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die-casting, process by which molten metal is forced by a plunger or compressed air into a metallic die and the pressure maintained until the metal has solidified. Die castings are accurate, are sharply outlined, have a good surface finish, and can be made in complicated designs. Zinc, aluminum, and magnesium alloys are the principal metals used. The high cost of the die usually limits the process to large-scale, high-speed production. Typical products are carburetor bodies and zippers. Type-casting machines are specialized die-casting machines.

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die

die, any of various devices used for drawing wire, and for blanking, bending, cutting, machine forging, and embossing. Dies used for striking, or stamping, coins and medals are cut in intaglio, one for the front, another for the back, of the coin. Such dies were used as early as c.800 B.C. in Greece. Diemaking, or diesinking, formerly entirely a hand process in which the graver (a cutting tool), riffler (a file), and chisel were employed, has been accelerated in modern times by the use of diemaking machines supplemented by hand finishing. A punch, or male die, is commonly made as the counterpart in relief of the original die, or matrix; both are preserved as models, and duplicates are made from them for working dies. Sheet metal or other material is blanked (cut) out, shaped, or embossed between the dies by power-operated levers or drop hammers, or by die-casting. The die used for drawing wire or extruding rods is made of hard metal with a hole or a series of progressively smaller holes through which the metal is forced. For making screws or threading pipe a hollow hard metal die with internal threading is used.

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Encyclopédie

Encyclopédie, the work of the French Encyclopedists, or philosophes. The full title was Encyclopédie; ou, Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts, et des métiers. This work was originally planned as a translation of Ephraim Chambers's Cyclopedia (1st ed. 1728), and the first editor was the Abbé Gua de Malves. The project was abandoned because of disagreements, and Le Breton, the publisher, agreed to let Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert edit an entirely new work. With the aid of Quesnay, Montesquieu, Voltaire, J. J. Rousseau, Turgot, and others, the two editors produced the first volume in 1751, with a famous "preliminary discourse" signed by Alembert. The discourse indicated the aims of the project and then presented definitions and histories of science and the arts. The rational, secular emphasis of the whole volume infuriated the Jesuits, who attacked the work as irreligious and used their influence to convince the government to withdraw (1759) the official permit. Alembert resigned as editor. The project was able to continue, however, as a result of Diderot's perseverance and the support he received from the statesman Malesherbes. With the help of the chevalier de Jaucourt, Diderot brought the clandestine printing of the work to completion in 1772. Of the 28 volumes, 11 were devoted to plates illustrating the industrial arts; Diderot compiled this information and made the drawings. When the work was in page proof, Diderot discovered that deletions made by the printer had mutilated many articles containing liberal opinions. Despite this unofficial censorship the Encyclopédie championed the skepticism and rationalism of the Enlightenment. By 1780 a five-volume supplement and a two-volume index were added, compiled under other editors. The success of the Encyclopédie was immediate, and its influence was incalculable. Through its stress on scientific determinism and its attacks on legal, juridical, and clerical abuses, the Encyclopédie was a major factor in the intellectual preparation for the French Revolution.

See selections ed. by N. S. Hoyt and T. Cassirer (tr. 1965); R. N. Schwab et al., Inventory of Diderot's Encyclopédie (1971); J. Lough, The Encyclopédie (1971).

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Comédie Française

Comédie Française or Théâtre Français, state theater of France. Also known as La Maison de Molière, it was officially established by Louis XIV in 1680. His decree merged the two French companies of actors at Paris, the troupe of the Hôtel Guénégaud (see Molière and Béjart) and the troupe of the Hôtel de Bourgogne. The following year an annual grant was allotted from the royal treasury, and a new theater was built for the company. The Comédie Française has had several homes since its inception and currently is housed on the Rue de Richelieu in a theater that was rebuilt following a disastrous fire in 1900. This theater was extensively renovated in 1994 and reopened in 1995. Except for a period (1792-1803) after the commencement of the French Revolution, the company has performed without significant interruption; it was reorganized and reopened (1803) under Napoleon I. Having as its mission the preservation of the heritage of French drama, the repertory is largely traditional, though modern works by French dramatists and foreign playwrights are also performed. In accord with a charter signed by Napoleon in 1812 and modified several times since, the company is organized collectively with all the permanent members, called sociétaires, or associates, sharing in the management of the company, while the actor who has served the longest functions as the head, or doyen.

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Brücke, Die

Brücke, Die [Ger.,=the bridge], German expressionist art movement, lasting from 1905 to 1913. Influenced by the art of Jugendstil (the German equivalent of art nouveau), Van Gogh, and the primitive sculpture of Africa and the South Seas, the Brücke group developed an art of fervent emotionalism. Founded in Dresden by Kirchner, Schmidt-Rottluff, and Heckel, the group invited Nolde and Pechstein to join in 1906 and Otto Mueller in 1910. They lived and worked communally, periodically issuing portfolios of their graphic art, which at first bore a rather communal style. By 1911 most of them had gone to Berlin. In their exhibitions they displayed boldly colored portraits, landscapes, and city themes. Their expressionistic art was essentially a reaction against a perceived superficiality of impressionism and realism. The members fell out in 1913 over a statement of their aims formulated by Kirchner.

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tool and die making

Industrial art of manufacturing stamping dies, plastics molds, and jigs and fixtures to be used in the mass production of solid objects. The making of dies for punch presses constitutes most of the work done in tool and die shops, and most such pressworking dies are used in the manufacture of sheet-metal parts such as the panels of an automobile body. Seealso machine tool.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

die casting

Forming metal objects by injecting molten metal under pressure into dies or molds. An early and important use of the technique was in the Linotype machine (1884), but the mass-production automobile assembly line gave die casting its real impetus. Great precision is possible, and products range from tiny parts for sewing machines and automobiles to aluminum engine-block castings.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

die

Tool or device for imparting a desired shape, form, or finish to a material. Examples include a perforated block through which metal or plastic is drawn or extruded, the hardened steel forms for producing the patterns on coins and medals by pressure, and the hollow molds into which metal or plastic is forced. Modern tools and dies can be traced to the work of Honoré Blanc at the Saint-Étienne armoury in France beginning in 1780. Blanc's techniques were adopted and enlarged in the U.S. by Eli Whitney and others, who used templates (tool-guiding patterns) and fixtures—the antecedents of today's tools and dies—to mass-produce firearms for the U.S. Army (see armoury practice). Today the demand for dies used in metal forming, die casting, and plastic molding is filled by tool- and die-making shops.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.