AINTAB, a town in Syria in the vil ayet of Aleppo. Prior to the treaty of peace with Turkey in 1920, the town belonged to Turkey. It has military importance and is provided with strong fortifications. Before the war it had an important trade in leather and cotton. Pop. about 45,000, which is made up for the most part of Armenian and Greek Christians. In April and May, 1920, the city was attacked by Turkish forces and many of its inhabitants were killed and most of the others were driven from the city. The French force which was de fending the town withdrew, leaving it defenseless. There were present at the time several American missionaries who, however, escaped from the city without injury.
AIR, the gaseous substance which fills the atmosphere surrounding our planet. It is elastic, and is destitute of taste, color, and smell. It contains by weight, oxygen, 23.10 parts, and of nitrogen, 76.90; and by volume, of oxygen, 20.90,
and of nitrogen, 79.10; or of 10,000 parts, there are, in perfectly dry air, of nitro gen, 7,912, oxygen, 2,080, carbonic acid, 4, carburetted hydrogen, 4, with a trace of ammonia. But air never is dry; it has always in it a varying amount of watery vapor.
The density of air being fixed at the round number 1,000, it is made the stand ard with which the specific gravity of other substances is compared. If water be made unity, then the specific gravity of dry air is .0012759. At 62° Fahr. it is 810 times lighter than water, and 11.000 times lighter than mercury. At the surface of the sea, the mean pressure 's sufficient to balance a column of mer cury 30 inches, or one of water 34 feet, in height.
Air, in music, is a piece composed of a certain number of melodious phrases, united in a regular symmetrical form, and terminating in the key in which it began.