BELOIT

beloit, a city of rock county, wisconsin, u.s.a., situated on the s. boundary of the state, on rock river, about 91 m. n.w. of chicago and about 85 m. s.w. of milwaukee. pop. (1890) 6315; (1900) 10,436, of whom 1468 were foreign-born; (1910) 15,125. it is served by the chicago & north-western, and the chicago, milwaukee & st paul railways, and by an inter-urban electric railway to janesville, wisconsin and rockford, illinois. beloit is attractively situated on high bluffs on both sides of the river. the city is the seat of beloit college, a co-educational, non-sectarian institution, founded under the auspices of the congregational and presbyterian churches in 1847, and having, in 1907-1908, 36 instructors and 430 students. it has classical, philosophical (1874) and scientific (1892) courses; women were first admitted in 1895. the greek department of the college has supervised since 1895 the public presentation nearly every year of an english version of a greek play. the river furnishes good water-power, and among the manufactures are wood-working machinery, ploughs, steam pumps, windmills, gas engines, paper-mill machinery, cutlery, flour, ladies' shoes, cyclometers and paper; the total value of the factory product in 1905 was $4,485,224, 60.2% more than in 1900. beloit, founded by new englanders in 1838, was chartered as a city in 1856. belomancy (from [greek: belos], a dart, and [greek: manteia], prophecy or divination), a form of divination (q.v.) by means of arrows, practised by the babylonians, scythians and other ancient peoples. nebuchadrezzar (ezek. xxi. 21) resorted to this practice "when he stood in the parting of the way ... to use divination: he made his arrows bright."