KINKEL, JOHANN GOTTFRIED (1815-1882), German poet, was born on the 11th of August 1815 at Obercassel near Bonn. Having studied theology at Bonn and afterwards in Berlin, he established himself at Bonn in 1836 as privat docent of theology, later became master at the gymnasium there, and was for a short time assistant preacher in Cologne. Changing his religious opinions, he abandoned theology and delivered lectures on the history of art, in which he had become interested on a journey to Italy in 1837. In 1846 he was appointed extraordinary professor of the history of art at Bonn University. For his share in the revolution in the Palatinate in 1849 Kinkel was arrested and, sentenced to penal servitude for life, was interned in the fortress of Spandau. His friend Carl Schurz contrived in November 1850 to effect his escape to England, whence he went to the United States. Returning to London in 1853, he for several years taught German and lectured on German literature, and in 1858 founded the German paper Hermann. In 1866 he accepted the professorship of archaeology and the history of art at the Polytechnikum in Zürich, in which city he died on the 13th of November 1882.
The popularity which Kinkel enjoyed in his day was hardly justified by his talent; his poetry is of the sweetly sentimental type which was much in vogue in Germany about the middle of the 19th century. His Gedichte first appeared in 1843, and have gone through several editions. He is to be seen to most advantage in the verse romances, Otto der Schütz, eine rheinische Geschichte in zwölf Abenteuern (1846) which in 1896 had attained its 75th edition, and Der Grobschmied von Antwerpen (1868). Among Kinkel’s other works may be mentioned the tragedy Nimrod (1857), and his history of art, Geschichte der bildenden Künste bei den christlichen Völkern (1845). Kinkel’s first wife, Johanna, née Mockel (1810-1858), assisted her husband in his literary work, and was herself an author of considerable merit. Her admirable autobiographical novel Hans Ibeles in London was not published until 1860, after her death. She also wrote on musical subjects.
See A. Strodtmann, Gottfried Kinkel (2 vols., Hamburg, 1851); and O. Henne am Rhyn, G. Kinkel, ein Lebensbild (Zürich, 1883).
KINNING PARK, a southern suburb of Glasgow, Scotland. Pop. (1901), 13,852. It is situated on the left bank of the Clyde between Glasgow, with which it is connected by tramway and subway, and Govan. Since 1850 it has grown from a rural village to a busy centre mainly inhabited by artisans and labourers. Its principal industries are engineering, bread and biscuit baking, soap-making and paint-making.
KINNOR (Gr. κινύρα), the Hebrew name for an ancient stringed instrument, the first mentioned in the Bible (Gen. iv. 21), where it is now always translated “harp.” The identification of the instrument has been much discussed, but, from the standpoint of the history of musical instruments, the weight of evidence is in favour of the view that the Semitic kinnor is the Greek cithara (q.v.). This instrument was already in use before 2000 B.C. among the Semitic races and in a higher state of development than it ever attained in Greece during the best classic period. It is unlikely that an instrument (which also appears on Hebrew coins) so widely known and used in various parts of Asia Minor in remote times, and occurring among the Hittite sculptures, should pass unmentioned in the Bible, with the exception of the verses in Dan. iii.
KINO, the West African name of an astringent drug introduced into European medicine in 1757 by John Fothergill. When described by him it was believed to have been brought from the river Gambia in West Africa, and when first imported it was sold in England as Gummi rubrum astringens gambiense. It was obtained from Pterocarpus erinaceus. The drug now recognized as the legitimate kind is East Indian, Malabar or Amboyna kino, which is the evaporated juice obtained from incisions in the trunk of Pterocarpus Marsupium (Leguminosae), though Botany Bay or eucalyptus kino is used in Australia. When exuding from the tree it resembles red-currant jelly, but hardens in a few hours after exposure to the air and sun. When sufficiently dried it is packed into wooden boxes for exportation. When these are opened it breaks up into angular brittle fragments of a blackish-red colour and shining surface. In cold water it is only partially dissolved, leaving a pale flocculent residue which is soluble in boiling water but deposited again on cooling. It is soluble in alcohol and caustic alkalis, but not in ether.