library and Hungerford 

 Memorial Hospital. The manufactures are va- 

 ried and include brass, machinery, needles, 

 automobile accessories, hardware, woolen goods 

 and marine engines. Settled about 1737, Tor- 

 rington, named for Torrington, England, was 

 incorporated as a town in 1740 and chartered as 

 a borough in 1887. It was the birthplace of 

 John Brown. Population in 1910, 16,840; in 

 1916, 19,597 (Federal estimate). F.M.J. 



TORSION, 

 tawr' shun, BAL- 

 ANCE, an instru- 

 ment for measur- 

 ing very small 

 forces. It con- 

 sists of a hori- 

 zontal bar, a, sus- 

 pended by a 

 thread of silk or 

 other substance, 

 b, so that it 

 will balance. 

 Threads of quartz 

 are most gen- 

 erally used for 

 the purpose. The 

 upper end of the 

 thread is attached 

 to a graduated 

 head, c, by whose 

 rotation the in- 

 tensity of the 

 force is measured. 

 The operation of this balance may be illus- 

 trated in the measurement of an electric cur- 

 rent. The two balls, d at the end of the bar, 



TORSION BALANCE 



Explanation of the figure 

 appears in the text. 



and e at the end of the rod /, are in the position 

 shown in the illustration, and the pointer on 

 the graduated disk is at 0. The balls are then 

 charged and the electricity forces them apart. 

 By looking through the telescope, h, one may 

 see their divergence in the mirror, g. The 

 graduated head is then turned until the torsion 

 (twisting) of the thread is sufficient to bring 

 the balls back to their former position. By 

 previous testing the force exerted upon the 

 thread by a complete rotation of the graduated 

 head is known, so that the force exerted by any 

 number of degrees may be readily determined. 

 See GALVANOMETER. 



TORT, tawrt, a legal term derived from the 

 Latin torquere, meaning to twist, or wrest aside. 

 It has been defined by various authorities as a 

 private or civil wrong or injury independent of 

 contract, a breach of a legal duty, and a viola- 

 tion of anyone's right to personal security, to 

 liberty, to property or to reputation. The chief 

 distinction between a tort and a breach of con- 

 tract is that the former involves a greater de- 

 gree of moral guilt, though there are cases in 

 which action could be brought on either ground. 

 For example, a person who buys a ticket of a 

 railroad virtually enters into a contract with 

 the road whereby he is guaranteed a certain 

 amount of safety. If one of its employees at- 

 tacks him, the injured passenger can sue for 

 damages on the ground of assault (an action in 

 tort) and also for breach of contract for trans- 

 portation. 



Tort differs from crime in that the latter is 

 an offense against the state and not the indi- 

 vidual. Torts is the term used to designate the 

 branch of law which treats of the redress of 

 injuries not classified as crimes or as breaches 

 of contract. In this branch are included slander, 

 libel, trespass, alienation of affection, nuisance 

 and negligence. 



Related Subjects. In connection with this 

 subject the reader should consult the following: 

 Assault and Battery Negligence 

 Contract Nuisance 



Crime Slander 



Libel Trespass 



TORTOISE, tawr'tus, or tawr' 'tis, a group of 

 reptiles belonging to the same order as the 

 turtles, but distinguished from the latter in that 

 they live on the land. They have short, un- 

 webbed toes, and the hind feet, which are club- 

 shaped, suggest an elephant's when the tortoise 

 is walking. The upper part of the shell, or 

 carapace, is heavy and highly arched, and is 

 firmly joined to the under part at the sides of 



