Nitro-cellulose. See [Gun-cotton].
Nitro-glycerine. Is a light, yellow, oily liquid, inodorous, with a sweet, pungent, aromatic taste. It received its name from Sobrero, a chemist, who in 1847 discovered that glycerine when treated with nitric acid was converted into a highly-explosive substance. This liquid appears to have been almost forgotten by chemists until in 1864 Nobel, a Swedish engineer, succeeded in applying it to a very important branch of his art, namely, blasting. It is now prepared by introducing glycerine into a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids, the whole being kept at a temperature below freezing-point. When uncongealed this preparation explodes by concussion, and is therefore unfit for transportation, and very dangerous to handle while in that state. The chief advantage for mining purposes which nitro-glycerine possesses is, that it requires a much smaller hole or chamber than gunpowder does, the strength of the latter being scarcely one-tenth of the former. Hence the miner’s work, which, according to the hardness of the rock, represents from five to twenty times the price of the gunpowder used, is so short that the cost of blasting is often reduced 50 per cent. The process is very easy: if the chamber of a mine presents fissures it must first be lined with clay, to make it water-tight; this done, the nitro-glycerine is poured in, and water after it, which, being the lighter liquid, remains at the top. A slow-match, with a well-charged percussion-cap at one end, is then introduced into the nitro-glycerine. The mine may then be sprung by lighting the match, there being no need of tamping. Submarine mines may be sprung by electricity. In this manner the obstructions of Hell Gate, N. Y., were removed by Gen. Newton, one of the greatest engineering feats of the time. On account of its liability to spontaneous explosion, the great danger in handling it, and its liability to decomposition, nitro-glycerine is now almost entirely superseded for ordinary mining purposes by dynamite.
Nitroleum. Nitro-glycerine; a name given it by Shaffner, an American patentee of high explosives.
Nitro-mannite. See [Mannite, Nitro-].
Nive. A river in the southwest of France, the scene of an important battle, December, 1813. After Wellington had forced Marshal Sault to fall back on Bayonne from the Pyrenees, the former determined to cross the Nive in order to place the right of his own army upon the Adour, with the double purpose of establishing a communication with the interior of France, and cutting off the enemy’s means of obtaining supplies. The brunt of this enterprise fell upon the right division of Wellington’s army under Lord Hill, a good deal of work, however, being done by the left division under Sir John Hope. Hill’s success was complete, and after five days’ fighting (December 9-13), the passage of the Nive had been effected, with the loss on the part of the British of 650 killed and 3459 wounded.
Nivelle. A small river which rises in Spain, and, after a short course, falls into the Bay of Biscay at St. Jean-de-Luz, in the French department of the Lower Pyrenees, near which the Duke of Wellington crossed the river in 1812, after carrying the French posts.
Nizam’s Dominions, or Hyderabad. An extensive territory in the interior of Southern India, lying to the northwest of the Presidency of Madras. In 1687 the territory now known as the Nizam’s Dominions, became a province of the Mogul empire; but in 1719 the governor or viceroy of the Deccan, Azoph Jah, made himself independent, and took the title of Nizam-ool-Moolk (Regulator of the State). After his death, in 1748, two claimants appeared for the throne,—his son Nazir Jung, and his grandson Mirzapha Jung. The cause of the former was espoused by the East India Company, and that of the latter by a party of French adventurers under Gen. Dupleix. Then followed a period of strife and anarchy. In 1761, Nizam Ali obtained the supreme power, and after some vacillation signed a treaty of alliance with the English in 1768. He aided them in the war with Tippoo Sahib, sultan of Mysore, and at the termination of that war, in 1799, a new treaty was formed, by which, in return for certain territorial concessions, the East India company bound itself to maintain a subsidiary force of 8000 men for the defense of the Nizam’s dominions. The Nizam or ruler, Afzul-ul-Dowlah, remained faithful to the British during the mutiny of 1857-58.
Nizza-Montferrato. A town of northern Italy, province of Alessandria, on the Belbo. It was a strongly-fortified place during the Middle Ages, was besieged unsuccessfully for forty days by Charles of Anjou, and afterwards suffered severely from the Spanish and French armies.
Noblesse Militaire (Fr.). Military nobility. Although most of the orders may be considered as appendages which confer a species of military nobility, especially that of the British “Garter,” which was instituted by King Edward III. on January 19, 1344, yet the British cannot be strictly said to have among them that species of military nobility or distinction that was peculiarly known in France under the immediate title of noblesse militaire. In order to reward military merit, an edict was issued by the French court at Fontainebleau, in November, 1750, and enregistered on the 25th of the same month by the Parliament of Paris, whereby a noblesse militaire, or military nobility, was created; the acquisition of which depended wholly upon martial character, but did not require any letters patent for the purpose of ennobling the individual. By the first article of this perpetual and irrevocable edict, as it was then stated, it was decreed that no person serving in the capacity and quality of officer in any of the king’s troops, should be liable to the land- or poll-tax, so long as he continued in that situation. (2) That by virtue of this edict, and from the date thereof, all general officers, not being otherwise ennobled, but being actually and bona fide in the service, should be considered as noble, and remain so, together with their children, born or to be born in lawful wedlock. (3) That in future the rank of general officer should of itself be sufficient to confer the full right of nobility upon all those who should arrive at that degree of military promotion; and that their heirs and successors, as well as their children, actually born and lawfully begotten, should be entitled to the same distinction; and that all general officers should enjoy all the rights and privileges of nobility from the date of their commissions. In Articles IV., V., VI., and VII., it was specifically provided upon what conditions those officers, who were not noble, and were inferior in rank to that of maréchal-de-camp, but who had been chevaliers or knights of the royal and military order of St. Louis, and who should retire from the service after having been in the army during thirty years without intermission, were to be exempted from the payment of the land- and poll-tax, and how the same privileges were to be transferred to their sons, provided they were in the service. By Article VIII. it was enacted, that those officers who had risen to the rank of captain, and were chevaliers or knights of the order of St. Louis, but who were disabled by wounds, or diseases contracted in the service, should not be obliged to fill up the period of thirty years as prescribed by the recited articles. By Article IX. it was provided that when any officer, not under the rank of captain, died in the actual exercise of the functions or bearing the commission of captain, the services he had already rendered should be of use to his sons, lawfully begotten, who were either in the service or were intended for it. It was specified in Articles X. and XI. that every officer born in wedlock, whose father and grandfather had been exempted from the land- or poll-tax, should be noble in his own right, provided he got created a chevalier or knight of St. Louis, had served the prescribed period, or was entitled to the exemption mentioned in Article VIII.; that if he should die in the service, he would be considered as having acquired the rank of nobility, and that the title so obtained should descend, as a matter of right, to the children, lawfully begotten, of such officers as had acquired it. It further specified, that even those who should have been born previous to their fathers being ennobled, were entitled to the same privilege. Article XII. pointed out the method by which proofs of military nobility were to be exhibited in conformity to the then existing edict. Articles XIII. and XIV. provided for those officers, who were actually in the service at the promulgation of the edict, in proportion as the prescribed periods were filled up. This provision related wholly to the personal services of officers; as no proof was acknowledged relative to services done by their fathers or grandfathers, who might have retired from the army, or have died prior to the publication of the edict. The XVth or last Article was a sort of register, in which were preserved the different titles that enabled individuals to lay claim to military nobility. The whole of this edict may be seen, page 206, in the 3d volume “Des Elemens Militaires.” The French emperor Bonaparte instituted an order of nobility called the “Legion of Honor,” the political influence of which appears to be greater than any order ever established, even than that of the Jesuits. He also adopted the ancient military title of duke, which was conferred only on men who had merited renown by their military greatness. The title of count was also established, and all the members of the Legion of Honor held a rank corresponding with the knights of feudal institution. Private soldiers and tradesmen, for acts of public virtue, have been created members of the Legion of Honor.
Noblesse Oblige. A French phrase,—rank has its obligations.