Rumford

4066

Rural

Rumford, Benjamin Thompson, Count

(1753-1814), American scientist, taught
school in Rumford (Concord), N. H. He was
acquitted after trial on charges of disloyalty,
and went to England in 1776. In 1781 his
property was confiscated. He was received
with much favor in England and continued
his scientific studies and made valuable ex-
periments with explosives. In 1785 he be-
came aide-de-camp and chamberlain to the
Elector of Bavaria. In 1791 he was invest-
ed with the rank of a Count of the Holy
Roman Empire, and chose the title of Rum-
ford, after the little New Hampshire town in
which he had taught school. He gave a large
sum to Harvard to found the Rumford pro-
fessorships in science.

Rumsey, James (1743-92), American me-
chanical engineer, born in Bohemia Manor,
Cecil co., Md. In 1784, while engineer in a
mill at Shepherdstown, Va., he became inter-
ested in Watt's steam engine, and applied it
to the propulsion of a boat. The Rumsey
Society was formed in Philadelphia to aid
him in his experiments, and he went to Eng-
land, where a similar society was formed to
aid him construct an ocean-going steamer,
but died there while conducting further ex-
periments. He was author of A Short Treat-
ise on the Application of Steam (1788).

Runciman, Walter (1870- ), British
shipping magnate and financier. He has oc-
cupied several cabinet posts and became
President of the Board of Txade under the
MacDonald coalition government.

Runes. The Gothic word runa or run,
originally denoted something occult or cryp-
tic, and early became a synonym for knowl-

Scvlptured Stones with Runic
Inscriptions, hie cf Man.

edge and wisdom. Oracular proverbial say-
ings were 'runes'; and the magic drum of the
Lapps was the rune drum. Eventually the
term came to denote exclusively the letters
of the Northern (Norroene) alphabet, called

the Futhorc from the first six letters, *tb'
being but one. Extant runes are mostly in-
scribed on stones.

Runner is the name given to a slender
prostrate branch of a plant, from which
branch leaves and roots proceed at each node.
A good example is the strawberry plant.

Runnymede, meadow where King John
is reputed to have signed Magna Charta on
June 15, 1215.

Rupee, the unit of value in British India.
Its value hi English money necessarily varies
with the price of silver. In normal times it
is worth is. 4d. British money, or about 28
cents U. S,

Rupert, Maria Luitpold Ferdinand
(1869), Crown Prince of Bavaria, was born
in Munich. He was educated at the Univer-
sity of Munich and at the outbreak of the
Great War in Europe became commander of
the Fifth German Army.

Rupert, Prince (1619-82), nephew and
general of Charles i. of England, was the son
of Elizabeth (daughter of James I.) and
of Frederick vv Elector Palatine, king of Bo-
hemia, and was born at Prague. He was em-
ployed (1642-6) by Charles i. In 1673 be be-
came Lord High Admiral and conducted three
furious fights off the Dutch coast in that year.
In 1670 Rupert became first governor of the
Hudson's Bay Company. His last ten years
were spent in retirement in the pursuit of
chemical, physical, and mechanical researches.

Rupert's Land, former designation of the
territory of North America drained by rivers
entering Hudson Bay. It was granted to the
Hudson's Bay Company in 1670 through the
efforts of Prince Rupert. The lands are now
included in the Northwest Territories and
the province of Manitoba.

Rural Credits. The agricultural or rural
credits movement embraces numerous and
various plans for aiding American farmers by
loans of money. Federal legislation upon
rural credits embraces the Federal Farm Loan
Act of July 17, 1916, a powerful, radical, and
far-reaching measure, which provided for
twelve great Federal Land Banks, each with
a capital of $750,000 supplied by the Federal
Government, which waives all right to divid-
ends. A Federal Farm Loan Board assigned
the forty-eight States to twelve districts, and
located the twelve Federal Banks in the cities
of Springfield, Mass.; Baltimore, Md.; Col-
umbia, S. C.; Louisville, Ky.; New Orleans,
La.; St. Louis, Mo.; St. Paul, Minn.; Omaha,
Neb.; Wichita, Kans,; Houston, Tex.; Berk-