What is a watt?

Watt (named in honor of James Watt) is the practical electrical unit of activity or rate of doing work. It is measured by the product of the voltage or electromotive forcé of the source into the current supplied. Thus a dynamo which is yielding 30 amperes at a voltage of 100 is working with an activity of 3,000 watts. The watt is equal to 0.735 foot-pound per second; so that one horse power per second is equal to 746 watts. It is customary to use the kilowatt, equal to 1,000 watts.

The goddess Fortuna

   In Roman mythology, Fortuna is the goddess of luck and chance. Originally she seems to have been a goddess of fertility and chilbirth. Later she came to be regarded as the controller of human destiny. According to legend, her actions were unpredictable, and she was usually pictured standing on a ball or wheel, symbolizing her changeable nature. She was also often represented with a blindfold, carrying a cornucopia or holding a rudder. Fortuna had a oracle at Praeneste (now Palestrina), near Rome, and was worshiped at other shrines. The Romans identified her with the Greek goddess Tyche.

The goddess Fortuna

Who were the Guelfs and Ghibellines?

In Italian history, Guelfs and Ghibellines were the names of two great factions. During the Middle Ages the conflicts of these parties filled the pages of history. The names arose in Germany from rival contestants for the im¬perial dignity. In Italy the Guelfs were identified with the cause of the pope, that is to say, the church, and of the free or independent cities. The Ghibellines were the party of the emperor.

Guelfs and Ghibellines

Grass facts

redtop grass

   Grass is the most useful family of plants. While it is true that in a torrid climate people could exist on breadfruit and wa-ter, it is still true that the family of grasses does more to support human life and is more nearly indispensable than any other family of plants within or without the tropics. Wild grasses, timothy, redtop, blue grass, wheat, oats, rye, barley, rice, Indian corn, broom corn, sorghum, reeds, cane, and bamboo are grasses. Grasses may be told from sedges by their stems. Grass stems are usually round, hollow, and jointed, with leaves or blades growing on two sides. Sedge stems are usually three-angled, solid, without joints, and with leaves or blades on three sides. Sedges resemble grasses and are cut for hay, but they are not considered valuable.
   Timothy and redtop are the most valu¬able of the forage grasses. Kentucky blue grass, which extends its range far into Canada, is the best American pasture and lawn grass. A running, underground, fleshy root-stock enables it to extend in hard ground and to withstand drought. When dry weather has killed the plant proper and the pasture is to all appearances dead, these thread-like flessy root-stocks lie quiet like potatoes in a cellar, only to send up a carpet of green with marvelous quickness after a refreshing rain. So far as withstanding drought is. concerned, it is better not to sprinkle often. Frequent surface sprinkling induces the root-stocks to lie near the surface where they may be killed by the hot sun of a few days neglect. Blue grass grows early and grows late. It is a boon to cattle and to dairy interests. Bermuda grass is the best in the South.

What is vacuum?

Vacuum, a space that contains no matter. In the physical sense of the word a vacuum has never existed on the Earth, and its creation is thus far a practical impossibility. The space between the Earth's atmosphere and other astronomical bodies is believed to be a partial vacuum. The term vacuum is commonly used in describing a region of less than atmospheric pressure such as can be produced by exhausting vessels of air.
Read more »

Heliopolis

Heliopolis, the "city of the sun," appears in the Bible under the name of On. It was a splendid city and a famous seat of learning situated in Lower Egypt near the apex of the Nile delta. The site is now occupied by the village of Matariah. He¬liopolis was said by ancient writers to have been founded during the second dynasty, though Egyptian records seem to indicate that this date is too early. A great temple was erected here by Amenemhat I, before which his son, Usertesen I, erected two obelisks, one of which still stands. Thothmes III erected at Heliopolis the obelisks known as Cleopatra's Needles, of which one is now in New York City, the other in London. The priests of this city probably enjoyed a wider reputation for learning than did those of any other ori¬ental city; Thales, Solon and Plato are said to have received instruction from them. Heliopolis declined under later dynasties, and at the beginning of the Christian era the city was practically deserted, and nothing but the obelisk erected by Usertesen now remains.

Heliopolis

Philip Freneau

   Philip Freneau (1752-1832) was an American poet born in New York City, of Huguenot descent, and was graduated from Princeton in 1771, where, with H. H. Brackenridge, he delivered at commencement a poetical dialogue on "The Rising Glory of Amer¬ica." He made mercantile voyages to the West Indies in 1776 and 1780, was captured by the British during the second one, and described his experiences as a prisoner at New York in The British Prison Ship: a Poem in Four Cantos (1781). Other early publications are his Voyage to Boston, a poem (1774), and General Gage's Confession (1775). He was a frequent contributor of patriotic verse to the Freeman's Journal of Philadelphia during the Revolution. After its close he was principally occupied as a shipmaster in the West India trade until 1791, when he was made editor of the National Gazette of Philadelphia by Jefferson. This connection lasted for two years, and he then edited a paper at Mt. Pleasant, N.J., and engaged in other journalistic work for a few years, subsequently returning to a seafaring life and following it until the restrictions on navigation made it unprofitable in 1809. He then resided at his home in Mount Pleasant, N.J. Freneau was the first distinctive American poet, and his verse, though uneven, is characterized by grace, sentiment, and originality.

   His books include The Poems of Philip Freneau, Written chiefly during the Late War (1786), Poems Written and Published during the American Revolutionary War (1809), and A Collection of Poems on American Affairs (1815).

The legend of the Freischütz

   In German legend, Freischütz is a marksman in possession of magic bullets (Freikugeln), six out of seven of which are, by the devil's agency, destined to hit any rnark chosen by their owner; the seventh is, however, at the disposal of the devil, and must hit the mark chosen by him. The legend was most widespread from the 14th to the 16th century. Appearing in Apel's Gespensterbuch (1810), it was afterwards utilized by Weber in the opera Der Freischütz. (1821).

Weber's opera Der Freischütz

The Heliotrope

The Heliotrope is a fragrant plant allied to puccoon, forget-me-not, and beggar's lice. There are perhaps 100 kinds of heliotrope found mostly in warm countries. The fragrant garden heliotropes have sprung from two species. One is native to India, the other to Peru. The name is from two Greek words meaning "turning to the-sun." Turnsole is the English mame—sol meaning sun. Heliotrope is a recognized perfume, and is also the name of a color between violet and purple.

Heliotrope flowers

Heliotrope plant

What is a heliograph?

Heliograph, literally "sun writing," is a method of signaling that makes use of the sun's rays, reflecting them with a mirror or mirrors. The chief use of the heliograph was in military operations, though it have often been used for other than military purposes, as, for instance, by the United States Geological Survey in triangulation. A clear atmosphere is the prime requisite in long-distance signaling with the heliograph, which consists of a mirror or system of mirrors mounted on a tripod and fitted with a shutter that keeps the rays of the sun from the mirror at the will of the operator. The Morse system of dots and dashes is usually employed to operate the heliograph.

At the present time, signal mirrors are still included in survival kits for emergency signaling to search and rescue aircraft.

What is a Vacuum cleaner?

The Vacuum Cleaner is an apparatus for removing dirt from household articles by means of suction, or a combination of brushing and suction. It was first used in 1901, when it consisted of a pump and a long pipe with a nozzle on the end that was to be applied to the article to be cleaned. The power of these vacuum cleaners was furnished by gasoline or electric motors, which were too large for portable use, and were mounted on trucks or carts which stood outside the house where the apparatus was being used. Later, these units were installed permanently in large buildings, and small, portable machines for home use came to be made in 1909. In many modern types the vacuum cleaner has been combined with the best parts of the old carpet sweeper.

Vacuum cleaner

Who was Etienne Vacherot?

Etienne Vacherot was a French philosopher; born in Langres, France, July 29, 1809; was educated at the Paris Normal School, where he suceeeded Cousin as professor of philosophy in 1839; was dismissed for refusing to take the oath of allegiance when Louis Napoleon became emperor; imprisoned for a year for censuring the Napoleonic system; succeeded Cousin in the Academy of Moral Sciences in 1868; was one of the mayors of Paris during the siege. Vacherot was elected to the Assembly, and was one of the three deputies of Paris who voted in favor of making peace with Germany. He wrote a Critical History of the School of Alexandria (3 vols., 1846-1851); Democracy (1859); Metaphysics and Science (2 vols., 1858); Essays in Critical Philosophy (1864) ; Religion (1868); Science and Conscience (1870); The External Policy of the Republic (1881); The New Spiritualism (1884). Vacherot died in Paris, July 30, 1897.

Rush to Riches

   One day in 1895, Massachusetts laborer Edward Rush had what was apparently his last argument with his wife. Enraged, he left the house without further explanation and disappeared. Thirty-five years later, on November 15, 1930, his wife and daughters responded to a knock on their door and found Rush back on their threshold. He declared that he had been "around the world many times. It's a tale out of the Arabian Nights." During his thirty-five years away, Rush had sought his fortune in the Orient and the South Seas—and had found it. Displaying handfuls of jewels and stacks of cash, he announced to his amazed family, "I am rich. You are rich." When asked why he had abandoned them, Rush replied unrepentantly, "I left on impulse and returned on impulse. It's that simple."

Who was Saint Valentine?

   Saint Valentine was a Roman martyr and priest, died in 270. His name has come to be associated with a pagan celebration in honor of love on February 14. He is regarded as the patron saint of unhappy lovers, and love messages generally sent on Feb. 14 are called Valentines after him.
   According to the legend, St. Valentine was beheaded on February 14, at Rome, under Claudius II. The old notion was that birds began to mate on that day, and hence arose the custom of young persons of both sexes choosing each other as " Valentines" for the ensuing year by a species of lottery, and of sending love missives to each other.
   Also a letter or other missive sent by young persons of both sexes to each other on Valentine's day; a printed missive of an amatory or satirical nature, generally sent by post anonymously. Some Valentines are highly ornamental and artistic, while others (commonly called " comic Valentines") are caricatures, designed to reflect on the per¬sonal appearance, habits, and character of the persons to whom they are addressed.

Gustave Flaubert facts

• Gustave Flaubert was a French novelist, born in Rouen, France on December 12, 1821. Died Croisset, France, May 8, 1880.
• Flaubert wrote of ordinary middle-class people and tried to portray their lives with complete objectivity. 
• His Madame Bovary, widely regarded as the model of realistic fiction. is one of the world's great novels. 
• Flaubert is particularly famous for his meticulous craftsmanship and his painstaking care to flnd the exact word (le mot juste) to express his meaning. 
• Gustave Flaubert studied law in Paris, but after several attacks of a nervous ailment he devoted himself to literature. 
• Madame Bovary (1857) was Flaubert's first published work. A story of provincial life, it describes the moral downfall of a woman who cannot see the world realistically. In her desperate attempt to
• find romance, she commits adultery and is ultimately driven to suicide. 
• Flaubert's second novel, the historical romance Salammbó (1862), was based on extensive research and his own trip to Africa. 
• His next novel, The Sentimental Educatian (1869), is regarded by some critics as his finest achievement. It is the story of a sentimental young man, with many of Flaubert's own traits, whose weakness and muddled idealism cause him to ruin his life.
• Although Flaubert's work is sometimes criticized for its repression of spontaneous vitality, it is greatly admired for its psychological accuracy, telling irony, and technical perfection. With the stories of Honoré de Balzac, it marked the turning point in French fiction from Romanticism to Realism. Flaubert's style influenced many later writers, including Émile Zola, Guy de Maupassant, and the American Naturalists.

Guitar

Guitar is a stringed instrument of the lute class. There are six strings, three of catgut and three of silk wound with fine silver wire. They are stretched over a violin body having a long neck and finger board. They are plucked with the fingers of the right hand and fingered like those of a violin with the left hand. The guitar has a soft, particularly agreeable tone, suitable for accompaniments. It is the favorite musical instrument of the Spanisn and is popular in all countries.

Acoustic Guitar

Blood facts

The blood does even more than carry food and oxygen to every part of our bodies. Its work is so important that the heart has to keep pumping it day in and day out without ever stopping to rest.

A person who weighs 100 pounds has about four quarts of blood. Bigger people have more. Smaller people have less.

A drop of blood looks like a drop of red ink. But it is much, much more complicated. The liquid part of our blood is not red. Blood looks red because it has many tiny red cells in it. Red cells are far too small to be seen without a microscope. It would take thousands of thern to make a row an inch long. Everyone has billions of red cells in his blood.

The chief work of the red cells is to carry oxygen. They gather it in the lungs and take it to all the other cells of the body.
Read more »

What is a shell?

   In military usage, a shell is a projectile designed primarily for bursting, in distinction from shot, which is designed primarily for penetration of the target. A shell consistt of a steel case, of sufficient strength to withstand the forces of acceleration encountered on firing, containing an explosive charge which may fill the entire cavity of the shell or may be only sufficient to break the case and scatter a charge of gas-, incendiary-, or smoke-producing chemicals. The action of a shell depends largely on the type of fuze with which it is equipped. Shells equipped with time or proximity fuzes detonate in the air a short distance before the target, and scatter their contents, or the fragments of their cases, over a wide area and into shelters, such as trenches and fosholes, which would ordinarily furnish protection from direct fire. Shells equipped with instantaneous-impact fuzes explode on impact , with the ground or a material target, and are effective against personnel or matériel in the open; those equipped with delay fuzes penetrate the target before exploding, and are effective in the demolition of structures and in the destruction of enemy personnel protected by fortifications.

Who was Shalom Aleichem?

  Shalom Aleichem is the pen name of Solomon Rabdjowitz, or Rabinovitz (1859-1916), Yiddish short-story writer and dramatist, born in Pereyaslav, near Kiev, in the Russian Ukraine. At the age of twenty-one he was a teacher in the nearby town of Lubny. From 1890 to 1905 he worked at various occupations at Odessa and Kiev, and then fled from Russia, where the Jews were victims of widespread massacres, to western Europe. At the outbreak of World War I in 1914 he took up permanent residence in New York City. His best-known works were written in Yid¬dish. The main subject of his writings is the life of Russian Jews in small towns. Certain types recur in his stories: Menachem Mendel, the typical small-town Jew; the eternal dreamer and Schemer Luftmensch; and the best-loved of them all, Tobias the Dairyman (Tevya der Milchiger), indestructible optimist in spite of poverty. Between 1883, when he published his first short story Tavel Shteiner in St. Petersburg, and 1916, when part of his autobiography Fun Yarid appeared in the New York daily Die Wakrheit, he wrote over forty volumes of short stories, novels, and plays. His books of short stories include Stempenyu and Yosele Solovei, published first in the Folk-Bibliothèque (1889), Don Kishot mi-Mazepfwka (1892), Eisenbahn Geschichtes (1909), Der Blutiger Shpass (1912-13), and Der Grosse Gewinn (1916). Stempenyu ap¬peared in English in 1913. English translations of other works are She Must Marry a Doctor (1916), Jewish Children (1920), and The Old Country (1946).

What is friction?

  It is hard to push a piece of sandpaper over a rough piece of wood. There is, we say, a great deal of friction between the sandpaper and the wood. It is hard to pull a big box loaded with coal along a concrete sidewalk. There is a great deal of friction between the box and the sidewalk. Whenever two surfaces rub together there is some friction. But the fric¬tion is greater if the surfaces are rough than if they are smooth.
  Friction produces heat. An eraser used to rub out a pencil mark gets warm. Some¬times there is a "hot-box" in the wheel of a train because there has been too much friction between the wheel and the axle. Scratching a match on sandpaper makes the match so hot that it catches on fire.
  Putting oil or grease between the two surfaces that are rubbing together is one way of making friction less. Using rollers or wheels or ball bearings is another.
  Friction makes our coats wear out at the elbows. It makes us have to buy new automobile tires and new shoes. It costs us a great deal for oil and grease and wheels and ball bearings.
  But it is a good thing that there is some friction. Without it no knot would stay tied. We could not fasten anything together with nails, because the nails would not hold. We could not go anywhere in a train or an automobile. The wheels would spin round and round in the same place. We could not even walk about. Floors and sidewalks would be far slicker than ice.

What is a gaucho?

   Gaucho, one of the Spanish-Indian "cowboys" of Argentina and Uruguay. Called the "Centaurs of the Pampas," they were expert horsemen spending much of their nomadic life in the saddle while they tended their herds of half-wild horses and cattle. Their costume included a wide-brimmed hat, a bright shirt, a lasso, and high boots into which they stuffed their loose-fitting trousers. Leathermaking was one of their occupations; for sport, they hunted the rhea with the bolas, a weapon fashioned of two or three iron or stone balls connected by a cord. When properly thrown, it would whirl itself around the legs of the running bird. Gauchos are often pictured holding silver bowls containing mate which they drank through a strainer-like silver bombilla. Few genuine Gauchos remain today, but some Argentine ranch workers still wear the picturesque costume of their generally carefree and arrogant predecessors.

Paul Gauguin

Two Tahitian Women

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) was a French painter and leader in the post-impressionist movement, was born in Paris. His father, a journalist, was from Orleans, and his mother was born in Lima, Peru. As a boy, Gauguin sailed the seas for six years with the merchant marine. In 1871 he went to work in a Paris bank, and in his spare time painted as a hobby. His first work shows the influence of Delacroix and Gourbet. He soon adopted the impressionist technique. Encouraged by Pissaro to give all of his time to painting, he resigned his Job in 1883. Shortly afterward, he left his wife and children, and traveled far and wide, searching constantly for a Utopia where he would be free of the conventions of society. In 1887 he worked on the island of Martinique, and then went on to Pont Aven, where he became the leader of a small group of painters. Gauguin did not articulate his theories of painting, leaving that to others. Bernard' Filiger, and Serusier, using Gauguin's work as a basis, reduced the group's technique to a theory which emphasized composition rather than unity and coherence. They used colors with great intensity. Their major thesis was that a painting was a plane on which to present a significant pattern of color. The ideas of Gauguin and his group were taken up by a number of resourceful young artists in Paris, including Denis, Ibels, Ranson, Vuillard, and Maillol. In 1888 Gau¬guin visited his friend Van Gogh in Arles, hoping to place before him some of the principies of impressionism. At the time, however, Van Gogh was suffering from a mental disease, and Gauguin went on to Brittany. There he produced "Le Ghrist Jaune," "La Lutte de Jacob et de l'Ange," and the celebrated portrait of himself. These were done with utmost simplicity and represent some of his best work of the period. In the meantime, he also did some interesting lithographs and wood carvings.
Read more »

What is frost?

Frost may be like a fairy forest on a windowpane in the winter. Frost is ice. It is formed when moist air comes against something very cold. The water vapor in the air freezes.
Frost on Windows is on the inside of the Windows. The moisture comes from the warm air inside the building. The Win¬dows are cooled by the cold air outside. The frost on Windows is like the frost that forms on the coils of an electric refrigerator, but it is in much prettier patterns.
In the fall frost of ten forms on grass and roofs and bushes. Of course, it does not form unless the temperature goes below freezing. If the temperature is above freezing, dew forms instead.

What are freckles?

   Every person who is not an albino has some coloring matter in his skin. This coloring matter is called pigment. Some races have more pigment in their skins than other races. Negroes and Indians, for instance, have a great deal.
   When a light-skinned person stays out of doors in the sun for hours at a time, he usually gets tanned. He gets tanned because the sunshine makes more pigment form in his skin. Sometimes the pigment comes in spots instead of in an allover coat of tan. These spots we call freckles.
   Freckles and red hair seem to go together. For some reason red-haired people are more likely to have freckles than other people. No one knows why.

Freckles closeup

Sarah Bernhardt

   Her beautiful voice, the clear way she spoke, the grace of her movements, and her fiery personality made Sarah Bernhardt one of the most famous actresses of the nineteenth century. She was very thin, and she had a pale face and frizzy red hair. But she was acclaimed everywhere as "the Divine Sarah." She was even called "the Eighth Wonder of the World."
   Her real name was Rosine Bernard. She was born in Paris, France, and was educated in a convent school in nearby Versailles. She later studied acting at the Paris Conservatory. After she became a star, she opened the Sarah Bernhardt Theater in Paris, which she managed until her death. Her best perfor¬mances were in Racine's classic play Phedre, but they were never so pop¬ular as her more sentimental role in The Lady of the Camellias, known in America as Camille. In 1914, when Sarah Bernhardt was 70, one of her legs had to be cut off. After that, she acted from a chair, but she still performed all over the world. In World War I, she acted for the troops near the front line of battle and was awarded the Legion of Honor.

Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923)

Who was Beowulf?

   Beowulf was a legendary hero. He really lived only in the epic (a poem that tells the story of a hero) named after him. The story came from a combination of Scandinavian history, folk tales, and mythology. It took place in Sweden and Denmark. Beowulf was a prince in Sweden who went to Denmark to save the Danes from the monster, Grendel. After a fierce struggle, he killed the monster. But Grendel's mother, another fierce monster, attacked the Danes. Beowulf killed her, too. Beowulf later became king in his own land. He died from wounds he got while killing a dragon.
   The poem is the most important writing in Anglo-Saxon, also called Old English. It was the language spoken in England more than 1,000 years ago. The oldest version of the poem that still exists was probably written down about 1000 A.D. by Catholic monks. It is in the British Museum. Scholars believe that Beowulf may have been first written about 300 years before that.

Beowulf and the dragon

The Leonid Meteor Storm

   One of the most famous meteor storms on record occurred on 17 November 1833, during the Leonid shower. All along North America's east coast,—including Niágara Falls, New York—stunned observers saw hundreds of meteors per minute. They described the meteors as falling like snowflakes or heavy rain. Estimates of the hourly rate range from 50,000 to 200,000 meteors.
   Every 33 years, the Earth passes through an especially dense' portion ofthe Leonid stream, resulting in a brief storm. Following the 1833 event, thousands of meteors again rained down in 1866. The Leonid stream can be perturbed by Jupiter's gravity, whtch may explain the poor performances ín 1899 and 1932. The storm returned in full force, however, on 16 November 1966, when an estimated 150,000 meteors were seen a few hours before dawn. And in 1999 the Leonids "roared" again, although changes in the meteor stream reduced the numbers greatly compared to 1966.

Hierapolis

   Hierapolis was a city of Phrygia, Asia Minor, 120 miles northeastern of Smyrna. In ancient times the people of the city worshiped the Greek goddess Leto but it was converted to Christianity at an early date. The Romans were the builders of its great theater and its baths at the site of the famous hot springs. A deep chasm near Hierapolis that was called the Plutonium is said to have emitted mephitic vapors from its depths, causing the superstitious ancients to believe that it opened to the lower regions. There are present day Roman ruins to be seen and also great falls of a crystalline formation that are fed by the hot springs and offer a sight of great beauty. A modern town has grown up near the site of this ancient metropolis.

Hierapolis' Amphitheater

What is Winter Sleep?

Hibernation, or Winter Sleep, is the torpid condition in which certain animals pass the winter in cold countries. The phenomenon is of commonest occurrence in cold-blooded species whose temperature rises and falls with that of the surroundings, but it is practiced by a considerable number of warm-blooded mammals which normally possess the capacity of keeping their temperature at approximately the same level, irrespective of the temperature of the air. It is in these that the physiological accompaniments of hibernation have been chiefly studied, and the principal changes are as follows: The temper¬ature falls to within a few degrees of that of the air, and the heart-beat becomes slow and feeble; respiration almost stops; the alimentary canal and excretory organs cease to operate, but life is maintained by the absorption of fat stored in the tissues during autumn.
Read more »

What is a cameo?

   Certain small carvings are called cameos. Cameos are used in rings and brooches. They were very popular for many centuries, but they are not so popular now.
   To make a cameo, a sculptor must have a stone or shell with two layers of different colors. One must be light, the other dark. He carves figures in the light layer. Then he cuts away all the rest of that layer. The light carving now stands out against the darker background.
   In earlier times similar carvings were used to decorate vases, bowls, and even furniture. The first cameos we know about were made in Greece over 2,000 years ago.

What is a musical fugue?

   Fugue is a musical form composed in contrapuntal style. It is based upon a short melody or theme which is stated at the beginning of the fugue. In close succession different voices take up this introductory theme and repeat it. The notes of the melody are thus countered against or played opposite each other, forming a rich contrapuntal musical fabric. Any number of voices may be used, but Johann Sebastian Bach, called the greatest master of the fugue, usually wrote in two, three, or four parts, and only occasionally introduced as many as five voices. Fugue is the French word for flight and symbolizes the fugal effect that each reiteration of the melody is fleeing before the next repeat of the theme. The form came into use in the 16th century and was developed by Frescobaldi. Handel's choruses and Mozart's symphonies afford many familiar and famous examples of the fugue.

How near is the nearest star?

  Our Sun is really a star, and it is closer to us than any other. But that probably isn't what you mean when you ask the question. So the answer is this: Beyond the Sun, the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, is more than twenty-five trillion miles (40 trillion km) away.
  Distances in space are very great. It is a nuisance to figure them in kilometers or miles, because there are too many zeros. And so astronomers measure distance by light years. A light year is the number of miles that light can travel in a year. Light travels very fast — about 186,000 miles a second. In a year it goes about six trillion miles.
  Let's see what that means. When you look at the nearest star you see a twinkling light. The light you see has been traveling for almost 4.2 years! If you are in the fourth grade, the light that you see now left that star when you were still in kindergarten. It has been speeding toward the Earth, night and day, ever since then.
If that star seems a long way off, think about this: Astronomers have discovered galaxies so far away that it takes light 13 billion years to travel from there to the Earth!

Proxima Centauri

What is Nitrogen?

  Nitrogen is an element found in plants, animals, air and other non-living compounds. About 78% of the atmosphere is made up of nitrogen gas. It is colorless, odorless and tasteless. Nitrogen (symbol N) is element number 7. Its atomic weight is 14.007 (14.008, O =16).
  Nitrogen gas is difficult to dissolve in water and does not combine readily with most elements. It is very essential for both plant life, which uses nitrogen to grow, and animal life, which uses nitrogen in very complicated structures called proteins.
  Nitrogen was first mentioned in writings by D. Rutherford in 1772. Later it was studied by Scheele and Lavoisier and at that time was called azote. The word nitro¬gen comes from the Greek word nitron or saltpeter, a common compound of nitrogen. Most of the supply of soluble nitrogen once came from saltpeter or potassium nitrate, KNO3.
  Nitrogen  turns  to  a  liquid  at  a temperature of about —196 °C, the boiling point of nitrogen.
  Nitrogen gas is quite inert and combines with other elements very slowly. The reason is that the atoms in the diatomic molecule of nitrogen, N2, have a very strong bond. However, when nitrogen does combine with other elements, it forms some of the most active compounds. For example, explosives such as nitroglycerin and trinitrotoluene, or TNT, are nitrogen compounds.

How is an optical telescope different from other types of telescopes?

  An optical telescope is the type with which most people are familiar, the kind one looks through in the backyard. The only type of radiation it detects is visible light, meaning it sees what the human eye sees except magnified many times. Other types of telescopes are used to observe radiation from other regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. For example, infrared telescopes detect infrared radiation, and radio tele¬scopes detect radio waves. Other telescopes, placed onboard satellites, study ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, and gamma rays in space. The two main types of optical tele¬scopes are refractors and reflectors.

Croup facts

Croup is a narrowing of the air passage through the larynx, the voice box in the neck where the vocal cords are located. If the narrowing is severe, the air cannot reach the lungs, and the child begins to choke. The narrowing is caused by spasm and swelling of the larynx. These may be the result of certain bacterial infections or very severe allergy, but they are most often caused by a virus, sometimes by bacteria. Fortunately, the disease is rarely fatal. But it can be terribly frightening to both the child and the parent. It usually comes in spasms. The attack is generally precipitated at night. The mild fever and the apparent healthy look of the child between the spasms—and the fact that the child has been immunized against diphtheria—usually make it cer¬tain that the illness is croup, not the onset of diph¬theria of the larynx. However, always notify the doctor when the child develops a hoarse, croupy voice or cough, or seems to be having spasms of difficult breathing.
Read more »

How powerful was Galileo's first telescope?

  Galileo made his first telescope in 1609. It employed two lenses and was strong enough for astronomical viewing by magnifying objects to thirty-two times their original size. By today's standards, that level of magnification is not very impressive. A relatively inexpensive telescope today features a magnification fifty to five hundred times that of Galileo's.

Science and technology in the Renaissance

  The interest in observation and measurement took many forms during the Renaissance. Sailors had long been concerned about their exact location at sea. They used the stars to determine where they were. Their skills improved enormously with the invention of the compass. Perhaps the most detailed observations of the 1500's were of the human body. In 1543 the anatomist Andreas Vesalius produced a magnificently illustrated book containing the latest observations.
  Observation also led to inventions. A fertile inventor was Leonardo da Vinci, who made suggestions ranging from improved machines, with ratchets and gears, to possible ways of flying. Engineering skills were also required to build and maintain a press like the one in this printing shop.

Leonardo's flying machine

Toll roads in history

  Toll roads are not modern inventions. If you had been in a camel caravan arriving in the Middle Eastern city of Petra, over 2,000 years ago, you would have paid a stiff toll before leaving the city.
  About this time the Romans built a network of highways extending from the Wall of Hadrian in northern England to the Persian Gulf. Roads were kept in repair by the collection of tolls at the city gates. Many of the roads were still in use in the Middle Ages.
  In medieval times some tolls were colIected by barring the road with a pike, or pole, and then turning the pike
to allow the traveler to pass. Early in the development of the North Ameri¬can colonies, prívate companies built "turnpikes" and charged travelers tolls to use them. Now the government gives money to the states for road construction, and each state collects the tolls.
  Rivers and canals have also provided natural opportunities for toll stations. By the year 1300, there were more than 35 places along the Rhine River, in Germany, where fees were collected. In England there was a charge for passage both over and under London Bridge. Today, ships pay tolls to go through the Welland Canal in Canada, as well as through the Suez and Panama canals.

Giuseppe Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian patriot. Born in Nice, France, July 4, 1807. Died in Caprera, Italy, June 2, 1882.
Garibaldi played a leading role in the unification of Italy. In 1833 he joined Giuseppe Mazzini's Young Italy, a political society devoted to ending foreign domination of Italy and unifying it as a republic. Entering the Sardinian navy, Garibaldi became involved in an unsuccessful plot against the king and had to flee to South America. There he fought with Brazilian rebels and then in the Uruguayan civil war.
When revolution swept over Europe in 1848, Gari¬baldi returned to fight for Sardinia against Austria. After Sardinia's defeat he joined Mazzini in Rome, where in 1849 they set up the short-lived Roman republic. Driven out by French troops after weeks of heroic resistance, Garibaldi was again forced to flee Italy. He took refuge in the United States and worked as a candlemaker in New York City.
Read more »

The legend of William Tell

  The order was clear and humiliating. Every Swiss citizen had to bow before the Austrian tyrant's hat, stuck on a post in the village square. One man only was brave enough to refuse to bow: the marksman William Tell.
  The tyrant, Hermann Gessler, made Tell the victim of a savage jest. He could have his freedom if he shot an apple from the head of his son Walter. If he missed or refused, he would be executed.
  Outside the village of Altdorf, Tell faced his son. One deadly bolt lay on his crossbow. Another jutted from his belt. He fired—and the apple split in two. Why, asked Gessler, had he taken the second bolt from his quiver?
"It was for your heart if the first had harmed so much as a hair of my son's head," replied Tell. Gessler yelled to his soldiers, "Take him to the castle." Tell was bundled into a boat with Gessler, and his guards took him across Lake Uri to Gessler's grim fortress.
  On the way a storm blew up. The guards freed Tell so that he could guide them to shore. He did—then leaped out and pushed the boat back into the lake.
  Gessler's men were swept to their deaths, but the tyrant himself struggled back to shore. Tell was waiting with his second bolt. He fired— and Switzerland was free of the Austrian yoke.
  William Tell's story was first told in the Swiss chronicles of Aegidius Tschudi, a 16th-century writer, about 200 years after Tell was: supposed to have lived. But there is no contemporary evidence that Tell or Gessler existed;
  It seems that Tschudi's account is a embellishment of an 11th-century legend, for stories of expert archers occur all over northern Europe. Tschudi only added details—and made Tell the Swiss folklore hero he is todav.

Hickory tree

   Hickory is an American tree of the walnut family. Hickory is an Indian name. There are in all ten hickories—nine in the eastern United States and Canada, one in Mexico. The principal kinds are the shagbark, the shellbark, the bitternut, the pignut, and the pecan. The pecan is a southern tree. In sections the pecan is an important article of commerce. It brings in more money than any other native American nut-bearing tree. The kernels are sweet. The timber is of little value. Shagbark and shellbark hickory nuts are fine winter nuts. They are produced chiefly in the latitude of the Ohio Valley by trees 80 to 100 feet high. The pignut is fair in quality; bitternuts are produced farther north and are not desirable. Hickory tim¬ber is proverbial for hardness and toughness. It is the heaviest of North American woods. It weighs about fifty pounds to the cubic foot. It is in demand for ax-helves, ox-bows, hubs, felloes, spokes, fork-handles, axles, and sleigh material.

Shagbark hickory

Dog-head people

   Many dog owners are proud of their pets' pedigree. But the Koniagas, a tribe of North American Indians, trace their own pedigree back to a dog. And the legend of a breed of men with dogs' heads is a recurring one in many different civilizations. One of the best accounts is in the medieval writings of Sir John Mandeville. "Men go by the sea ocean, by many isles, unto an isle that is clept [called] Nacumera, that is a good isle and fair.
"And it is in compass about, more than a thousand miles. And all the men and women of that isle have hounds' heads, and they be clept Cynocephales [Greek for 'dog heads']."
   Marco Polo said these people lived in the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, but the whole idea of dog-men probably grew out of early sightings of baboons, which have projecting doglike muzzles.
   Pictures of St. Christopher in Eastern art sometimes show him with a dog's head. According to legend, he was unusually handsome, and, because he was constantly pestered by women, he prayed to be given a dog's head as protection. It is possible that the tale originated in early Christian times, when the Egyptian cult of the dog-headed god Anubis may have been confused with stories of St. Christopher.

What is Meningitis?

Meningitis is a severe illness because it affects the coverings of the brain and spinal cord. It may be caused by diverse varieties of germs, such as the dreaded meningococcus, Hemophilus influenzae, or pneumococcus. Other bacteria can produce the disease, too. The epidemic form is generally the result of the meningococcus.

Until the modern era of sulfa medicines and antibiotics, meningitis was one of our most fearsome diseases. Now, if treated early, it can usually be cured. Also, when epidemics threaten, we can give medicines to prevent the spread. There are no successful vaccinations against the common forms of meningitis.
Read more »

Alcoholism and Drug Addiction

  Alcoholics and drugs addicts are chronically sick people whose ailment shows itself in their behavior, which is generally disorderly and antisocial. Unlike many other maladjusted individuals, they have turned to something outsíde themselves to find the characteristic "inadequate but temporarily satisfying solution" to their problems. As in the case of other maladjusted people, this does not solve their difficulties. But, in addition, they face the problems that result from excessive drinking or from taking drugs. In advanced cases, their physical condition is very poor; in fact, deterioration often sets in. In many cases, hospitalization is necessary if a cure is to be effected.
  Much of the progress in treating alcoholism and drug addiction has been made possible by the recognition that these are diseases, not crimes (although crimes are often committed by addicts). They have physical as well as psychological aspects, and there is growing belief that chemical abnormalities within the body may play a significant role. Also, alcoholism and drug addiction are recognized as social problems.

What is fibrin?

   Fibrin is a protein that is formed during the clotting of blood. Fibrin, which is a whitish, elastic substance composed of many tiny strands, is not normally found in the blood. In the process of clotting, however, a network of fibrin strands is formed from fibrinogen, another protein, which is normally present in the blood. Blood cells then become entangled in the strands of fibrin. The mixture of fibrin and blood cells is called a blood clot. With time, the fibrin strands contract and shorten, causing the clot to become more dense.

Johann Gottlieb Fichte

   Johann  Gottlieb Fichte was a German philosopher and patriot. Born in Rammenau, Germany on May 19, 1762. Died Berlin, Germany, January 27, 1814.
   Fichte was the first of the classical German Idealist philosophers. Rejecting Kant's theory that reality is divided between the mind and unknowable external objects, Fichte claimed that reality is the undivided absolute ego, or will of God. Man and everything in the universe are ideas thought of by the absolute ego in order that it may become aware of itself. Man's duty, as part of the absolute ego, is to struggle freely to know himself. Fichte developed these theories in his Science of Knowledge (1794) and Vocation of Man (1800).
   Fichte came into prominence by publishing a treatise that sympathized with Kant's views and won his favor. As a result, Fichte was made professor at the University of Jena in 1793, but gradually he began to criticize Kant, was charged with atheism, and resigned in 1799. He continued his lectures in Berlin, where the presence of Napoleon's occupation forces stirred him to publish the Addresses to the German Nation (1807). These works, which praised German superiority and urged the Germans to unite against the French, contributed greatly to the growth of German nationalism.

Great Britain

  Great Britain, the largest of the British Isles—the largest and the most important island of Europe. It is divided into England, Wales, and Scotland. The term ís used, though incorrectly, as synonymous with England, just as America is used as synonymous with the United States. The term grew in favor after James I became king of England as well as Scotland. From 1707 until 1801 Great Britain was the official designation of the kingdoms of England and Scotland. In order to include Ireland, the official name was changed to the United Kingdom. Great Britain is a historical and geographical term; but, like America, it does not designate a political country. It is said that the fleet of the Roman Agricola was the first to sail around Great Britain, thus proving that it is an island.

Lake Titicaca

  Lake Titicaca, lies at the highest level above the sea (12,507 feet) of any large lake in the world. It is in a basin surrounded by two ranges of the Andes Mountains. The lake forms part of the boundary between Bolivia and Peru. It is about 110 miles long and 35 miles wide at its widest part. Lake Titicaca covers an area of 3,261 square miles, more than one-third the area of Lake Ontario. A large part of the lake is more than 600 feet deep. The Desa¬guadero River flows out of its southern end and empties into Lake Poopo in Bolivia. Steamboats sail on Lake Titicaca.

Who was Robert Smythe Hichens?

 Robert Smythe Hichens (1864-1950) was an English journalist and novelist whose Green Carnation, a satire on the decadents, published anonymously in 1894 and attributed to Oscar Wilde, created a sensation in London. He was born at Spildhurst, Kent., and received a thorough musical education. While studying music, he wrote lyrics for music, and a number of short stories, and finally abandoned music for literatnre. Mr. Hichens then studied for a year at the London School of Journalism. His Green Carnation was followed by An Imaginative Man, Flames, The Prophet of Berkeley Square and The Garden of Allah. The latter book was dramatized and presented in New York, starring Madame Nazimova. Mr. Hichens has collaborated in such successful plays as Becky Sharp, The Medi¬cine Man and The Daughters of Babylon. Hichens' The Spell of the Holy Land was published in 1914.

Jean de La Bruyère

La Bruyère (1645-1696)

  Jean de La Bruyère was a French satirist. He is best known for The Characters of Theophrastus, Translated from the Greek, with the Characters and Mores of This Age. The book appeared in 1688 as an appendix to his translation of a work by Theophrastus, a Greek philosopher of the 200's B.C. In each of the nine editions published during his lifetime, La Bruyère increased his own contribution so that the Characters stands as an original work. La Bruyére ridiculed the injustice and hypocrisy he saw in French life. He grouped his observations under 16 chapter titles, including "The City," "The Court," "Fashion," and "Personal Merit."

  Jean de La Bruyère was born in Paris. He spent much of his life tutoring the children of noble families. In 1693, he was admitted to the French Academy.

Giant Sandbag

  In 1921, British troops operating in the Syrian Desert accidentally discovered the ancient city of Dura-Europos, a caravan outpost first established by the Babylonians in 300 BC. During excavations carried out between 1928 and 1937, archaeologists unearthed a synagogue in amazingly pristine condition. The walls were covered with some fifty-eight vivid paintings depicting Moses at the burning bush and receiving the Ten Commandments, as well as other biblical scenes. The colorful tempera murals looked almost freshly painted. But more than the dry desert air had preserved them: A hard-pressed Roman commander inadvertently saved them seventeen centuries earlier by turning the synagogue into a giant sandbag. Because it was a strategic outpost along the Euphrates River trade route, Dura-Europos was frequently attacked and occupied by different forces over the centuries.
  In the third century AD, a declining Roman Empire maintained a tenuous hold on the city in the face of a series of attacks by a new dynasty of Persians called the Sassanians. Alarmed, the desperate leader of the Roman garrison hatched a plan to strengthen the city's defenses.
  Noting that the back wall of the synagogue faced the vulnerable west wall of the city, he began to fill the intervening street with sand. That step completed, he had his workers rip away the synagogue's roof and fill the inside of the building with sand to buttress the strengthened outer wall.
  His efforts proved futile. In AD 256, the Persians defeated the Romans and sacked the city. Those who didn't manage to escape were probably massacred or sold into slavery. Then, for reasons lost to history, the Persians abandoned the city, leaving untouched the thick, sand-filled enclosure housing art that preserved the vanished ambiance of this ancient world.

Medical advances in the 19th century

  Inventions and discoveries transformed the practice of medicine in the 1800's. In all three major areas of medical work—prevention, diagnosis, and treatment—new methods led to important breakthroughs. The French scientist Louis Pasteur established the effectiveness of inoculations as a means of preventing disease. An injection administered by Pasteur's assistant— with Pasteur himself watching in the background—saved a young man who had been bitten by a rabid dog (right).
  Once a problem arose, the remarkable new technique of X-ray photography allowed a doctor to diagnose the problem inside the body. Then, thanks to the invention of anesthetics, a surgeon could remedy the problem by painlessly operating on the patient.

Who was Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla?

   Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla (1753-1811) was a Mexican priest and revolutionist, born near Guanajuato, educated at the College of San Lorenzo at Valladolid. As a parish priest he attempted to improve the condition of the natives, teaching them to engage in agricultural pursuits, olive growing and the cultivation of vineyards. Under his direction the Indians set up a porcelain factory and interested themselves in the silk industry. All this was frowned upon by the goverment, that had forbidden natives to carry on such activities. Hidalgo was accused of heresy but never brought to trial. At the time of the Napoleonic invasion he was one of a number of Creole intellectuals who planned a revolution of the natives in Mexico. The plot was discovered, whereupon be issued the grito de Dolores, which was the beginning of the War for Independence. Hidalgo had many followers among the natives, the colonial militia and the radical Creoles. At first his army met with success but against his wishes the revolutionists attempted to conquer Mexico City. They met the royalists at Monte de los Cruces and won so costly a victory that they were forced to retreat to Aculco where they were defeated in November 7, 1810. Again at Cal¬deron Bridge in the following January, they met defeat. He was captured and shot.

Letters

   Ever since people could write, they have been communicating with one another through letters. Indeed, letters got that name because the communication is through written symbols and not through sounds or signals. A letter is often a vivid source of information, because it is such a personal form of expression.
   Sometimes, a special occasion inspires a letter that is particularly revealing. In 1936 the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, celebrated his eightieth birthday. To his surprise, he received a letter of con-gratulations from a famous scientist whom he had never met. This letter, from the physicist Albert Einstein, suggests how broad scientists' interests are. In his letter to Freud, Einstein indicated how he reached conclusions about the truth of scientific work. He also described an aspect of science that is not normally appreciated—that there is a beauty to scientific discovery.

Dear Mr. Freud,
I am happy this generation has the opportunity to express its gratitude to you as one of its great teachers. You have undoubtedly not made it easy for a skeptical ordinary person to judge your work. Until recently I could appreciate only the power of your thought, and its enormous influence on our era. I could not form a definite opinion about the amount of truth it contains. Not long ago, however, I heard a few examples which in my view cannot be interpreted except by your theories. I was delighted to come across these exam¬ples, because it is always delightful when a great and beautiful idea turns out to fit reality.

Your

.........A. Einstein

Some facts about the life of Sir Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

English mathematician and physicist Isaac Newton was considered to be one of the most intelligent people who ever lived. Newton articulated the law of universal gravitation and wrote one of the most important books about science of all time. Following a difficult childhood, Newton went at age nineteen to study at Trinity College, Cambridge. There he studied the works of Johannes Kepler, Rene Descartes, Galileo, and Copernicus. He graduated in 1665, the year the university closed due to an outbreak of bubonic plague, and returned to the family farm. Agricultural work left Newton plenty of time to think and to conduct experiments. He studied the rainbow created by light passed through a prism and realized that white light is really a combination of all the colors. He also invented calculus, a method of calculation by a system of algebraic notations—at the same time as, yet independent of, German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz. And it was in the period of farm life after college that Newton developed his famous universal theory of grav¬ity. Newton later returned to Cambridge to assume the Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics.
Read more »

Who was Hamilcar?

   Hamilcar was a noted Carthaginian general. He was the hero of the First Punic War. He led the Carthaginian forces in Sicily against the Romans, and suppressed an uprising of the hired forces of Carthage at home. In order to gain possession of the mines of Spain, with which to wage war against Rome, he began the reduction of Spain to a Carthaginian province. When about to leave for Spain he caused his son Hannibal to stand before the altar and swear eternal enmity to Rome. In 228 B. C. he fell in battle with one of the native tribes of Spain.

Who was Gerard P. Kuiper?

  Gerard Peter Kuiper (Gerrit Pieter Kuiper), was a Dutch-American astronomer. Born in Tuitjenhorn (Harenkarspel), the Netherlands, Dec. 7. 1905.
  Kuiper, as director of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, headed the successful Ranger Moon program. In 1948 he detected carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Mars and methane and ammonia on Titan, the largest satellite of Saturn in 1944. In the same year he discovered and named Miranda, the fifth sateilite of Uranus, and in 1949 he discov¬ered and named Nereid, the second satellite of Neptune. He also developed the protoplanet theory of the origin of the solar system.
  In the 1960s, Kuiper helped identify landing sites on the Moon for the Apollo program.
  Died in 1973 while on vacation with his wife in Mexico

What is lemnian earth?

Lemnian earth is a reddish earth found in the island of Lemnos, celebrated as a remedy for snake-bites and various diseases, and collected by the ancients in accordance with special religious observances on only one day in the year. Analysis shows it to be composed of silica, 67 percent; alumina, 14 percent; water, 8 percent; iron oxide, 5 or 6 percent; soda, about 3 percent and traces of lime and mag¬nesia. Its classical name "terra sigillata" (sealed earth) is due to the fact that it was compressed and marked with the head of the Lemnian Diana. The earth is a fair substituto for soap, but has no medicinal properties.

What is the law of universal gravitation?

   English mathematician Isaac Newton combined his three laws of motion to come up with the law of universal gravitation. This law states that the gravitational force between any two objects depends on the mass of each object and the distance between them. The greater each object's mass, the stronger the pull, but the greater the distance between them, the weaker the pull. This relationship, known as an inverse square law, states that gravita¬tional force is equal to a gravitational constant times the mass of each object, divided by the square of the distance separating them.

Isaac Newton

American botanist, Asa Gray

  Asa Gray (1810-1888), was an American botanist. A native of Paris, Oneida County, New York. He was educated at Fairfield College for medicine, and later became an assistant of the noted botanist, Torrey, at the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 1842 Gray was appointed Fisher professor of natural history in Harvard University, from which he retired in 1873. Dr. Gray was in charge of the best equipped department of botany in the United States at a time when the cataloguing of newly discovered plants was active, especially of plants from the western part of our country. He had the pleasure of naming hundreds of plants new to science, and did much to popularize the study of botany.

  Among his writings are several text books, notably How Plants Grow, Lessons in Botany, and Manual of Botany. A number of important papers in the Smithsonian publications deal with collections of plants from the west and southwest. His Botany of the United States Pacific Exploring Expedition is a report on the plants collected by that expedition (1854).

  Dr. Gray's classifications of plants stand critical study well. He arranged his keys and Manual, beginning with buttercups and proceeding to the lower orders last. This order has been reversed by later writers. Gray and Torrey designed a complete manual of the plants of North America but left the work incomplete.

  Dr. Gray's collection of plants, now known as the Gray Herbarium, has a building of its own in the botanical garden of Harvard University. It is one of the most important collections of plants in the world. It contains many original specimens from which species were named. With recent additions, the Gray Herba¬rium now contains over 2,000,000 sheets of mounted specimens.

What is greasewood?

Greasewood is a name applied to a number of thorny shrubs characteristic of strongly alkaline soils. The common greasewood of the west extends from the upper waters of the Missouri and the Platte rivers to the Gila, and westward to the Sierra Nevadas. It grows from four to eight feet high with a wealth of narrow leaves on the young branches. It is a companion of the salt sages, and thrives in soil too alkaline for wheat or alfalfa. A smaller form is found in the southwest from Texas to California. Greasewood is better than no vegetation. It relieves the barren aspect of a region, and its twigs afford some pasturage for cattle.

Greasewood

What is the Great Basin?

In North American geography, the Great Basin is a large area of interior drainage lying between the Wasatch Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. It has no outlet to the sea. It lies in Utah, Nevada, California, idaho, and Oregon. Its general shape is triangular, with its base at the north. Its area is about 212,000 square miles. There are a number of salt lakes, each receiving streams. The largest is the Great Salt Lake. The largest river in this region is the Humboldt. There is little rainfall. Three regions of the basin are known respectively as Great Salt Lake Desert, The Mohave Desert, and the Black Rock or Carson Desert. A large part of the soil is of volcanic origin, for want of rain al¬most destitute of vegetation. The chief source of wealth in the Great Basin is mineral. Iron, copper, silver, and gold exist in quantities.

Map of the Great Basin

Who was Thomas Gray?

Thomas Gray (1716-1771) was an English poet. He was born in London. His father was a scrivener, but was indolent and neglected his wife and children. The mother, Dorothy Antrobus Gray, supported the family by keeping a millinery shop. Of twelve children Thomas was the only one who lived to grow up. He entered Eton at the age of eleven, where his uncles, Robert and William Antrobus, were assistant masters. He spent several years at Cambridge, but left without taking a degree. He had intended to study law, but gave it up to travel with Horace Walpole. His letters while on the continent are of great interest, although they were not intended for publication. After two years abroad Gray returned to Cambridge. He spent his time reading Greek prose and verse and in writing, but was very slow to publish. In 1747 his first production to appear in print was published. It was the Ode to Eton College. Gray never wrote for money, but for his own pleasure and that of his friends. Thomas Gray published when friends and booksellers could persuade him to do so. In 1753 Walpole prepared a handsome edition of six of Gray's poems with drawings for head and tail pieces and initial letters by Bentley. Gray insisted that this be published under the title "Designs by Mr. R. Bentley for Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray." Gray's poems betoken a man of delicate thought and refined taste, fond of learning and art. His fame rests almost solely on his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard:

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea;
The plowman homeward plods his weary way 
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Hairdressing history

  As far back as we have any record, hairdressing has been one of the principal means of personal adornment. Often certain modes of dressing the hair have signified a particular rank, dignity, age, a deed of special bravery, and the like. Even today a Zulu warrior stiffens the hair around the circumference of his head so that it forms a very noticeable coronel. Priests of the Roman Catholic church have a particular tonsure, quite different from that worn in the Greek church. Six centuries before Christ the Greeks, both men and women, wore most elaborate head-dress, as did the early Egyptians. A century or so later Greek men began to cut their hair short, and from that time on, except for intervals when they wore wigs, men in general have paid little attention to the hair. Not so women. Their coiffures have gone through every possible variety of elaboration with only occasional intervals of sanity. In the reign of Louis XVI of France a strange structure of pillows and crinoline formed the foundation for a great tower surmounted by a little cap of feathers or flowers quite removed from the head. One woman is said to have gone about topped with a tiny model of a ship.

The "Académie de Coiffure"

Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton was born at Nevis, in the West Indies, January 11, 1757. His father was Scotch; his mother, French. He was sent to New York City to be educated. He was enrolled at King's College when the Revolutionary War broke out. He was a student of unusual precocity. He began writing political pamphlets at the age of seventeen. When hostilities began he organized a company of cavalry and served in the battles of Long Island and White Plains. Washington placed confidence in his ability and made him a member of his staff. After Yorktown, young Hamilton married the daughter of General Schuyler and settled down in New York to practice law. He could not refrain from politics, however, In 1782 he was in the Continental Congress. He took part in the Annapolis Convention of 1786. He was also a member of the Constitutional Con¬vention of 1787. He advocated a constitution granting the general government much more extensive authority than was finally agreed to. When the Constitution was submitted to the votes of the several states for ratification, Hamilton entered into the discussion in its favor with all his heart. With others, he wrote a series of pamphlets devoted to arguments in fa-vor of adopting the new constitution. He carried his own state, New York.
Read more »