Project Gutenberg

“ Designating an internal-combustion engine of a type resembling the Diesel engine in using as fuel heavy oil which is injected in a spray just before the end of the compression stroke and is fired without electrical ignition. The fuel is sprayed into an iron box (called a hot bulb or hot pot) opening into the combustion chamber, and heated for ignition by a blast-lamp until the engine is running, when it is, ordinarily, kept red hot by the heat of combustion. ”

“ The Japanese art of self- defense without weapons, now widely used as a system of physical training. It depends for its efficiency largely upon the principle of making use of an opponent's strength and weight to disable or injure him, and by applying pressure so that his opposing movement will throw him out of balance, dislocate or break a joint, etc. It opposes knowledge and skill to brute strength, and demands an extensive practical knowledge of human anatomy. ”

“ The reserve is always reckoned as a liability, and is calculated on net premiums. It is theoretically the difference between the present value of the total insurance and the present value of the future premiums on the insurance. The reserve, being an amount for which another company could, theoretically, afford to take over the insurance, is sometimes called the reinsurance fund or the self-insurance fund. For the first year upon any policy the net premium is called the initial reserve, and the balance left at the end of the year including interest is the terminal reserve. ”

“ The process of constructive metabolism by which carbohydrates are formed from water vapor and the carbon dioxide of the air in the chlorophyll-containing tissues of plants exposed to the action of light. It was formerly called assimilation, but this is now commonly used as in animal physiology. The details of the process are not yet clearly known. Baeyer's theory is that the carbon dioxide is reduced to carbon monoxide, which, uniting with the hydrogen of the water in the cell, produces formaldehyde, the latter forming various sugars through polymerization. ”

“ An optical device for making an indicator diagram for high-speed engines. It consists of a light-tight box or camera having at one end a small convex mirror which reflects a beam of light on to the ground glass or photographic plate at the other end. The mirror is pivoted so that it can be moved in one direction by a small plunger operated by an elastic metal diaphragm which closes a tube connected with the engine cylinder. It is also moved at right angles to this direction by a reducing motion, called a reproducer, so as to copy accurately on a smaller scale the motion of the engine piston. ”

“ They may be distinguished from the ordinary mosquitoes of the genus Culex by the long slender palpi, nearly equaling the beak in length, while those of the female Culex are very short. They also assume different positions when resting, Culex usually holding the body parallel to the surface on which it rests and keeping the head and beak bent at an angle, while Anopheles holds the body at an angle with the surface and the head and beak in line with it. Unless they become themselves infected by previously biting a subject affected with malaria, the insects cannot transmit the disease. ”

“ The dance is the chief rite of the Ghost- dance, or Messiah, religion, which originated about 1890 in the doctrines of the Piute Wovoka, the Indian Messiah, who taught that the time was drawing near when the whole Indian race, the dead with the living, should be reunited to live a life of millennial happiness upon a regenerated earth. The religion inculcates peace, righteousness, and work, and holds that in good time, without warlike intervention, the oppressive white rule will be removed by the higher powers. ”

“ The de Laval turbine is an impulse turbine, in which steam impinges upon revolving blades from a flared nozzle. The flare of the nozzle causes expansion of the steam, and hence changes its pressure energy into kinetic energy. An enormous velocity (30,000 revolutions per minute in the 5 H. P. size) is requisite for high efficiency, and the machine has therefore to be geared down to be of practical use. Some recent development of this type include turbines formed of several de Laval elements compounded as in the ordinary expansion engine. ”

“ The true or mountain zebra (Equus, or Asinus, zebra) is nearly white, and the bands which cover the body and legs are glossy black. Its tail has a tuft of black hair at the tip. It inhabits the mountains of Central and Southern Africa, and is noted for its wariness and wildness, as well as for its swiftness. The second species (Equus, or Asinus, Burchellii) , known as Burchell's zebra, and dauw, inhabits the grassy plains of South Africa, and differs from the preceding in not having dark bands on the legs, while those on the body are more irregular. ”

“ The linear extent of the dislocation measured on the fault plane and in the direction of movement is the displacement; the vertical displacement is the throw; the horizontal displacement is the heave. The direction of the line of intersection of the fault plane with a horizontal plane is the trend of the fault. A fault is a strike fault when its trend coincides approximately with the strike of associated strata (i.e., the line of intersection of the plane of the strata with a horizontal plane) ; it is a dip fault when its trend is at right angles to the strike ”

“ A system or method of connecting and operating two induction motors so that the primary circuit of one is connected to the secondary circuit of the other, the primary circuit of the latter being connected to the source of supply; also, a system of electric traction in which motors so connected are employed. The cascade system is also called tandem, or concatenated, system; the connection a cascade, tandem, or concatenated, connection, or a concatenation; and the control of the motors so obtained a tandem, or concatenation, control. ”

“ Fechner affords a conspicuous instance of the idealistic tendency to mysterize nature in his panpsychicism, or that form of noumenal idealism which holds that the universe is a vast communion of spirits, souls of men, of animals, of plants, of earth and other planets, of the sun, all embraced as different members in the soul of the world. ”

“ In the United States service the summer uniform of cotton is officially designated khaki; the winter uniform of wool, olive drab.
Kha"ki, n. Any kind of khaki cloth; hence, a uniform of khaki or, rarely, a soldier clad in khaki. In the United States and British armies khaki or cloth of a very similar color is almost exclusively used for service in the field.
Khond (?) , n. A Dravidian of a group of tribes of Orissa, India, a section of whom were formerly noted for their cruel human sacrifices to the earth goddess, murder of female infants, and marriage by capture. ”

“ A large, important class of parasitic or saprophytic fungi, the algal or algalike fungi. The plant body ranges from an undifferentiated mass of protoplasm to a well-developed and much-branched mycelium. Reproduction is mainly sexual, by the formation of conidia or sporangia; but the group shows every form of transition from this method through simple conjugation to perfect sexual reproduction by egg and sperm in the higher forms. ”

“ The influence of a coil of wire upon an alternating current passing through it, tending to choke or diminish the current, or the similar influence of a condenser; inductive resistance. Reactance is measured in ohms. The reactance of a circuit is equal to the component of the impressed electro-motive force at right angles to the current divided by the current, that is, the component of the impedance due to the self-inductance or capacity of the circuit. ”

“ On the first day the new fire is lighted, by friction of wood, and distributed to the various households, an offering of green corn, including an ear brought from each of the four quarters or directions, is consumed, and medicine is brewed from snakeroot. On the second and third days the men physic with the medicine, the women bathe, the two sexes are taboo to one another, and all fast. ”

“ The advantages of a trust are partly due to the economies made possible in carrying on a large business, as well as the doing away with competition. In the United States severe statutes against trusts have been passed by the Federal government and in many States, with elaborate statutory definitions. ”

“ Yeast cake, a mealy cake impregnated with the live germs of the yeast plant, and used as a conveniently transportable substitute for yeast. -- Yeast plant (Bot.) , the vegetable organism, or fungus, of which beer yeast consists. The yeast plant is composed of simple cells, or granules, about one three-thousandth of an inch in diameter, often united into filaments which reproduce by budding, and under certain circumstances by the formation of spores. The name is extended to other ferments of the same genus. ”

“ Induction in a circuit due to the action of one portion of a current upon an adjacent portion during periods of varying current strength. The nature of the induction is such as to oppose the action which produces it.
Self`-start"er, n. A mechanism (usually one operated by electricity, compressed air, a spring, or an explosive gas) , attached to an internal-combustion engine, as on an automobile, and used as a means of starting the engine without cranking it by hand. ”

“ In general the term debenture in British usage designates any security issued by companies other than their shares, including, therefore, what are in the United States commonly called bonds. When used in the United States debenture generally designates an instrument secured by a floating charge junior to other charges secured by fixed mortgages, or, specif., one of a series of securities secured by a group of securities held in trust for the benefit of the debenture holders. ”

“ Designating, or pertaining to, an American Indian linguistic stock occupying the Mexican States of Veracruz, Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, and Yucatan, together with a part of Guatemala and a part of Salvador. The Mayan peoples are dark, short, and brachycephallic, and at the time of the discovery had attained a higher grade of culture than any other American people. They cultivated a variety of crops, were expert in the manufacture and dyeing of cotton fabrics, used cacao as a medium of exchange, and were workers of gold, silver, and copper. ”

“ This economic or technical sense of the word wages is broader than the current sense, and includes not only amounts actually paid to laborers, but the remuneration obtained by those who sell the products of their own work, and the wages of superintendence or management, which are earned by skill in directing the work of others. ”