or which it is used is for forming bungs and
stoppers for bottles and other vessels containing liquids. Its
compressibility, elasticity and practical imperviousness to both air and
water so fit it for this purpose that the term cork is even more applied
to the function than to the substance. Its specific lightness, combined
with strength and durability, recommend it above all other substances
for forming life-buoys, belts and jackets, and in the construction of
life-boats and other apparatus for saving from drowning. On account of
its lightness, softness and non-conducting properties it is used for
hat-linings and the soles of shoes, the latter being a very ancient
application of cork. It is also used in making artificial limbs, for
lining entomological cases, for pommels in leather-dressing, and as a
medium for making architectural models. Chips and cuttings are ground up
and mixed with india-rubber to form kamptulicon floor-cloth, or
"cork-carpet." The inner bark of the cork-tree is a valuable tanning
material.

Certain of the properties and uses of cork were known to the ancient
Greeks and Romans, and the latter, we find by Horace (_Odes_ iii. 8),
used it as a stopper for wine-vessels:--

"corticem adstrictum pice dimovebit
amphorae"--

It appears, however, that cork was not generally used for stopping
bottles till so recent a period as near the end of the 17th century, and
bottles themselves were not employed for storing liquids till the 15th
century. Many substitutes have been proposed for cork as a stoppering
agent; but except in the case of aerated liquids none of these has
recommended itself in practice. For aerated water bottles several
successful devices have been introduced. The most simple of these is an
india-rubber ball pressed upwards into the narrow of the bottle neck by
the force of the gas contained in the water; and in another system a
glass ball is similarly pressed against an india-rubber collar inserted
in the neck of the bottle. By analogy the term "to cork" is used of any
such devices for sealing up a bottle or aperture.

CORK AND ORRERY, MARY, COUNTESS OF (Mary Monckton) (1746-1840), was born
on the 21st of May 1746, the daughter of the first Viscount Galway. From
her early years she took a keen interest in literature, and through her
influence her mother's house in London became a favourite meeting-place
of literary celebrities. Dr Johnson was a frequent guest. According to
Bosw