Hydra of Lerna (mythology)

Hercules and the Hydra

The Lernean Hydra

   In Greek mythology, the Hydra was a fabulous serpent infesting the lake of Lerna in Argolis. It had nine heads. If any one of these was cut off, two grew in its place. The destruction of this monster was one of the twelve labors of Hercules. The term hydraheaded is often applied to an evil which it is difficult to suppress. In zoology, the hydra is a small cylindrical animal of low organism found in cold and fresh waters. One end of the cylinder is attached to a suitable base, the other is surrounded by a whorl of tentacles which waft water containing food into the central cavity.

Gardenia plant and flower

Gardenia is a genus of shrubs or small trees be¬longing to the Madder family, Rubiaceae. Sixty species frow in the subtropics, most of them native to the astern Hemisphere. Gardenias have opposite leaves often arranged in threes. The large yellow or white flowers, noted for their waxy petals and sweet fragrance, grow in the axils of the branches. Some species are grown as hedges in southern United States; these bloom profusely from May to September. Gardenia thunbergia and Gardenia lucida, used extensively by florists in northern United States, are difficult to cultivate, requiring a hot, moist habitat with night temperatures of about 65°. Gardenias are propagated by cuttings, each of which has three to four buds. Their attractive blossoms are used in corsages, bouquets, and floral pieces.

Gardenia flowers

Janus (mythology)

Janus head - coin

In Roman mythology, Janus is an important deity, second only to Jupiter himself. He was regarded as the author of the arts of civilization and was believed to sit at the confines of the earth and at the gates of heaven and to be the special guardian of the beginning and the ending of every undertaking. Janus was thus the god of the rising and of the setting sun. To him was ascribed the system of the years and the change of seasons. The month of January was named for him and his festival was observed on New Year's Day. He was invoked every morning, since fortune and misfortune were in his hands. As the guardián of doorways and gates, Janus is represented in art as two-faced, one face looking eastward, the other westward. In his right hand he holds a scepter and in his left a key. The doors of the temple of Janus in Rome were left open in time of war; in time of peace they were closed with much ceremony and great rejoicing. It is said to have been closed but three times in 700 years.

The Mayan Alphabet

Mayan Alphabet

   On stone columns, on ceramic bowls, and in bark-paper books known as codices, the Classic Maya left written messages for posterity. But until the middle of the twentieth century, no one knew how to read them. The key to the Mayan hieroglyphic code appeared to have disappeared with the ancient cul¬ture. In fact, it waited in a long-neglected book by a sixteenth-century Spanish missionary.
   Assuming that the Mayan writing system was based on an alphabet similar to that used in Spain, Di¬ego de Landa, third bishop of Yu¬catán, questioned a literate Maya about the "letters" his people used. After what must have been a frustrating session for both men, the priest compiled a list he believed to be the Mayan alphabet and published it in 1566. Within a century of de Landa's interview, however, the surviving Maya had lost the art of writing their ancient language, rendering the inscriptions and codices meaningless.
   De Landa's manuscript came to light in the 1860s, but the latent key still went undetected. By that time, scholars thought that the Mayan glyphs were a form of picture writing and failed to take the friar's alphabet seriously.
   But in the 1950s, Soviet scholar Yuri Knorozov finally recognized the value of de Landa's work. The thirty-year-old epigrapher with the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Leningrad realized that de Landa and his informant had been tangled in an intercultural misunderstanding. Each time the friar had asked for a letter of the alphabet, the Maya had responded with the symbol for a syllable. For example, when de Landa asked for the letter b (pronounced "beh" in Spanish), he was given the Mayan symbol for the syllable beh. Many Mayan words, Knorozov saw, were written by stringing together a series of symbols for syllables, not letters. Although his work went unrecognized for many years, Knorozov had made a crucial intuitive leap in breaking the Mayan glyph code. A succeeding generation of researchers has since largely deciphered the ancient language. But Diego de Landa might have done the same four centuries earlier, had he understood the real secret of the Mayan alphabet: There was none.

What is the Last Judgment?

In Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Zoroastrianism the Last Judgment is the judging of the living and dead by God at the end of the world. Roman Catholics call this the General, or Last, Judgment. They distinguish the Last Judgment from the Particular Judgment, which assigns each individual immediately after death to a temporary place in Heaven, Purgatory, or Hell while awaiting the Last Judgment. Similar to the Catholic concept of a Particular Judgment are the Muslim and Zoroastrian doctrines of a preliminary test of faith that each person undergoes shortly after death.

The Last Judgment by Michelangelo

Who was Orlandus Lassus?

  Orlandus Lassus (1532-1594), also known as Orlando di Lasso and as Roland de Lassus, was one of the greatest Flemish composers of the Renaissance and the most important representative of the Flemish choral school. Members of this school composed highly developed polyphonic music, or music in which two or more independent melodies are sung simultaneously. Lassus' most famous work is his Seven Penitential Psalms, a group of motets, which illustrate his skilled technique and dramatic power. A versatile composer, Orlandus Lassus wrote many secular works in addition to religious music. He is especially noted for his songs. Many of them were set to the verses of famous Renaissance poets, including Petrarch, Ariosto, and Ronsard.
   As a young man, Lassus studied at Milan and at Rome, where he worked as chorus master at the Church of St. John Lateran. After the publication of his first works in 1555, Lassus' reputation spread throughout Europe. In 1556 he accepted a post as court musician with Duke Albert V of Bavaria in Munich, where he remained for 38 years. Most of his more than 2,000 works were composed in Munich.
   Orlandus Lassus was knighted by Emperor Maximilian II and was received into the Papal Order of the Golden Spur by Pope Gregory XIII.

What is a leitmotif?

   In music, leitmotif is the leading theme, the characteristic phrase, which occurs over and over again in the same composition, in reference to the same person, phrase of feeling or scenic complication of in¬tense passion or action. The phrase strikes the note of these several crises or conjunctures and recurs whenever they are repeated. While many operatic composers, such as Mozart and Weber, have employed the expedient of the leading theme or leitmotif, Wagner does so more than any other modern musician. In his Leitfaden, or analyses of his operas, in which he lays bare some of the secrets of his artistic workmanship, he shows that he has consciously individualized every one of his characters, every change in the scenery or action of the drama, or in the emotions and moods of the dramatis personae, by the introduction of a specific musi¬cal theme or leitmotif, which he employs throughout the opera to suggest the same thing. This theme is worked upon and varied with the masterly skill which Wagner possesses in fugue and part writing. Thus in his ‘Parsifal,’ Klingsor, Kundry, Parsifal, Amfortas and the Flower maidens are all ushered in with a special lead¬ing theme or leitmotif for each.

    There is a special theme for the Eucharist, for the spear (Speermotiv), for the Holy Grail (Gralmotiv). The children's voices raise a strain ‘Faith is still alive’ to the notes of the Glaubensthema, or faith-motive. There is a Leidensmotiv, to express the grief of Amfortas; there is the Doormotiv, expressing the promise of help; the Zaubermotiv, suggesting the devilish power of witchcraft, while the mother's sorrow is suggested by the Motiv des Herzleids, the heart-grief's theme. The Bell-theme, with its pealing sound, the Ride-theme, suggesting the clatter of horsehoofs, the Good Friday theme, with its characteristic chords, each in its way, are powerfully suggestive, and when once recognized. their recurrence has a powerful effect.

January (month)

   January is the first month of the year. The old Roman year began with March. The beginning of the year was shifted to January about 251 B. C., but this arrangement was not accepted by Christian nations until the eighteenth century. The Jewish New Year still falls on March 25th. The month was named in honor of Janus, the god of doors, gates, and all passageways. He was represented in art as a god with two faces, one looking backward, the other forward. New Year's Day was the chief festival in his honor. Presents were then made. The Temple of Janus in Rome was open in time of war. It is said to have been closed but three times in 700 years.

Henry Moseley

   Henry Moseley (1887-1915) was an English physicist whose brilliant research in the field of x-ray spectra of the elements was brought to an abrupt halt by his tragic death during World War I in the attack on Gallipoli.
Born at Weymouth, Dorset, Moseley was educated first at Eton and then at Trinity College, Oxford. Immediately following graduation, he accepted a post as lecturer in physics in Ernest Rutherford's laboratory at the University of Manchester, where he remained until wartime.
   Henry Moseley's first research concerned radioactivity. Then he began his spectacular research on the X-ray spectra of the elements. Moseley revealed the structure of the electron rings in almost all atoms so that the X-ray spectra of the elements could be arranged in a continuing series. Moseley's work made it possible to identify elements by continuously ordered numbers. His discovery was a vital contribution to the understanding of atomic structure.

The Griffin (mythology)

The Griffin, or Gryphon, was in Greek legend, a fabulous creature with the body and legs of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. Griffins were supposed to be natives of India, where, it was said, they guarded hidden treasure, and built their nests of gold and watched them vigilantly to keep them from plunderers. They were believed by the Greeks to flourish in the Rhipaean mountains, between the Hyperboreans and the one-eyed Arimaspians of Scythia. Griffins guarded the gold of the north. The figure of the griffin was used frequently as an ornament in works of art. It signifies a union of the lion's strength with the swiftness and agility of the eagle. The griffin is also an emblem of watchfulness and courage.

When did the first powered airplane fly?

Powered flight really started with William Henson and John Stringfellow using Cayley's principles, these two
Englishmen designed an aerial steam carriage in 1842. Many of their ideas were practical, but they, too, were ahead of their time — there was no adequate engine.
In 1848, Stringfellow, working alone, built a model 10 feet long with a batlike wing. It had an engine which weighed less than 9 pounds and powered two propellers. It made short, sustained flights, flying as much as 40 yards. It was only a model, but it was real, pow¬ered flight.

John Stringfellow and William Henson design

What is asthma?

The disease 'Asthma,' which is characterized by periodic attacks of spasms of the bronchial tubes should not be confused with conditions having as a symptom difficult or rapid breathing such as heart and kidney disease, arteriosclerosis (hardehed arteries), thyroid gland disturbances (goiter), and overweight.
It is therefore very important that anyone having an asthmatic tendency receive a thor¬ough examination to determine whether the condition is really 'asthma' rather than a manifestation of some constitutional disease.

Causes. 'True asthma' is probably due in practically all cases to a 'hypersensitiveness' on the part of the individual to some bac¬teria, pollen, or other protein substance. As¬sociated with this condition of hypersensitivity there is frequently found a chronic irritation of the nose or throat, less frequently disease of the ear. Chronic bronchitis is often associated with asthma and frequently an acute inflammation of the lining membranes of the upper air passages will be the causative factor, particularly in persons hypersensitive to pollens.
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Sidney Opera House

   Like a ship with its sails set for the future, the Opera House dominates the harbor in Sidney, Australia. Built out on a peninsula, the building is a series of concrete shells that house a center for the performings arts.
   Geographically an Asian country, Australia has an English heritage strongly influenced by its isolation from Europe. Australia has also taken in many European refugees who have helped to make its culture more international.
   Thus, when the Australian goverment decided to build a center to celebrate the arts, it sponsored a worldwide competition to choose its architect, Joern Utzon, a Dane, was the winner. His building rests on a high platform, and the shells rise more than 200 feet (60 meters) above ground level. It contains four theaters, each acoustically perfect for the type of performance held. There is a concert hall, an opera theater, a drama theater, and a chamber music and film hall. Completed in 1973, the Sidney Opera House is today considered one of the modern world's outstanding buildings.

Causes of fever

Fever is a condition in which the temperature of the body is more than its normal 98.6° F. The term is also used as part of the name of certain diseases, such as typhoid fever and scarlet fever, in which a prominent symptom is a high temperature. Fever is not a disease, but a symptom of many different disorders, especially diseases caused by infections. Although people have survived temperatures of more than 110° F., a fever of 106° F. may have serious effects, particularly in babies or elderly people.
The course of fever varies in different diseases. The first signs of fever are often chilly sensations, frequently associated with flushed or warm feelings. The temperature may rise slowly or rapidly, and it may stay up or may fluctuate. As it rises, it may be associ¬ated with shaking chills. If it falls quickly, profuse sweating may occur.

Causes of Fever
As its cells burn foodstuffs for energy, the body constantly produces heat. At the same time the body constantly loses heat to its surroundings through the skin, through breathing, and in other ways. The temperature of the body is a measure of the balance between heat produced and heat lost.
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What are the last rites?

The last rites is a popular term for the Roman Catholic sacraments given to the sick, particularly to those who are in danger of death. The rites consist of penance, or confession and absolution, the viaticum, or last Communion, and extreme unction, or anointment with oil and a blessing.

Last Rites

What is fetishism?

   In anthropology, fetishism is the veneration of an object that is believed to have supernatural power. Various kinds of fetishes are found in many societies throughout the world. Some fetishes are thought to contain spirits. Others, such as charms and talismans, are considered to be powerful and lucky without being the abodes of particular spirits. Some fetishes are small and are carried on the person as amulets. Good luck pieces, like the rabbit's foot, are fetishes in some societies. West Africa is famed for fetishism associated with the highly developed art of wood carving.
   In psychology, fetishism is an abnormal attachment to any object. Young children who cannot be separated
from their blankets and adults who are enamored of items of clothing usually worn by the opposite sex are said to be fetishists.

Double stars

   The first double star ever recorded—Mizar in the Big Dipper— was discovered accidentally in 1650 by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Riccioli. Subsequent discoveries by other astronomers were also accidental. By 1779, enough observations had been compiled to inspire the indefatigable William Herschel (1738-1822) to begin a systematic search for these stellar curiosities. Two years later, he had discovered more than 800 new double stars, assessing each pair with a filar micrometer, a device that allowed him to precisely measure the separation and orientation of the components. Later measurements of these stars by Herschel and others revealed that some of them were, in fact, orbiting each other.
   The American astronomer S, W. Burnham (1838-1921) kicked off a new age of double-star discovertes in 1873 when he published a list of 81 new pairs he had found with his 6 inch (150 mm) refractor. Over the next four decades, this tireless, sharp-eyed observer discovered an additional 1,340 double stars using telescopes of various sizes. In 1906, his observations were collected in the General Catalogue of Double Stars.

Robert Koch

   Robert Koch was a German microbiologist. Born near Hanover, Germany, Dec. 11, 1843. Died Baden-Baden, Germany, May 28, 1910.
   Koch was awarded the 1905 Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine for identifying the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. Until Koch's discovery it was thought that tuberculosis is due to a nutritional disorder. Koch was the first person to show that the disease is an infection caused by bacteria carried through the air on dust particles. In his study of these bacteria, Koch developed a basic method of isolating and identifying any disease-causing bacteria. This method, called Koch's postulates, is still used in microbilogy. Koch also developed a test for diagnosing tuberculosis.
   Koch began his career in microbiology with a study of anthrax, an infectious disease of livestock that may be transmitted to man. In 1876 he isolated and identified the anthrax-causing bacterium. By observing their life cycle. he also explained how the disease is spread from one animal to another.
   In studying anthrax, Koch used a liquid medium to cultivate the bacteria. However, the medium was not entirely satisfactory because it allowed the bacteria to move freely and they could not be carefully observed. For his study of tuberculosis-causing bacteria, Koch wanted a solid medium on which to grow the microorganisms. With such a medium the bacteria would remain on the surface, where they could be  easily seen. After experimenting with various kinds of culture media, Koch finally developed a solid medium using gelatin. Many scientists consider this Koch's greatest contribution to the field of microbiology.
    Between 1883 and 1907, Koch traveled throughout India, Egypt, and other parts of Afric, studying the various epidemic diseases of those areas. In India he discovered the bacteria that cause cholera and showed that the disease is spread through polluted water. He also proved that bubonic plague is transmitted to man through the bite of a flea that has lived on an infected rat.

Antoine Henri Becquerel (bio)

   Antoine Henri Becquerel (1852-1908) is known as the man who discovered radioactivity—a discovery that influenced the development of atomic weapons, nuclear energy, and radioactive medical treatments.
   Becquerel was born on December 15, 1852, in Paris, France. Both his father, Alexandre Edmond Becquerel, and his grandfather, An¬toine Cesar Becquerel, one of the founders of electrochemistry, were physicists.
   Becquerel worked as an engineer as well as a professor of physics. His discovery of radiation occurred in February 1896. A few months before, Wilhelm Roentgen had discovered X rays—invisible penetrating forms of radiation. Becquerel wanted to find out whether or not phosphorescent materials—materials that glow in the dark after being stimulated by sunlight—would also give off X rays. What he discovered was that certain substances, such as uranium, would give off X rays even when they had not been stimulated by light.
   Soon scientists discovered that other elements give off energy in this way. These are the radioactive elements, whose atoms are decaying. Particles from the atoms break away and release the energy that held the atoms together. When harnessed, this produces the enormous energy needed to produce nuclear power.
In 1901, while experimenting with radium, Becquerel developed what looked like a reddish-brown sunburn on his skin. He reasoned that the burn was caused by the radium—that the rays emitted were able to penetrate and cause changes to living things. His discovery led to the controlled use of radioactivity in the treatment of some diseases. For his discoveries he was awarded, along with Marie and Fierre Curie, the Nobel prize in physics in 1903.
Becquerel died on August 25, 1908, in Le Croisic, France

What is sleeping sickness?

   Sleeping sickness is an endemic disease confined to equatorial Africa and characterized in its terminal stages by sleepiness, torpor, and coma. Sleeping sickness has been known since 1800. It was then endemic in a few localities, but in recent years it has become widespread. The disease is caused by a blood parasite, the Trypanosoma gambiense, which is conveyed by two varieties of the tsetse fly, Glossina palpalis and Glossina morsitans. Wild and domestic animals act as reservoirs for the sickness, the disease in the animal being known as nagana, the tsetse fly disease of cattle.
   Two types of sleeping sickness are recognized. The Uganda type, carried by Glossina palpalis and confined to the watercourses and lake shores, was first identified in 1901. It is violently epidemic. The variety occurring in Nyassaland and Rhodesia has been known only since 1908, is highly fatal but not epi¬demic. The fly that is the conveyer in this case is Glossina morsitans, which is independent of water.
   The name "sleeping sickness" is also applied popularly to an unrelated group of diseases which cause coma and are known medically as encephalitis.

What is a Quarter (coin)?

Quarter is a United States coin worth 25 cents, or a quarter of a dollar. The government issued the first quarters in 1796. The Washington quarter was first minted in 1932, the 200th anniversary of George Washington's birth. Washington's head appears on one side, and an eagle is on the other side. Quarters of several other designs were used before the Washington quarter.
Until 1965, quarters contained 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper. Because of a shortage of silver, the Coinage Act of 1965 eliminated silver from the coin. Since then, quarters have consisted of a layer of copper sealed between two layers composed of a copper-nickel mixture.

Quarter coin

Three types of waves

   Most people think of a "wave" as meaning any vertical rise or swelling of the sea. Actually there are three types of waves.

   When a wave first forms in wind-blown water, it is called a sea. When it has left the storm area and is traveling across calm water, it is a "swell." When it reaches land and breaks, it is "surf."

   The height of a storm wave, or sea, depends on violence of the wind, length of time the storm lasts, and extent of open water over which the storm rages. Most seas are only 5 to 12 feet high, but a two-day storm may produce 20-foot waves. Even 50-foot waves have been reported.

   Each drop of water in a wave moves in a cir¬cular pattern, as if on a wheel. For a drop near the surface this circle is the height of the wave; deeper down the circle is smaller. Any one drop of water moves ahead at only 1 to 2 percent of the speed of the wave. At about 600 feet or more below the surface, the sea is alwavs calm.

   Swells travel under their own momentum across wide areas of windless water. They are low, widely spaced, and fast-moving. They keep traveling in an orderly pattern to far-distant shores. As they travel, their height lessens, the spacing between waves lengthens, and their speed increases. Eventually a swell may travel faster than the wind that set it in motion.

   When it nears a shore, the wave "feels bottom." Slowed by friction against the sea bottom, it rises from a low swell to a narrow, steep crest. The crest hurries forward faster than the slowed-down wave. Breaking into foam, it tumbles forward in a burst of fury onto the sand.

Sea Waves

What is a slide rule?

   Slide rule is an instrument composed of various scales, the positions of which in relation to each other may be altered, used for the rapid performance of certain arithmetical operations. The scales may be engraved on straight rods, disks, or on the surface of a cylinder. In its simplest form it consists of two rules, arranged to slide on each other, and so divided into scales that by sliding the rules backward or forward until a selected number on one scale is made to coincide with a selected number on the other, the desired result is read off directly on a third scale. By means of a duplex slide rule, where the rule may be set for four factors instead of two, more complicated problems may be solved. Revolving slide rules are employed to increase the virtual length of the scales and the number of decimal places to which results may be read. Circular slide rules, resembling watches, are also made. The various slide rules proper depend on the mechanical use of logarithms, and the scales are graduated on a logarithmic basis. The slide rule used by research engineers and scientists has many special scales for the evaluation of trigonometric functions and angles, roots and powers, calculations involving ir, and hyperbolic sines and tangents. The size of the slide rule determines the accuracy of the answer. Larger rules are subdivided so that the anwer may be read to more significant figures than can be estimated on the smaller rule.

The Fall of Crete

From the 30th to the 16th century BC, a great civilization developed on the Aegean island of Crete. With centers of culture and power in such palatial cities as Knossos, Mallia, and Phaistos, the ancient race was one of skilled seafarers and artisans, an oceangoing people that dominated the Mediterranean for centuries. Then, inexplicably, all of Crete's towns and palaces were destroyed, and the society collapsed, abandoning its former influence and turning away from the sea. Because archaeologists have found echoes of Greek myth in the artifacts and ruins left from that vanished world, they have called it Minoan, after Minos, the legendary Cretan king— and mortal son of the god Zeus—whose palace held the labyrinth and the half bull, half man called the Minotaur. Historians speculate that the Minoans first arrived in Crete about 7000 BC, presumably from Asia Minor. By 1700 BC, the island's population was an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 people, one of the largest in the world at that time. Expert sea¬farers and boat builders, the Mi¬noans built sturdy keeled craft that could travel several hundred miles in a few days—this at a time when the Egyptians were using rudimentary troughlike vessels for simple river navigation. Its maritime supremacy so eclipsed that of other cultures that Crete was virtually immune from invasion; the secure Minoans did not even bother to fortify their palaces.
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Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

   Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944), was the chief influence in the creation of the literature of aviation. He was a flier himself, and died an aviator's death, disappearing while on an Allied reconnaissance mission during World War II. Saint-Exupéry was an air pioneer, opening routes over Africa, the South Atlantic, and the Andes Mountains.
   During the campaign of France from May to June, 1940, Saint-Exupéry led a squadron in an unequal fight against superior German air forces. He wrote Night Flight (1932), Wind, Sand and Stars (1939), and The Little Prince (1943).
   Saint-Exupéry often used his books to discuss his philosophy of life. He was born in Lyon, France.

What is a gallon?

   Gallon is a measure of capacity containing 231 cubic inches or four quarts. The standard for the U.S. gallon is a volume of 3,785.307 cubic centimeters, 0.13368 cubic feet. The U.S. gallon of distilled water weighs 8.337 pounds (roughly 8.3 pounds) when measured at 15 °C. (59 °F.), relative humidity of 50 percent, and air pressure of 29.92 inches of mercury.
   The British imperial gallon (also used in Canada) has a capacity of 4,546.1 cubic centimeters or 277.3 cubic inches. An imperial gallon of distilled water weighs 10 pounds at 15 °C. (59 °F.) The old English wine gallon was 231 cubic inches. In countries using the metric system, four liters would be the nearest convenient equivalent to the U.S. gallon.

The Brothers Grimm

Brothers Grimm

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German philologists, writers, and university professors. Jacob, the older, lived 1785-1863. Wilhelm lived 1786-1859. Throughout their lives they were inseparable, and are spoken of as the Brothers Grimm. Wil¬helm was married. Jacob remained single and lived with his brother. With five other professors they were expelled from the faculty of the university of Gottingen in 1837 for teaching that the elector of Hanover was exceeding his constitutional authority. The brothers united in making a popular collection of fairy tales known as Kinder-und Hausmärchen. Wilhelm was a cheery, social man; Jacob was a renowned student of the German language. He left a German grammar and a Ger¬man dictionary incomplete. The rule relative to consonant changes, known as Grimm's Law, was published by him.

Who is the father of aeronautics?

   Sir George Cayley has been called the father of aeronautics. This is the science of flight, including the principies and techniques of building and flying balloons, airships and airplanes, as well as aerodynamics , the science of air in motion and the movement of bodies through the air.
   This early nineteenth century Englishman denounced ornithopters as impractical. Drawing upon an earlier discovery, Cayley decided that it would be possible to make a plane fly through the air if the plane were light enough, and if air could be forced against its wings by moving the plane through the air.
   He solved the problem of making the plane light by using diagonal bracing to reinforce the wings and body instead of using solid pieces of wood. The second problem, moving the ship through the air, was to be solved by a propeller-driven engine. Since there was no engine light enough or powerful enough, Cayley designed his own. It was an internal combustion engine which would use "oil of tar," or gasoline, as we now call it. But the fuel was too costly and Cayley was forced to abandon his en¬gine. It was not until almost a hundred years later that such an engine was successfully built.

Cayley glider

What are lay days?

   Lay Days is a maritime law term designating the stipulated number of days granted to the charterer of a vessel for shipping or unloading cargo, during which time no charge may be made for wharfage. The sum charged for days ini excess of the number allowed ir. the charter is called demurrage and its amount is usually fixed in the charter. The period of lay days begins at the arrival of the vessel ir port, and, in the absence of custom or agreement to the contrary, includes Sundays. It, maritime insurance lay days also designate a period, commonly limited to 30 days, for which rebate of insurance may be demanded while a ship has remained idle and without fires at a dock.

What is Fog?

   A fog is a cloud close to the ground. Clouds are made of tiny drops of water. So are fogs. There may be so many of these droplets that they shut off the view of everything round about. There are many accidents in fogs because people cannot see their way.
   Fogs occur most often near big bodies of water. The land often cools off much faster than the water. Warm, moist air moving in over the land is cooled quickly. Some of the water vapor in the air changes to drops of water and forms a fog. In cities fog may have so much smoke mixed with it that it is called "smog."
Some cities are famous for their fogs. London is one of them.
   Fogs disappear when the ground warms up or when a brisk wind blows them away. They can be driven away by fires. During World War II millions of dollars were spent to keep airfields free of fog.

How do we know what it's like inside the Earth?

   Suppose you could dig a hole four thousand miles deep, straight to the center of the Earth. What would you find on the way? Although the deepest oil well only goes down about four miles, scientists have put together many kinds of information, and this is how they think the Earth is made from the surface to the center:
First comes a crust of ordinary rock. This is twenty or thirty miles thick in most places. Under the Pacific Ocean it is only a few miles thick.
   Next comes a layer of heavier rock about 1,800 miles thick.
   Inside this layer is the Earth's core. The core seems to be a sort of liquid metal, very hot and much heavier than any metals you have ever seen.
   Information about the Earth's inside comes from an instrument that was invented for another purpose. This instrument is the seismograph which makes a little wavy line on special paper every time it is joggled by an earthquake. Scientists study these wavy lines to find out when and where the Earth is quaking. They have also discovered that the lines can help reveal what kind of material the shocks of the earthquake passed through on their way from the quake to the seismograph.
   Will we ever have a look at the Earth's core itself? Probably not. But some day we will certainly know more about it and what it is made of.

Anton van Leeuwenhoek

In the 1660's the members of the English Royal Society were greatly stirred by a letter from a modest but reliable observer in Holland. It announced that the writer, peering through microscopes fashioned by his own hands, had discovered a vast number of "little animals" in rain water. These "living atoms," or "animalcules," as he called them, were tiny; several thousand would fill the space of a grain of sand.

The Dutchman who thus first spied upon the world of infinitely small creatures was Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), an untutored ex-shopkeeper and minor official of the picturesque city of Delft. (Some say that he was the janitor of the city hall.) He built his own microscopes — hundreds of them — and with them he observed anything that aroused his curiosity: the brain of a fly, the legs of a louse, sections of the crystalline lens of an ox's eye and the stinger of a bee.
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Samuel Morse

Samuel Morse (1791-1872) was the Ameri¬can who invented the most widely used telegraph. He also developed the Morse code, an alphabet consisting of dots and dashes to be used in sending messages.
In addition to his inventive genius, Morse was one of the finest American artists of his day, being especially gifted in portrait painting. He was the founder of the National Academy of Design in New York City and served for nineteen years as its first president.
The son of a well-known and highly respected clergyman and geographer, Morse was born at Charlestown, Massachusetts. He received his education at Yale College, but he was not a serious student. He developed a fervent interest in painting miniature portraits and wanted to study art in London.
In 1832 Samuel Morse returned to Europe, intending to study art, but on his trip across he became engaged in a dinner conversation that changed his entire life.
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What is Ultrasound?

Some sounds are too high pitched for people to hear. Most people can't hear frequencies greater than 20,000 Hz. Sounds above the range of human hearing are called ultrasound. Even though you can't hear ultrasound, it has many important medical and commercial uses. You may have experienced ultrasound without being aware of it.
Scientists produce ultrasound by changing electric or magnetic energy into mechanical energy. They use a device called an ultrasonic transducer. The transducer has a quartz or ceramic disk that can be charged with electricity. When charged, the disk vibrates very rapidly. The high-frequency vibration produces ultra¬sonic waves.

Medical Uses

 Doctors use ultrasound to observe soft tissues in the human body. Soft tissues, such as those that make up the liver, are almost invisible on an X-ray picture. However, ultrasonic waves reflect off soft tis¬sues. A computer transforms the reflected waves into a picture on a computer screen. The picture is called a sonogram. Using a sonogram, a surgeon can detect a tumor or examine valves in the heart. Pregnant women routinely have sonograms to determine the development of the fetus.
Other medical professionals also use ultrasonic devices. Physicians use ultrasonic vibrations to get rid of stones that form in the kidney and gall bladder. The ultrasonic vibrations break the stones into very small pieces so they can pass out of the body naturally. Dental hygienists use high-frequency vibrations to loosen plaque deposits on teeth. Physical therapists use ultra¬sound to produce a deep-heating effect for muscle spasms and sprains.

Commercial Uses
 Ultrasound is used to clean small, intricate metal items, such as jewelry and small machine parts. The item to be cleaned is placed in a liquid bath. Ultrasonic vibrations travel through the liquid bath to loosen and remove dirt and corrosion. Ultrasound makes it easy to clean cracks and crevices that can't be reached by hand-polishing methods.

What happens in the body during exercise?

When you step on the accelerator of your car, the carburetor feeds more gasoline to the engine. The engine runs faster — that is, the chemical energy of the fuel is changed into heat energy and mechanical energy at an increased rate. But it is not enough to supply the engine with more gasoline; if that were all, your car would soon be on the scrap heap. A great many other factors are involved.

In order to burn the fuel, a greater supply of oxygen is needed; hence, the carburetor must suck in air to the engine in greater quantities than before. A good deal more heat is generated at high speeds. To keep the engine from becoming overheated, more cooling must be provided by the water pump, which circulates water through the engine jacket, and by the fan, which blows air over the radiator. The ignition must produce more sparks per minute to fire the fuel in the cylinders; more oil must flow in order to lubrícate the working parts. Many operations are required, therefore, in order to bring about an increased rate of energy transformation in your automobile.
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Transit of Venus

   Every One-hundred years or so, observers on Earth can watch Venus at inferior conjunction pass across the face of the Sun. These rare events are called transits of Venus, and they occur in a pair, 8 years apart. The last two transits were in 1874 and 1882; the next two take place on 8 June 2004 and 6 June 2012. In 2004, Venus crossed the southern part of the Sun, and in 2012, the northern part.
   In earlier times, transits of Venus let astronomers measure the distance from Earth to Venus, and, by extension, the scale of the Solar System. After the telescope was invented, a handful of astronomers made individual efforts for the 1639 transit. But for the 1761 and 1769 events, the British and French sent out expeditions all over the globe, among them the famous exploring voyage of James Cook, which went to Tahiti for the 1769 transit.
   Better distances for the Solar System did emerge from these efforts, but the most notable finding was about Venus itself. Observing the 1761 transit, the Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov discovered that Venus has an atmosphere. He noted the halo it produced around the black dot of the planet as it slipped onto the solar disk and off again.

Transit of Venus in 2004

The Barrymore family

   Actress Ethel Barrymore said of herself and brothers Lionel and John: "We became actors not because we wanted to go on the stage, but because it was the thing we could do best."
The Barrymores were a noted family of ac¬tors who traced their connection with the stage back to Shakespeare's day. Ethel, Li¬onel, and John appeared together on film only once—in Rasputin and the Empress (1932). Separately, they displayed the acting talent that made the name Barrymore a synonym for actor.
   Ethel Barrymore (1879-1959) became a star at the age of 21 in Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines. She appeared in a series of comedies and later in plays by Ibsen and Shakespeare. She crowned her stage career in 1940 in Emlyn Williams' The Corn is Green. She also acted in films, winning an Academy Award for None But the Lonely Heart (1944).
   Lionel Barrymore (1878-1954) was a skillful character actor. In 1918 he made a great hit in The Copperhead, followed by The Jest in 1919 (with his brother), Macbeth (1921). and The Claw (1921). After that he devoted most of his time to motion pictures. Troubled in his later years by a hip injury, he remained active in films, performing from a wheelchair.
   Stunning portrayals of Richard III and Hamlet established John Barrymore (1882-1942) as one of the greatest actors of the English-speaking stage. He later starred in a variety of films, including Grand Hotel (1932) and Twentieth Century (1934). His charm, his classic profile, and his headline romances added a new chapter to the Barrymore legend—a legend that lives on in younger generations of Barrymores, including the actress Drew Barrymore (1975- ).

Lionel, Ethel and John Barrymore

Who were the Cro-Magnons?

   Some 40.000 years ago—just about the time Neanderthal people disappeared—a new kind of people moved into Europe, perhaps from Africa or Asia. They were better equipped to survive than were Neanderthal people, for they were stronger and more intelligent and made better tools and weapons.
   This new kind of human is called Cro-Magnon "man," from the name of a cave in southern France where remains were found. But the France of 40,000 years ago was very different from the France of today. It was quite cold. The polar icecap of the fourth period of the Ice Age extended far south into Europe. We know Europe was cold because with the Cro-Magnon bones were found the remains of plants and animals that live only in a cold climate.
   We know much more about Cro-Magnon peo¬ple than we do about any of the other early humans. For one thing, more of their remains have been found. Then, too, these people themselves "told" us more. They could not write, but they could draw and paint. Cro-Magnon people were probably the first real artists. In the caves of southern France and Spain where Cro-Magnon people lived, the walls are covered with their paintings of the animals they hunted. Among the animals they painted were the woolly mammoth and the reindeer. These paintings are full of life and movement. The Cro-Magnons also made small clay and limestone statues of animals and carved figures on bones and antlers.
   Cro-Magnon people looked almost the same as modern men and women. They lived on earth for many thousands of years. By the end of the Old Stone Age, however, the Cro-Magnon as a distinct type no longer existed. In appearance, peo¬ple had become as they are today.

Cro-magnon man

Who was Griselda?

   In medieval legend, Griselda, Griseldis, or Grissel, is a character who was so patient under severe tests imposed upon her by her husband that her name has become proverbial. Griselda was the beautiful daughter of a poor charcoal burner. The Marquis of Saluzzo made her his wife. He treated her most cruelly, but with the presumably justifiable intention of testing her obedience and patience. He took her children from her, pretending that they were put to death, while really they were sent to be brought up elsewhere. Finally, after she had borne uncomplainingly every indignity and unkindness, her husband informed her that he intended to divorce her and marry another. Even at this the patient Griselda offered no complaint. She was stripped of her fine clothes and sent back to her father's cottage. When the day set for the Marquis' wedding arrived, Griselda was sent for to prepare for and welcome the bride. She made preparations for her rival carefully, and with the same calm sweetness with which she had borne other trials. When the expected "bride" appeared, she proved to be no bride, but Griselda's own daughter, now a beautiful young girl. Griselda was restored to her rightful place as wife of the Marquis and was famous forever after for her patience and wifely obedience.

   The origin of the story is unknown. Boccaccio told it in the Decameron. It is the last story of the collection, and the best. Petrarch translated the story into Latin; Chaucer used it as the clerk's tale in Canterbury Tales. Maria Edgeworth has written a novel entitled The Modern Griselda. In Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio says of Katharina, "For patience, she will prove a second Grissel."

 Griselda

Edvard H. Grieg

    Edvard Hagerup Grieg (1843-1907) was a noted Norwegian composer and pianist. Bergen is his birthplace; his studies were pursued at Leipsic and then at Copenhagen. As a pianist he made a name for himself in England, Germany, and Italy, but he is best as a composer. His compositions are of many different kinds, —folk songs, chamber music, heavy suites for orchestra, works for piano with orchestra, and others. Ibsen, the dramatist, and Bjornson, the author, were his friends. Peer Gynt, perhaps his best-known work, is the orchestral music for Ibsen's play of that name. Probably the characteristic which most endears his music to so many is its great originality, for Grieg's music is not like any other music. His themes are not smooth and tranquil, but are very erratic, being brilliant and moody by turns. They are thought to reflect the temperament of his northern countrymen.

Edvard H. Grieg

The Golden Age

   Golden Age is a term used both in mythology and history to designate a period of special prosperity and happiness. The mythological idea of a Golden Age which is common with most nations was of a time when earth yielded her fruits spontaneously, when man lived at peace with man and beast, when poverty and pain were unknown. The Greeks believed this happy state of things to have existed when Cronus, the Roman Saturn, reigned. After he was dethroned by Zeus conditions began to deteriorate. China, Egypt, Assyria, Media, Persia, each has its Golden Age. The reign of Elizabeth is called the Golden Age of England; the reign of Charles V, the Golden Age of Germany; the reign of Frederick the Great, the Golden Age of Prussia.

The Golden Age

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw was a British dramatist, critic, and novelist, born in Dublin in 1856, and largely self-educated. His father, George Carr Shaw, was an unsuccessful businessman; his mother, Lucinda Elizabeth Gurley, was a musíc teacher. In his youth Shaw enrolled successively in four schools, but he proved to be an indifferent student in most subjects. Music, literature, and painting appealed to him strongly and by incessant reading and visits to art galleries, theaters, and concert halls he acquired a well-rounded education in these fields before he was fifteen.

Shaw obtained a clerical Job in a Dublin real-estate office in 1871. Although he found the work stultifying, he remained with the firm four and a half years. During this period he embarked on his literary career with a letter to the press on the menace of revivalism as practiced by the American evangelists Dwight Lyman Moody and Ira David Sankey (1840-1908). Letters to the press were thereafter a favorite means of expression with him.
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Some facts about the Jaguar cat

The jaguar is probably the most fierce cat in the Western Hemisphere. Its loud, deep roar and vicious habits make it the most feared animal in the Central and South American rainforests. The jag¬uar likes to lie on tree branches and leap upon its prey. It eats such animals as the deer, peccary, tapir, and the agouti. Many hunters and other persons have also been killed and eaten by the jaguar.
Jaguars once roamed as far north as the deserts of Arizona and southern California. But they now live only in México, Central America, and South America.
The jaguar is slightly smaller, but heavier, than the mountain lion. A male jaguar may grow about 8 feet long, including its 2½-foot tail, and may weigh up to 290 pounds. The jaguar's coat is usually deep yellow or brownish-yellow and marked with many dark spots. Some spots look like broken rings. These spots are light-colored with dark borders and a dark spot in the center. Other spots are black. Some South American jaguars are almost coal black. It is next to the lion and tiger in strength among the cats. Ancient Maya Indians considered the jaguar a god.
Scientific Classification.
The jaguar is in the cat family, Felidae.
 It is genus Panthera, species P. onca.

Jaguar cat

Why did the zeppelin disappear?

   Two factors contributed to the decline of the zeppelins. First, those filled with hydro¬gen were very dangerous, since hydrogen explodes and burns. The last hydrogen-filled zeppelin seen outside of Germany was the Hindenburg, which exploded and burned in May, 1937, while landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
Although the United States used helium, a natural gas which does not burn, its airships, the Akron and Macon, were both lost. They were destroyed by bad weather, the second factor which caused the decline of zep¬pelin-type airships.
   Small, nonrigid airships, or blimps, are still used for offshore anti-submarine patrol duty and to explore the edges of space, but large, rigid airships are part of history.

Zeppelins 

What is sleet?

Sleet is a form of precipitation consisting of frozen or partly frozen rain, usually accompanied by snow or rain. Particles of sleet are formed in cold weather when raindrops enter an area of very cold air and become supercooled, i.e., cooled below their freezing point without freezing. The drops freeze suddenly when they come in contact with solid objects, such as particles of dust, and form a shower of small, round, white pellets of ice. When the drops fall on larger objects, such as telephone wires or tree branches, they form a coating of ice.

Sleet

Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907), was an American sculptor whose work is noted for its lifelike qualities. He became famous overnight in 1880 with his statue of Admiral David Farragut, which now stands in Madison Square in New York City. His works include The Puritan or Deacon Chapin in Springfield, Mass., The Standing Lincoln in Chicago, and Captain Randall on Staten Island. Saint-Gaudens' first statue was Hiawatha, completed in 1871. Saint-Gaudens designed the statue of Diana on the tower of the old Madison Square Garden that stood at Madison Avenue and East 26th Street in New York City. Saint-Gaudens is also noted for his Shaw Memorial in Bos-ton, and Adoration of the Cross, a bas-relief statue in St. Thomas Church in New York City.
Saint-Gaudens was born in Dublin, Ireland. He attended school in New York, but left at 13 to work for
a cameo cutter. He studied drawing at Cooper Union, the National Academy of Design, and the École des Beaux-Arts. Saint-Gaudens' earliest work was a bronze bust of his father.

Diana by Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Magnolia facts

Mag¬nolia is the name of both a plant family and a genus. They include vines, shrubs and trees. The flowers are usually large and sweet smelling, with colors from pink, yellow or white to purple. They grow mainly in North and Central America and in Asia.

Magnolia trees (in genus Magnolia) may be evergreen or deciduous. The stamens and carpels are in spirals rather than in the more common whorled pattern. The roots are ten¬der, making it difficult to transplant the tree. Propagation is by layering, stem cuttings and seeds. The star magnolia is a small tree of northern states. The flowers appear before the leaves and are among the first flowers of spring.

In the magnolia family, the cucumber tree of southern forests is the tallest, over 100 feet, with green flowers. The umbrella tree grows to 40 feet with leaves 25 inches long. The bull hay is almost as tall as the cucumber tree and has showy flowers measuring eight inches across. The swamp bay is an evergreen in Texas that grows to 50 feet tall.

Magnolia

Magnolia flower

Who was the Laughing Philosopher?

The Laughing Philosopher is a characterization of Democritus of Miletus. He laughed at the follies of man and is distinguished by this epithet from the "weeping philosopher," Heraclitus, who mourned for human depravity and infatuation.

Waht is Apparent Magnitude?

Sirius A and B

   Apparent magnitude refers to the brightness of stars. Hipparchus, a Greek astronomer of the second century B.C., made a scale of apparent magnitude for comparing the bright¬ness of stars, and catalogued about 1,000 stars. He called the brightest stars "first magnitude stars." The faintest stars visible to the naked eye, he called "sixth magnitude stars."
   The luminosity, or brightness, of a star depends upon its temperature and size. Its apparent brightness, or visual magnitude, depends not only upon its luminosity, but also upon its distance from Earth. Today, it is known that some bright stars are brighter than first-magnitude stars. The scale has now been extended to include zero magnitude and also negative magnitudes. Sirius, the bright¬est star, has been assigned a magnitude of —1.4. A zero-magnitude star is 100 times brighter than a fifth-magnitude star.
   The scale was extended beyond the sixth magnitude to take in the numerous stars seen only with the aid of a telescope. Certain stars in the North Polar Sequence are used as a standard for finding the magnitude of a star. The comparison is made on photographic plates. For greater accuracy, a photoelectric cell is used to measure a star's light, which can then be compared to the light from the standard star.

Absolute magnitude is another scale used in astronomy. It refers to the total amount of light radiated by a star without reference to the amount received on earth. Absolute magnitude is the apparent magnitude the star would have if it were a fixed distance (10 parsecs) away. On the absolute scale, Sirius has a magnitude of —1.5.

What is Fascism?

Mussolini, the Fascist leader

   There are different kinds of government. When World War II began, Italy had the kind called "fascism." Mussolini was the Fascist leader.
   In ancient Rome the rulers had attendants who carried axes to which bundles of rods were tied. The bundles of rods were called fasces. The name "fascism" comes from fasces. The idea of the name is that strength comes from being joined together.
   Fascists believe that the government should be very powerful. They think that a person has no rights of his own. Under fascism people are not free to write and say what they think. The government tells them what property they may own, what work they must do, and what their wages are to be. Their country must come ahead of everything else. Fascism is very different from democracy.

What is sin?

A sin is a lack of conformity to, or transgression of, a law believed to have divine sanction. Some doctrine of sin and of reconciling the deity is part of most religions. Zoroastrianism premises a conflict of sin with holiness. The central doctrine of Buddhism turns on the demerit of human actions, which must be purged by transmigration.
In no sacred books is the sense of sin so developed as in the Bible. Throughout the Scriptures sin appears as that element in man which puts him at enmity with God, and requires the work of a Redeemer.
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What makes a ball bounce?

   A rubber ball bounces because it is elastic. An elastic substance is made of molecules that do two opposite things: They give when they are pushed, but they also resist being pushed. When a ball hits the floor, the blow flattens it a little. But rubber molecules resist. They push back against the floor. And up goes the ball into the air again, as round as before. You are made of elastic material, too. Think what you would look like if the molecules in your body didn't resist when they are pushed around!

Latona (Leto - mythology)

•  Latona in Roman mythology was the mother of Apollo and Diana.
•  Latona was the Latin form of the Greek LËTÖ.
• Hera, jealous of her, sent the serpent Python to persecute her during her pregnancy. She wandered about the earth, unable to find a place to rest, antil the floating island of Delos granted her refuge on Latona's promise that the island should become the seat of the deity to whom she would give birth there.
• Latona is represented as a mild, beneyolent goddess, in a sea-green dress. With Diana (identified with the Greek Artemis) she cured the wounded Aeneas and crowned him with glory.
• When Diana fled to Olympus from the anger of Hera, Latona carried to her the quiver and arrows which she had left behind.

Who were the Jacobins?

   The Jacobins were members of the Jacobin Club, the most radical political society to rule during the French Revolution. The society got its name from its Paris headquarters in the street of St. James (Jacques in French). It was the only national organization in the country for a while after the Revolution began. The Jacobins came mainly from the middle class.
   They opposed foreign war at first, fearing that it would lead to a military dictatorship. But when war broke out with Prussia and Austria in 1792, the Jacobins supported it in order to gain control.
   The Jacobins came to power in 1793 and began the Reign of Terror, sending hundreds of Frenchmen to the guillotine. Robespierre was the most influential Jacobin leader. But his fellow Jacobins turned on him in 1794 and executed him. After his death, the Jacobins lost power. The term Jacobin is still used to describe a radical.