Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 08.djvu/522

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SMELTING FURNACE 458 SMITH a careful admixture of ores of different qualities, the several earthy components of which serve as fluxes in the fusion of the mass. These two processes of calcination and fusion are repeated alter- nately till the ore is completely freed from all the earthy materials, and pure metal is obtained. In smelting lead, the ores, after being sorted, cleansed, ground, and washed, are roasted in furnaces which are without any blast or blowing appara- tus, the ores being separable from the metal by its great fusibility. The smelt- ing of tin consists of the calcining or roasting of the ores after they have been cleaned, sorted, stamped, and washed. See Blast Furnace; Iron and Steel. SMELTING FURNACE, a furnace for disengaging the metal from its gangue or the non-metalliferous portions of the ore. The furnaces differ much, according to the metals to be treated. See Blast Fur- nace: Reverberatory Furnace. SMEW, in ornithology, the Mergus albellus, called also the smee or nun, fre- quenting the seashore and also inland ponds and lakes of Europe and America. The adult male is about 17 inches long; head, chin and neck white, a black patch round the eyes, and over the back of the head is a green streak forming, with some white elongated feathers, a kind of crest; back black, tail gray, wings black and white, under surface white, penciled with gray on the flanks. The female is smaller, with plumage chiefly reddish-brown and gray. SMILACE.33, sarsaparilla ; an order of dictyogens. Herbs or under-shrubs often climbing, and with fleshy tuberous rhi- zomes; leaves reticulated; fruit, a round- ish berry. Known genera, two; species 120, widely distributed, but most numer- ous in Asia and America. SMILAX, sarsaparilla, the typical genus of the order Smilacese. The roots of several species or varieties constitute the sarsaparilla of the Materia Medica. Sarsaparilla is regarded as an alterative in venereal and skin diseases, rheumatism, etc. The kind most valued is that known as Jamaica sarsaparilla, obtained from the species S. officinalis. It is not the produce of Jamaica, but of Central Amer- ica and the N. parts of South America. Other kinds distinguished in commerce are Lima, Lean Vera Cruz, Gouty Vera Cruz, Lisbon, or Brazilian, and Honduras. Among the European species is S. aspera, the roots of which form Italian sarsa- parilla. SMILES, SAMUEL, a British miscel- laneous writer; born in Haddington, Scot- land, Dec. 23, 1812; was educated at Ed- inburgh University, and as a surgeon in Edinburgh; editor of Leeds "Times"; secretary of the Leeds and Thirsk rail- way; afterward of Southeastern railway; then retired. Many of his writings had a very wide circulation. Among them are: "Self-Help" (1859) ; "Life of George Stephenson" (6th ed. 1864) ; "Lives of Engineers" (1862; new ed. 1874, 5 vols.) ; "The Huguenots in England and Ireland" (4th ed. 1876) ; "Thrift" (1875) ; "Men of Invention and Industry" (1884) ; "Life and Labor," "Conduct," etc. The King of Servia conferred on him (1897), for his literary work, the Knight Command- er's Cross of the Royal Order of St. Sava. He died April 16, 1904. SMILEY, ALBERT KEITH, an Ameri- can humanitarian, born at Vassalboro, Me., in 1828. He graduated from Haver- ford College in 1849, and was an instruc- tor in that institution until 1853. In 1853 he founded, together with his brother, the English and Classical Academy in Phila- delphia. For a number of years follow- ing he was principal of schools in Phila- delphia and at Providence, R. I. His chief work, however, was the establishment of the Lake Mohonk Conference, at Mohonk Lake, where annual meetings for the dis- cussion of humanitarian and social sub- jects are held. In 1889 he purchased a large tract of land at Redlands, Cal., part of which he made into a park. He died in 1912. SMILLIE, ROBERT, a British labor leader, born in Scotland in 1859. He was educated in the board schools and at first worked as a miner. Rising as an official of his trade union, he became in 1894 president of the Scottish Miners' Federa- tion, and later president of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain. He was one of the most strenuous fighters in behalf of the movement for the nationalization of mines. SMITH, ADAM, a Scotch political economist; born in Kirkcaldy, Fifeshire, Scotland, June 5, 1723. He studied at Oxford, and was appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow University in 1752. Toward the close of 1763 he accepted an invitation to travel with the Duke of Buccleuch, and having resigned his chair, made a long tour in France, becoming acquainted at Paris with some of the^ most eminent philosophers and economists. Returning in 1766, he spent the next 10 years in retirement at Kirk- caldy, engaged in the composition of his great work, the "Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" (1776). It has a high rank among the successful books of the world. Its main principle is that labor, not money or land,