Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Ulm
ULM, an ancient and important commercial town in Wiirtemberg, and an imperial fortress of the first class, is situated on the left bank of the Danube, in a fertile plain at the foot of the Swabian Alps, 45 miles to the south-east of Stuttgart and 63 miles to the north-west of Munich. The town, quaintly built with narrow and confined streets, still preserves the dignified and old-fashioned appearance of an ancient imperial town, and contains many mediaeval buildings, both of historic and of artistic interest. Among these, besides numerous handsome private houses, are the town-house, of the 16th century, in the Transition style from late Gothic to Renaissance; the Kornhaus and market-buildings; the Ehingerhaus or Neubronnerhaus, now containing the industrial museum; the "new building," erected in 1603 on the site of a palace of Charlemagne; and the commandery of the Teutonic order, built in 1712-18 on the site of a habitation of the order dating from the 13th century. By far the most important and conspicuous building in Ulm, however, is the magnificent early Gothic cathedral, next to the cathedral of Cologne the largest church in Germany, and capable of containing 30,000 people. Begun in 1377, and carried on at intervals till the 16th century, the building was long left unfinished; but in 1844 the work of restoration and completion was undertaken, and has steadily progressed ever since. Ulm cathedral has double aisles and a pentagonal apsidal choir, but no transepts. Its length (outside measurement) is 464 feet, its breadth 159 feet; the nave is 136 feet high and 4712 wide; the aisles, which are covered with rich net-vaulting, are 68 feet in height. The massive and richly decorated square tower in the centre of the west façade, for centuries terminated by a temporary spire, is now being completed according to the original plans, by the addition of an octagonal story and a tall open spire, which is to be carried up to the height of 534 feet. The towers of the choir have also been rebuilt in the course of the present restoration; they are 282 feet high. The interior, which is unusually well lighted, produces an impression of much dignity from the great height of the nave, the absence of obtrusive decoration, and the massive manner in which the walls and piers are treated. It contains some fine stained glass, the largest organ in Germany (1856), and a number of interesting old paintings and carvings by Syrlin, Engelberger, and other masters of the Swabian school. The cathedral belongs to the Protestant Church. Trinity Church dates from 1617-21; and there are also a Roman Catholic church and a modern synagogue in the town. The Danube, joined by the Iller just above the town and by the Blau just below, becomes navigable at this point, so that Ulm occupies the import ant commercial position of a terminal river-port. The trade, especially in wood and grain, has an upward tendency; and the Ulm market for leather and cloth is also rising in importance. Ulm is famous for its vegetables (especially asparagus), barley, beer, pipe-bowls, and sweet cakes (Ulmer Ziickerbrot). Bleaching, brewing, and brassfounding are carried on, as well as a large miscellany of manufactures, including hats, metal goods, agricultural implements, tobacco and cigars, cement, paper, and chem icals. The population in 1886 was 33,611.
The various routes which converge at Ulm have made it at all times a strategic point of great importance, and it has long been a fortress of the first rank. In 1844-59 the German Confederation carefully fortified it with walls, ramparts, and ditches, and in 1876 the new German empire added a very comprehensive outer girdle of detached forts, culminating in the powerful citadel of "Wilhelmsburg. The defensive works embrace also the Bavarian town of Neu-Ulm (7823 inhabitants), on the opposite bank of the Danube, united with the older city by two stone bridges. Ulm is thus the basis of operations for the German army behind the Black Forest, and can easily shelter a force of 100,000 men; its peace garrison is 5600.
Ulm is mentioned as early as the year 854. It subsequently became a free imperial city, and the leading town in Swabia. In the 15th century it attained the summit of its prosperity, and ruled over a district of many square miles, with a population, rural and urban, of about 60,000. Towards the end of the Middle Ages it frequently appears at the head of various Swabian leagues. In 1530 it adopted the Augsburg Confession. In 1803 it passed to Bavaria, and in 1810 to Würtemberg. In 1805 General Mack, with 33,000 Austrian's, capitulated to Napoleon at Ulm. Ulm is remarkable in the history of German literature as the spot where the "meistersanger" lingered longest, preserving, without text and without notes, the traditional lore of their craft. In 1830 there were twelve meistersanger" alive at Ulm; but in 1839 the four survivors formally made over their insignia and guild property to a modern singing society, and closed the record of "Meistergesang" in Germany. The last formal meeting of the Nuremberg "meister" took place in 1770.
ULPIANUS, Domitius, Roman jurist, was of Tyrian ancestry, but the time and place of his birth are unknown. He made his first appearance in public life as assessor in the auditorium of Papinian and member of the council of Septimius Severus; under Caracalla he was master of the requests. Elagabalus deprived him of his functions and banished him from Rome, but on the accession of Alexander (222) he was at once recalled and reinstated, and finally became the emperor's chief adviser and praefectus prsetorio. His curtailment of the privileges granted to the praetorian guard by Elagabalus provoked their enmity, and several times he only narrowly escaped their vengeance; ultimately, in 228, he was murdered in the palace, in the course of a riot between the soldiers and the mob.
Ulpian's period of literary activity extended from about 211 to 222 A.D. His works include Ad Sabinum, a commentary on the jits civile in over fifty books; Ad Edictum, a commentary on the Edict, in eighty-three books; collections of Opinions, Responses, and Disputations; books of Rules and Institutions; treatises on the functions of the different magistrates, one of them, the De Officio Proconsulis Libri X., being a comprehensive exposition of the criminal law; monographs on various statutes, on testamentary trusts, and a variety of other works. His writings altogether have supplied to Justinian's Digest about a third of its contents, and his commentary on the Edict alone about a fifth. As an author he is characterized by doctrinal exposition of a high order, judiciousness of criticism, and lucidity of arrangement, style, and language. Domitii Ulpiani Fragmenta, consisting of twenty-nine titles, were first edited by Tilius (Paris, 1549). There are modern editions by Hugo (Berlin, 1834) and Bbcking (Bonn, 1836), the latter containing fragments of the first book of the Institutiones discovered by Endlicher at Vienna in 1835.
ULRICI, Hermann (1806-1884), one of the most active philosophical writers in Germany since Hegel's death, was born at Pfbrten, Prussia, on March 23, 1806. Educated for the law, he gave up his profession upon the death of his father in 1829, and after four years of further study, devoted to literature, philosophy, and science, qualified as a university lecturer. In 1834 he was called to a professorship at Halle, where he remained till his death on the 11th January 1884. His first works were in the domain of literary criticism. His treatise On Shakespeare's Dramatic Art (1839) has been translated into English. In 1841 he published a work Ueber Princip u. Methode der Hegelsclien Philosophic, in which he subjected Hegel's system to a severe criticism. The critical attack was continued in the Grundprincip der Philosophic (1845-6), which at the same time expounds his own speculative position; to this must be added as complementary his System der Logik (1852). His later works, dealing with perennial problems of philosophy, have found a more extended circle of readers. Such are Glauben und Wissen (1858), Gott und die Natur (1862, 3d ed. 1875), Gott und der Mensch (2 vols., 1866-73, 2d ed. 1874). From 1847 onward Ulrjci was associated with the younger Fichte in the editorship of the Zeitschrift fur Philosophie.
His philosophical standpoint may be characterized as a reaction from the pantheistic tendency of Hegel's idealistic rationalism towards a more pronouncedly theistic position. The Hegelian identity of being and thought is also abandoned and the truth of realism acknowledged, an attempt being made to exhibit idealism and realism as respectively incomplete but mutually complementary systems. Ulrici's later works, while expressing the same views, are largely occupied in proving the existence of God and the soul from the basis of scientific conceptions, and in opposition to the materialistic current of thought then popular in Germany.
ULSTER.See Ireland.
ULTRAMARINE, a magnificent blue pigment, which occurs in nature as a proximate component of Lapis Lazuli (q.v.). Lapis lazuli has long been known as a precious stone, and highly valued as such, and as early at least as the 11th century the art of extracting a blue pigment from it was practised. From the beginning of the 16th century this pigment began to be imported into Europe from "over the sea," as azurrum ultramarinum. To extract it, the stone, after having been powdered coarsely, is heated to redness and thrown into cold water to facilitate its con version into a very fine powder, which is next treated with dilute acetic acid to remove the carbonate of lime which is present in almost all specimens. The insoluble blue residue is mixed up into a "dough" with a composition of resin, pitch, and linseed oil, and this dough is then kneaded under water, which is renewed as long as it runs off with a blue colour. The blue liquor, when allowed to stand, deposits a fine precipitate, which is collected, washed, dried, and sold as ultramarine. As the yield amounts to only 2 to 3 per cent, of the mineral used, it is not surprising to learn that the pigment used to be weighed up with gold. It was valued chiefly on account of its brilliancy of tone and its inertness in opposition to sunlight, oil, and slaked lime (in fresco-painting).
Lapis lazuli has the composition of a double silicate of lime and soda combined with sulphates and sulphides of the metals named. Of the many analyses made (compare Lapis Lazuli) we quote the following, carried out by Schultz in Rammelsberg's laboratory:—combined sulphur (not SO3), 3·16; combined sulphuric acid, SO3, 5·67; silica, 43·26; alumina, 20·22; oxide of iron, calculated as Fe2O3, 4·20; lime, 14·73; soda, 8·76.
In 1814 Tassaer observed the spontaneous formation of a blue compound, very similar to ultramarine, if not identical with it, in a soda-furnace at St Gobain, which caused the "Societe pour l'Encouragement d'lndustrie" to offer a prize for the artificial production of the precious colour. The problem was solved almost simultaneously by Guimet and by Christian Gmelin, then professor of chemistry in Tübingen; but while Guimet kept his process a secret (it has indeed never become known) Gmelin published his, and thus became the originator of an industry which flourishes to this day chiefly in Germany. There are very few ultramarine works in other countries, and none, as far as we know, in Great Britain. The raw materials used in the manufacture are—(1) iron-free kaolin, or some other kind of pure clay, which should contain its silica and alumina as nearly as possible in the proportion of 2SiO2: Al2O3 demanded by the formula assigned to ideal kaolin (a deficit of silica, how ever, it appears can be made up for by addition of the calculated weight of finely divided silica); (2) anhydrous sulphate of soda; (3) anhydrous carbonate of soda; (4) sulphur (in the state of powder); and (5) powdered charcoal or relatively ash-free coal, or colophony in lumps. The numerous modes of manufacture may be viewed as modifications or combinations of three processes.
(1) In the Nuremberg process the soda is used as sulphate, or partly as such and partly as carbonate. The following recipe gives an idea of the proportions in which the materials are used: kaolin (calculated as anhydrous matter) 100 parts; calcined sulphate of soda 83 to 100 (or 41 of sulphate and 41 of carbonate); charcoal 17; powdered sulphur 13. These ingredients are mixed most intimately; they are then rammed tight into fire-clay crucibles and kept at a nearly white heat for 7 to 10 hours, access of air being prevented as far as possible. The product obtained is a greyish or yellowish green mass, which is soaked in and washed with water; the porous residue is ground very fine in mills, again washed, dried, and again ground in the dry state and passed through sieves. The product at this stage has a green colour, and is sometimes sold as "green ultramarine," although it has not a high standing amongst green pigments. For its conversion into blue ultramarine it is heated with sulphur in the presence of air to a relatively low temperature. Of the various apparatus used for this important stage of the manufacture, the easiest to describe is a large muffle, heated from the outside. On its floor the green ultramarine is spread out to a depth of 212 to 3 inches, and heated (with closed doors) to a