TRANSCAUCASIA

the transcaucasian socialist federated soviet republic comprises the former states of azer- baijan, armenia and georgia with an area of 195,800 sq. km. or 0:9 % of the area of the soviet union (u.s.s.r.). area and population area in sq. versts 76,447 34,288 57,967 168,702 soviet republic population azerbaijan . armenia georgia total 2,125,152 1,400,000 1,792,000 5+317,1§2 out of the total population, just over 1,000,000 or about 19% are classified as urban, the remainder being engaged in rural pursuits. the total population represents 4:1 % of the population of the u.s.s.r. political histery—on sept. 20 1917 a council of transcauca- sian peoples met at tiflis and declared transcaucasia to be a federal republic within the russian dominions. the effects of the bolshevik revolution began to be felt in the following spring; in march a bolshevik rising took place in baku and established a soviet regime, and in april the council declared the complete independence of the federal republic. in may it opened peace negotiations with the germans and turks, the latter having in- vaded the country and captured batoum and kars.' the federal council dissolved, however, on may 26; georgia declaring its complete independence and national councils of armenians and ‘t'artars taking over the administration of armenia (erivan) and azerbaijan. separate treaties were signed by georgia with germany on may 28th and by the three republics with the turks and germans on june 4th, which resulted in the “ friend- ly ” occupation of armenia by the turks and of georgia by the germans. in the following month the bolshevik administration at baku was overthrown and on aug. 4th the advance guard of a british force under maj. gen. l. c. dunsterville landed and were soon engaged in defending the town against the turks (see persian campaigns). on sept. 14 the british troops evacu- ated baku, which was then occupied by the turks and became the seat of the azerbaijan government. the turks, however, 1 by the treaty of brest-litovsk (march 3 1918) russia had ceded to turkey the districts of kars, ardahan and batoum. transcaucasia were compelled to evacuate the whole of transcaucasia by the terms of the armistice with the allies of oct. 30, and in the middle of nov., baku was reoccupied by a british force which administered the district on the collapse of the existing azerbaijan government. just before the close of the year further british forces landed at batoum to occupy georgia and armenia. during 1919 the three governments gradually established themselves, under the protection of the british forces, though armenia opened hostilities in jan. against georgia and in aug. against azerbaijan. in both cases the disputes (ter- ritorial in origin) were settled by british mediation. the british forces evacuated the whole of transcaucasia except batoum on aug. 28 ro1g. in jan. 1920, the supreme council sitting in paris accorded de facto recognition to the three govern- ments. on april 27-28 there was a revolution at baku and the azerbaijan govt. was replaced by a soviet republic which invited the russian soviet forces to occupy the country. georgia and armenia, however, retained their independence for a time, and the former signed treaties with the soviet govern- ments of azerbaijan (may 7) and russia (june 6), a step which armenia refused to take. on july 7 the british forces evacuated batoum and handed over the district to the georgian govt., whose independence was recognised by soviet russia in a second treaty signed in august. on aug. to armenia was com- pelled by threat of force to sign a treaty with soviet russia, but was shortly afterwards attacked by the turkish nationalists and the soviet govt. of azerbaijan, with the connivance and support of sovict russia. in the result an armenian sovict govt. was established in dec., whose independence was recog- nised in a treaty by soviet russia. on jan. 27 1921, the supreme council sitting in paris accorded de jure recognition to the menshevik govt. of georgia, but on feb. 12 there was a rising against this government in the country and a week later the russian soviet troops crossed the frontier. turkish forces then occupied batoum at the in- vitation of the mensheviks, but withdrew on the signature of peace and the proclamation of a georgian sovict republic (march 19). in the following may a treaty of alliance was signed between the georgian and russian soviet governments. meanwhile the three refugee governments from georgia, azerbaijan and armenia had fled to paris and there proclaimed a caucasian federation, asserting that the respective sovict governments did not represent the wills of the three peoples. a revolt against the armenian soviet govt. in the summer was easily suppressed. the three soviet govts. regulated their relations with turkey in a treaty signed at kars on oct. 13, the provisions of which followed the lines of the treaty concluded in moscow between russia and turkey, march 16. on march 12 1922 the three soviet govts. signed an agreement establishing the transcaucasian s.s.s.r. which, though in close alliance with the russian soviet republic, retained a nominal independence until the creation of the union of socialist soviet republics (july 6 1923) of which it then became a constit- uent member (see russia). natural resources —transcaucasia contains some of the finest mountain scenery in the world; the vegetation ranges from sub- tropical on the west coast of georgia to the dry and arid region of kura, where cultivation is only possible by artificial irrigation, while armenia is predominantly pastoral. the forest area com- prises some 12,000,000 ac. rich in numerous varieties of timber; beech, oak, hornbeam, pine, spruce, fir, are the chief, but the commercially valuable varieties are said to be in the neighbour- hood of a hundred. the chief agricultural crop is maize, but wheat and barley are also grown, while rice and cotton are cultivated in the eastern districts. the mulberry tree is also cullivated and there the silk-worm industry is reviving, the output in 1924 being about 35% of 1913, but the raw silk is sent © to moscow for manufacture. tea planting is steadily increasing, the area planted having risen from 4os ac. before the war to 2,700 ac. in 1924. the plans of the georgian government propose a further extension to 16,200 ac. by 1929. the principal mineral deposits are oil (in the neighbourhood of baku, azerbaijan g.».), transjordan— transmutation of elements manganese (at chiaturi), copper (in the mountains), and there are also considerable layers of rock salt. communications.—baku is in direct railway communication with moscow, by a line which runs up the shore of the caspian and crosses over towards the black sea north of the trans- caucasian frontier. another lineconnects baku with batoum via tiflis, which town is also in rail communication with kars and tabriz. there is also a regular motor service over the passes connecting transcaucasia with the caucasus district of the russian socialist federated soviet republic; this service is maintained by the union commissariat of communications. the two principal ports are batum on the black sea and baku on the caspian, the latter being connected by a regular ferry service with the central asian railway at its terminus at krasnovodsk on the other side of the caspian. regular air services connect baku with moscow (via rostov) and with batum, which port also enjoys an air service to novorossisk. there are four institutes of quasi-university standing, two each at tiflis and baku. (see also russia.) transjordan, a territory in asia minor under british man- date. its existence as a definite political entity dates from 1920 when, on the collapse of faisal’s syrian kingdom of which it formed part, the three districts of irbid, balqa and kerak, each enjoying a measure of internal autonomy under the guidance of british political officers, came under the general mandatory control of the high commissioner for palestine. boundaries.—the whole area was and still is subject to the british mandate for palestine, but the clauses relating to the establishment of a national home for the jews have been specifically declared to be inapplicable to transjordan area, which is bounded on the west by the central line of wadi “araba, of the dead sea and of the jordan as far as the confluence of the yarmuk with the latter; on the north by the central line of the yarmuk as far as the first railway bridge across it, and thence along the southern edge of the hejaz railway as far as muzairib, whence it strikes across country to nasib station and the village of imtan. the eastern boundary of transjordan was fixed at the bahra con- ference of 1925 (see arabia) and runs from a point southeast of net azraq along the western edge of wadi sirhan, on the south the boundary of this area was an east-west line crossing the railway between jauf ed derwish and ‘aneiza stations, pushed further south- ward in july 1925 to the line mudawara-ihlaql (on the gulf of ‘aqaba). sjo english miles ~ $0 73) kilometres a | bair hea ey, pi 2 di ‘i ei exeter sp cal at aneiza political history—in feb., 1921, the amir ‘abdullah, sec- ond son of king husain of the hejaz, arrived at ‘amman with a small force with the idea of attacking the french in syria. mr. winston churchill was at the time holding a middle fast conference at cairo and, after an interview with ‘abdullah, ar- ranged that the latter should be amir of transjordan with his s21 capital at ‘amman and with a grant-in-aid from the british govt. to assist him in the establishment of an efficient administration in the territories committed to his charge. the arrangement was admittedly experimental, and the amir was placed under the general control of the iligh commissioner for palestine whose representatives supervised the work of the local government. after a six month’s trial and the occurrence of various untoward incidents this arrangement was modified. the chief british representative in transjordan remained under the control of the high commissioner for palestine, but the amir’s government was allowed a sort of de facto independence. this scheme succeeded better, and in oct., 1922, “abdullah visited england at the invitation of the british govt. to discuss ar- rangements for the formal recognition of the independence of transjordan. in april 1923, the high commissioner announced at ‘amman that h.m. govt., subject to the approval of the league of nations, recognised the existence of transjordan as an independent state under the amir ‘abdullah, on the condi- tion that its administration should be conducted on democratic and constitutional lines and should, by a subsequent agreement, place h.m. govt. in a position to discharge their international obligations in respect of the area concerned. this formal announcement never became operative. ‘abdullah and his government were unable to rule the country. reckless financial administration and general misgovernment culminated in the serious rebellion of the ‘adwan tribe in sept. 1923, which was suppressed by the royal air force. the british treas- ury declined to provide the annual grant-in-aid unless ‘abdullah was more closely controlled, and in april 1924, the chief british representative became in effect the supreme authority in trans- jordan, controlling the administrative and financial adminis- tration of the amir and his government under the orders of the high commissioner for palestine. by the end of 1925 transjor- dan, nominally enjoying a sort of independence, had in effect become a non-jewish province of palestine and the amir’s civil list had been reduced to £12,000 a year, while the financial ad- ministration of his government was made subject to audit by the palestine government. population.—the population of transjordan is about 300,000, of whom about half are badawin. the rest include about 30,000 cir- cassians, inhabiting colonies planted there by the ottoman govt. after the russo-turkish war of the ‘seventies, and 40,000 chris- tians of various sects. the chief towns are ‘amman (15,000), es salt (18,000), kerak (8,000), irbid (3,000) and ma ‘an (3,000), the country comprises the biblical territories of gilead, moab, edom and part of bashan. at the beginning of the christian era ‘amman (philadelphia), jarash (gerasa), umm keis (gadara) and other places were important centres of greco-roman civilisation. later, part of these territories formed the independent kingdom of chassan and were conquered by the muslim armies in 637. during the crusades kerak (see 15.753) was the chief administrative centre of outtic-jourdain and afterwards it was ruled by various kings or amirs. under the ottoman regime the whole of transjordan formed part of the vilayet of syria, but its southern part (ixerak, etc.) did not come under effective turkish control until the hejaz railway, which traverses the territory from nasib to mudawara, was com- pleted in 1904. (see also arabia; palestine.) bibliography.— draft mandates for mesopotamia and palestine, cmd. 1, 176 (1921). 1. sr. fe bi. pd transmutation of elements.— the growth of knowl- edge with regard to the nature and constitution of atomic nuclei which has resulted from the study of radioactive phenomena, the scattering of a-particles by matter, and the investigation of atomic masses by positive-ray analysis, has aroused consider- able interest in the possibility of effecting a transmutation from one element to another by artificial means. the structure of the flements—the fundamental factor which distinguishes one element from another is the resultant positive charge on the nucleus of the atom, which, when expressed in terms of the magnitude of the electronic charge, is equal to the atomic number of the element. thus in passing from one element to the next higher clement, the nuclear positive charge increases by one unit. corresponding to every value of the nuclear charge there is a definite configuration of electrons each of which revolves in a separate orbit round the nucleus, the number of $22 electrons being equal to the atomic number of the element, thus causing the system to be electrically neutral. the ordinary chemical and physical properties which characterise any ele- ment are due to its particular configuration of extra-nuclear electrons, and are thus controlled by the nuclear charge. to bring about a transmutation from one element to another it is therefore fundamentally necessary for the nuclear charge to be increased or decreased by some means, for if this can be brought about the configuration of external electrons will adjust itself to the changed conditions. the experimental difficulties involved in effecting a change of nuclear charge would be ex- pected to be very considerable, and up to the present time the record of definite evidence of the successful achievement of such an alteration—i.ec., of artificial transmutation—is not very extensive. | | spontaneous transmutations.—the spontaneous transmuta- tions which we have in the radioactive series of elements are trans- formations in the direction of decreasing atomic mass, and lead to the attainment of ultimate stability in the direction of decreasing atomic number. it does not however follow that artificial trans- mutation will necessarily be most easily brought about in the same direction. | condilions of transmutation.—there is strong evidence that protons (or hydrogen nuclei—positive particles of unit mass and unit charge), a-particles (or helium nuclei—positive particles of mass 4 and charge 2), and electrons, enter into the nuclei of the atoms of the heavier elements as constituent units. trans- mutation would therefore necessarily take place if either a pro- ton, an a-particle, or an electron, could be caused to enter or leave the nucleus of any atom. | experimental work.—by bombarding the atoms of various elements with a-particles, rutherford and chadwick, and sub- sequently kirsch and pettersson, have found that from several elements particles are produced which are capable of causing a scintillation on a fluorescent screen placed far beyond the range of the original a-particles. from experiments on the bending of their paths by a magnetic field, these particles were shown to be protons. after testing in various ways to find out whether they could have originated from hydrogen present as an impurity, either in the elementary form or in combination, it was concluded that these particles must have come from the atoms of the ele- ment under test. nitrogen was one of the first elements for which this effect was found, but many other elements have since been shown to give rise to protons when bombarded by a- patticles. the ejected proton eventually acquires an electron and settles down as an ordinary hydrogen atom. the actual pro- portion of the impacts which result in disintegration and the production of hydrogen is, of course, extremely small. ejection of units.—in these cases we have clear instances of transmutation by the ejection of one of the units of their struc- ture from the nuclei of atoms, the definite evidence of the trans- mutation being the detection and identification of the ejected portion. with regard to the ultimate condition of the remain- ing part of the bombarded nucleus, and the fate of the bombard- ing a-particles there is no evidence in the case of most of the elements, but with nitrogen a definite investigation of these problems has been made by blackett, who, by the wilson cloud condensation method, photographed the tracks of a very large number of a-particles through nitrogen, and was able to identify several of these tracks as showing the occurrence of a disinte- grating impact. in each of these cases only one track other than that due to the projected proton could be found diverging from the point marking the occurrence of the disintegration. from this it was concluded that the bombarding a-particle was retained by the struck nitrogen nucleus, thereby producing a system of mass 17 and nuclear charge 8, a system which would be an isotope of ordinary oxygen. the experiments conducted by blackett could not by their very nature enable a decision to be made as to whether such a system has any permanent stability. harkins and ryan, and akiyama, have on the other hand obtained photographs of a- ray tracks in air showing collisions resulting in disintegration, transport— transportation with three branches diverging from the point marking the occurrence of the collision. as the disintegrating atoms in air were presumably nitrogen atoms, these results seem to indicate that even in any one substance the fate of the bombarding a- particle is different in different disintegrating collisions. further evidence.—in addition to the evidence of transmutation of elements resulting from a-particle bombardment of atoms, we have the evidence brought forward independently by miethe and stammreich, and by nagaoka, of the conversion of mercury into gold, and the evidence recorded by smits of the production of thal- lium and mercury from lead. in each case the recorded transmuta- tion is in the direction of decreasing atomic number, but there is no evidence as to whether the changes involve decrease of atomic mass or not. the change from mercury (atomic number 80) into gold (79) might conceivably be effected either by the entry of an electron into, or the removal of a proton from, the nucleus of the mercury atom, and the same alternatives present themselves in regard to the transformation of lead (82) into thallium (81). nagaoka, in attempting to bring about the transformation of mer- cury into gold, held the view, based on a consideration of the resem- blance of the non-series spectrum lines of gold and mercury, that in the mercury nucleus a proton existed asa sort of satellite to the main nucleus, which was the same as that of the gold atom, and he cle- signed his experiments with a view to bringing about a powerful disturbance of the nucleus in the hope of ejecting the satellite proton. he passed a discharge in paraffin ot] between electrodes of iron and purified mercury with a short spark gap, using an induction coil of 120 cm. spark length. after four hours he succeeded in obtaining evidence of the presence of gold, and confirmed his result by sub- sequent experiments. although the experiment was designed to facilitate the ejection of a proton from the mercury nucleus, 1t would not preclude the possibility of a transmutation being effected by the entry of an electron into the nucleus. micthe and stammreich’s experimental arrangement was entirely different, for they obtained traces of gold from mercury vapour jlamps in which a heavy current had been passed under a potential difference of only §70 volts. the arrangement employed by smits was somewhat similar to that of miethe and stammreich. i[t con- sisted of a quartz lead-vapour lamp of special design run at voltages of less than 100 and with currents up to looampeeres. smits records that initially the spectrum showed only one of the mercury lines, namely 42536, but that after running the lamp for 10 hours the strongest mercury lines in the visible as well as the ultra-violet region of the spectrum had made their appearance, and that the most charac- teristic thallium line was also visible. it is difficult to believe that the electric field due to a potential difference of only 100 volts or so across the tube would be strong enough to effect the disruption of an atom and to bring about transmutation by the ejection of a proton, and the alternative possibility of the entry of an electron into the nucleus must be taken into account. in the case of the transmutation of lead (82) into mercury (80) the change might take place either by the intermediate production of thallium by one of the processes already suggested, and the subse- quent conversion of thallium into mercury by one of these processes, or it might occur as a one-stage transformation by the ejection from the lead nucleus of either one doubly charged positive particle (pre- sumably an a-particle) or two singly charged positive particles (pre- sumably protons) simultaneously. the fact that smits records stronger evidence of the production of mercury than of the produc- tion of thallium seems to argue against the formation of mercury from lead by the intermediate production of thallium in his experi- ments. : when atoms are bombarded by high speed electrons, it is possible that occasionally an electron penetrates within the k shell of extra- nuclear electrons. if such a penetration does occur the electron will be attracted towards the nucleus and may perhaps be absorbed by it. it is possible that something of this kind occurred in the expert- ments gt miethe and stammreich, and of smits, giving rise to the detected gold and thallium respectively, though it is surprising that the penetration of the k shell of electrons could occur with the small potential differences they employed. if a nucleus were to absorb an electron in the way suggested it is possible that with some nuclei in- stability would result and disruption occur. this can perhaps be more readily imagined if the nuclei have satellite protons as sug- gested by nagaoka in the case of mercury. in the case of an element such as lead, for which several isotopic forms occur, it is conceivable that the close approach of an electron to the nuclei of different isotopes would have different results. that the mercury detected in smits’ experiments could have been produced from the disruption of the nucleus of one of the lead isotopes following instability result- ing from the close approach of an electron to the nucleus, must how- ever, be regarded simply as a conjecture. for a discussion of the subject see sir e. rutherford, electricity and matter in phases of modern science (1925). (f. ho.*) transport: see flying; inland water transport; motor transport. transportation: see urban transportation. transvaal—treaties transvaal (sce 27.186), since 1910 a province of the union of south africa. area, 110,450 square miles. population (1921), 2,087,636, compared with 1,686,212 in 1911 and 1,269,051 in 1904. the white population increased from 297,277 in 1904 to 543,485 in 1921, a retlection chiefly of the development of the gold and coal-mining industries. half the white population was concentrated on the rand, where there are six large municipali- ties besides johannesburg (q.v.), the largest city in south africa. brakpan is the centre of the far east rand, from which since 1921 the bulk of the gold has been mined. the only other big town is the capital, pretoria (g.2.). apart from gold-mining, which maintains its position as the chief industry, there has been a notable increase in the produc- tion of coal. copper has been produced in considerable quanti- ties since 1914, and in 1923 a valuable discovery of platinum was made in the northern transvaal, though up to 1926 the mines had not reached the producing stage. the transvaal also main- tained its position as a stock-raising country. the cultivation of maize and tobacco largely increased, and (since 1917) cotton has been extensively planted, while manufacturing industries have been developed on the rand. as in the other provinces, the bulk of provincial expenditure was on education, the prov incial council being noted for its many educational experiments. on the language question from 1912 onward instruction in the lower standards was in ‘‘ the home lan- guage of the child.”’ primary education is compulsory, and both primary and secondary education is free. expenditure on educa- tion, which in 1915-20 averaged £1,203,000, was £2,508,000 in 1922-3. expenditure on general administration for the same periods was £69,000 and £106,000. the subsidies from the union govt., which averaged {£841,000 in rors—20, were {1,456,000 in 1922-3. an item of revenue peculiar to the transvaal is a native pass tax——24s. a year—in labour districts, paid by the em- ployer, elsewhere payable by the native. this tax yields from £330,000 to £350,000 per annum. the provincial system of administration is as in the other provinces (see cape province). the transvaal presents in its social life many extremes, the conservatism of the back-veld boer contrasting strongly with the progressive and democratic spirit of the dwellers on the rand. both these elements have their counterparts in other provinces, but party feeling was more strongly expressed in the transvaal than elsewhere, and this led to the introduction of politics into the provincial council. the white workmen on the rand form the main strength of the labour party in the union. a considerable number of boers in the western transvaal took part in the rebellion of 1914, but the influence of generals botha and smuts kept many burghers loyal to the british connection. the disturbances on the rand in 1913-4 and the revolt of 1922 were not on racial lines, though the majority of the white miners were dutch-speaking. but feelings were strongly marked in the provincial council, as was shown by agitations against officials because of their nationality or their politics. thus, after the general election in june 1924, when the nationalist and labour parties gained the victory, there was an agitation to remove the administrator, mr. j. h. hofmeyr, because he belonged to the south african party, an agitation which gencral hertzog, the prime minister, refused to heed. mr. hofmeyr’s predecessors as administrators had been mr. johann f. b. rissik (1910-7) and mr. a. g. robertson (1917-24). (see south arrica). (f.r. c.) transylvania (see 27.210), a province of rumania, trans- ferred to that country from hungary by the treaty of trianon (1920). its area is 22,312 sq. m.; and the population (hungarian census of 1910) 2,678,367. the hungarian census gave 1,472,031 persons of rumanian, 918,217 of magyar and 234,085 of german tonguc; these figures certainly over-estimate the magyar popula- tion at the expense of the other nations. the germans are settled in compact and largely urban settlements, mostly in the south; the magyars in one compact settlement in the east (szekley) and on the western fringe; most of the landowners and officials were magyar or magyarised. the rumanians form the majority of the rural population. for administrative purposes, transylvania is divided into 22 823 districts, each placed under a prefect appointed by the govern- ment in bucharest. transylvania and the banat send 120 depu- tics and 60 senators to the parliament at bucharest. of these 18 represented the national minorities (1925). in oct. 1918 the rumanians of transylvania formed a national committee at oradea-mare which, invoking the right of self- determination, claimed separation from the austro-hungarian empire and separate representation at the peace conference. in nov. this committee formally demanded from the hun- garian govt. the surrender of executive powers in the countries inhabited by rumanians and eventually assumed adminis- trative control throughout transylvania and the banat. cn dec. « 1918 a national congress, meeting at alba latia, pro- claimed the union of transylvania and the banat with rumania. the treaty of trianon (june 4 1920) ratified this arrangement. the german settlements had voted for the union jan. 21 1919, but the magyars only accepted it under protest in 1921. the chief measures since introduced by rumania consist of universal suffrage and land reform. the large estates were parcelled out, the previous owners retaining a maximim of 300 ac.; over 100,000 peasant families (2,700 of which were hun- garians) received arable land through this measure. education, which had been greatly neglected under hungarian rule, made rapid strides. in 1917 there were five secondary and 2,296 primary rumanian schools;.in 1925 there were nearly 100 and 6,157 respec- tively; there were 2,231 elementary schools for the minorities (1,669 hungarian, 403 german) and 148 secondary schools (119 hungarian, 29 german). (g. bo.) trawling: see fisheries.