Darlaston

Darlaston, a town and parish of Staffordshire, England, 4 m. S. E. of Wolverhampton; pop. of the parish in 1871, 12,841. It has extensive mines of coal and iron, and manufactures of various articles of hardware. The ore obtained from the mines is here converted into iron of different kinds and of superior quality.

Darling

Darling, a river of central Australia. It is formed by the union of several small streams in the province of New South Wales, and during an irregular course of more than 400 m. through a barren country, receiving the river Bogan from the S. E., it empties into Murray river. Its waters are salt for a great distance above its mouth.

Darnetal

Darnetal, a town of France, in the department of Seine-Inferieure, about 3 m. E. of Rouen, on the Aubette; pop. in 1866, 5,909. It has manufactures of flannels and other woollen goods.

Dartford

Dartford, a market town of Kent, England, on the Darent, 17 m. by the North Kent railway S. E. of London; pop. in 1871, 5,314. It is in a valley at a ford in the river, from which it takes its name, and consists chiefly of one wide street on the Dover road. It has a large ancient church, the ruins of a nunnery founded in 1371, a large iron foundery and machine shop, grain, oil, powder, paper, and cotton mills, calico and silk printing works, and gas works. The first mill in England for rolling and slitting iron was near this town. The river is navigable from this point to its junction with the Thames. Dartford is noted in history as the place where the insurrection under Wat Tyler broke out in 1381.

Darwen

Darwen, a town of Lancashire, England, 3 1/2 m. S. of Blackburn and 16 m. N. N. W. of Manchester; pop. in 1871, 26,553. It is laid out with little regularity, but is well built, and supplied with gas and abundance of water. The principal branches of industry are cotton manufactures, paper making and staining, silk weaving, and carpet making. There are also print, dye, and bleaching establishments, rope and twine works, machine works, and iron and brass founderies. Three fairs are held here annually.

Daubigne

See Merle d'Aubigne.

Daulis

Daulis, a city of ancient Greece, in Phocis, near the confines of Bceotia, destroyed by the Persians under Xerxes, rebuilt and again destroyed by Philip of-Macedon; but it was once more rebuilt, and is mentioned in later times as a town almost impregnable because of its position on the summit of a lofty hill. Daulis is famous in mythology as the scene of the tragic events contained in the myths of Tereus, Procne, and Philomela. Its ruins are still to be seen above the modern village of Davlia.

David Bushnell

David Bushnell, an American inventor, born in Saybrook, Conn., about 1754, died at Warrenton, Ga., in 1824. He graduated at Yale college in 1775, and turned his thoughts toward the invention of a machine for blowing up vessels from under water. He successfully exploded many small models, and made a large machine capable of conveying an operator with 150 lbs. of powder, which was tried in vain on the Eagle, a British 64-gun ship, lying in the harbor of New York. Bushnell prepared a number of machines in kegs to be floated by the tide upon the British vessels lying in the river at Philadelphia, the result of which attempt gave occasion to the ballad of the "Battle of the Kegs," by Francis Hopkinson. He became a captain in the army, and after the close of the war went to France. It was long supposed that he died there, but he returned to America, became principal of several schools in Georgia, and finally a physician at Warrenton, where he was known as Dr. Bush.