eccalobeion

[x***@gmail.com]

Does anyone know what the heck is a “eccalobeion”?

The most information i can find is that it's some kinda 17th century
machine that “hatch birds by steam”.

The context is The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade by Edgar
Allan Poe.
( http://xahlee.org/p/1002_of_Scheherazade.html )

Xah
***@xahlee.org
∑ http://xahlee.org/

[Peter Duncanson]

Post by x***@gmail.com
Does anyone know what the heck is a “eccalobeion”?
The most information i can find is that it's some kinda 17th century
machine that “hatch birds by steam”.
The context is The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade by Edgar
Allan Poe.
( http://xahlee.org/p/1002_of_Scheherazade.html )

It is a in online dictionaries derived from _1913 US Webster's
Unabridged Dictionary_ with the spelling "eccaleobion".

http://machaut.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/WEBSTER.sh?WORD=eccaleobion

Ec`ca*le*o"bi*on (?), n. [Gr. to call out ( out of + to call) +
life.] A contrivance for hatching eggs by artificial heat.

I've found two uses of the word that appear to be figurative:

http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1434&viewtype=text&pageseq=1

A POSTHUMOUS ESSAY ON INSTINCT,
BY
CHARLES DARWIN, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S.

Page 374
But the instinct is not quite so invariable, for I was assured
at the Eccalobeion (May, 1840) that cases have occurred of
chickens having commenced so close to the broad end, that they
could not escape from the hole thus made, ...

In this case it seems that the Eccalobeion was a scientific
gathering at which the hatching of birds was discussed. It is
possible that the name for the gathering was chosen to suggest that
the participants might "hatch" new ideas.

From the satirical and humourous magazine, _Punch_:
http://snowy.arsc.alaska.edu/gutenberg/1/7/2/1/17216/17216-h/Punch05.html

THE LEGAL ECCALOBEION.

Baron Campbell, who has sat altogether about 20 hours in the
Irish Court of Chancery, will receive 4,000l.[1] a-year, on the
death of either Lord Manners or Lord Plunkett, (both
octogenarians;) which, says the Dublin Monitor, "taking the
average of human life, he will enjoy thirty years;" and adds,
"20 hours contain 1,200 minutes; and 4,000l. a-year for thirty
years gives 120,000l. So that he will receive for the term of
his natural life just one hundred pounds for every minute that
he sat as Lord Chancellor." Pleasant incubation this! Sitting 20
hours, and hatching a fortune. If there be any truth in
metempsychosis, Jocky Campbell must be the goose that laid
golden eggs.

[John Dean]

Does anyone know what the heck is a "eccalobeion"?
The most information i can find is that it's some kinda 17th century
machine that "hatch birds by steam".
The context is The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade by Edgar
Allan Poe.
( http://xahlee.org/p/1002_of_Scheherazade.html )
Xah
? http://xahlee.org/

OED:

[Gr. sentence ZjjakOx b¬om (intended to mean 'I evoke life') written as one
word.]

The name given to an egg-hatching apparatus invented by W. Bucknell about
1839.

1839 Bucknell (title), Eccaleobion: a Treatise on Artificial Incubation.
1847 Craig, Eccaleobion, a contrivance for hatching eggs by artificial heat.
1880 Harper's Mag. 787 Willis's Home Journal was at one time a very
eccaleöbion for young writers.