Various

“ I think we may fairly assert that such minerals as tourmaline, jargoon, peridote, spinel and chrysoberyl, though their names may be familiar, are not stones which would be recognized by any but those who are in some sense experts; while other minerals, such as sphene, andalusite, axinite, idocrase and diopside, are possibly almost unknown to most people, even by reputation. Yet all these minerals possess qualities of transparency, hardness and beauty of color which render them extraordinarily interesting and attractive as precious stones. ”

“ Holding to a tradition which had its origin where food was less abundant, that the natural instinct is the measure of what we should eat, we follow the dictates of the palate. Living in the midst of abundance, our diet has not been regulated by the restraints which obtain with the great majority of the people of the Old World, where food is dear and incomes are small. ”

“ A faceted stone is always cut from a single crystal, and not from an ordinary lump of the mineral, which is generally a mass of crystals. The chief reason why jewels are cut from natural crystals is that these, by virtue of their crystalline nature, are remarkably homogeneous, and therefore clear and limpid when free from cracks and flaws. A stone which is not homogeneous can never have the purity and limpid brilliancy of a single crystal, for at every point of contact of one part with another reflection takes place. ”

“ Secondly, the food which we eat does not always contain the proper proportions of the different kinds of nutritive ingredients. We consume relatively too much of the fuel ingredients of food, such as the fats of meat and butter, the starch which makes up the larger part of the nutritive material of flour and potatoes and sugar and sweetmeats. Conversely, we have relatively too little of the protein of flesh-forming substances, like the lean of meat and fish and the gluten of wheat, which make muscle and sinew and which are the basis of blood, bone and brain. ”

“ Wood floats in water because it is lighter than water; iron sinks because it is heavier; but a substance which possessed exactly the specific gravity of water would neither float nor sink, but would remain suspended in the water like a balloon in midair. ”

“ The beautiful specimens of rock crystal, calc spar, topaz, emerald, and other stones which adorn mineral collections are sufficient evidence of these properties. But it is very certain that natural crystals, although they possess a beauty of form which is all their own, are not by a long way so brilliant as the faceted stones which are cut from them by the art of the lapidary; that a natural diamond is not so lustrous as a faceted brilliant.
In fact, many of the finest gem stones present a very mean and sordid aspect before they have passed through the hands of the lapidary ”

“ It is not a character capable of any accurate measurement, neither is it to be recommended for use by inexperienced persons.
I hope to show, as I go on, that we have now accurate methods of testing at our disposal which render the trial of hardness quite unnecessary. But, none the less, the character is one of great importance, as investing the stone with durability. All the precious stones, except moonstone, opal and sphene, have at least the hardness of quartz, and can barely be scratched by metals, even by hard steel.
Take next the quality of brilliancy. ”

“ In every single instance I have obtained negative results, and, as far as my experiments go, helium remains a permanent gas, and apparently much more difficult to liquefy than even hydrogen. The small quantity of the gas at my disposal, and, indeed, the extreme rarity of the minerals from which it is obtained, compelled me to carry out my investigation on a very small scale. Using a larger apparatus, and working at a much higher pressure, I could have submitted the gas to greater expansion. ”

“ The United Kingdom shows best under the heads of total losses and losses of sailing vessels, but in steamers it actually comes last among the six nationalities we have selected for comparison. It must be remembered, however, that the British fleet is large enough for a very fair average to be attained in three months, while in all other fleets a single loss, more or less, makes a great difference to the figures of merit. The steam tonnage of the United Kingdom is more than seven times greater than that of Germany, which is our chief competitor. ”

“ He indulged in this extravagance in diet, when much less expensive food materials, such as regularly come upon the tables of men of wealth, would have been just as nutritious, just as wholesome, and in every way just as good, save in the gratification to pride and palate. ”

“ Up to the present the use of iron in its ordinary form has chiefly been confined to floors, partitions, and roofs, where, as a rule, its presence is masked by coverings of cement, wood, or stone, except in recent examples of the new style of buildings destined for brasseries or drinking halls, where the iron construction is left visible, and emphasized by means of bronze or color painting and mosaic work, or, again, in the few examples of well known work where the architect has endeavored to obtain a decorative effect by means of iron lintels and columns. ”

“ From the earliest times certain minerals, which are conspicuous for their beauty, have been prized for decorative purposes; the brilliant green hue of malachite, the deep blue of lapis lazuli and the rich color of red jasper would naturally attract early attention. But these particular minerals are not numbered among the true precious stones; they do not possess the remarkable qualities which endow the diamond, the ruby or the topaz with their peculiar attractiveness. The two essential qualities, namely, brilliancy and hardness, are only possessed by certain rare minerals ”

“ The inevitable formation of a thin coat of oxide is unfavorable to the process of rapid cooling; and as rapid cooling seems to be the one thing necessary for success in hardness, any means used for the removal of a bad conductor of heat, like the black oxide, will be of advantage, and more especially if this means also results in the formation of a liquid film on the steel surface having the affinity for water which, it is well known, is peculiar to potassium cyanide. ”

“ Now any substance immersed in water loses in weight by an amount exactly equal to that of the water displaced. Hence, to ascertain the specific gravity it is only necessary to suspend the stone by a fine thread to the beam of a balance and weigh it first in air, and then immersed in water. The first weighing gives the weight of the stone itself, the difference between the first weighing and the second gives the weight of the displaced water; hence the specific gravity is found at once by dividing the weight of the stone by this difference. ”

“ The island of Zanzibar, together with the neighboring islands of Pemba and Mafia, to the north and south, is generally of coral formation, with here and there hills of a reddish clay, which rise in the south to an elevation of 450 feet and in the north develop into a range of hills which runs parallel to the shore at a height of over 1,000 feet. The dense forests which originally covered the island have been cut down, and the soil, which is of unusual fertility, is under thorough cultivation, yielding heavy crops of corn and manioc, which latter forms the staple food of the people. ”

“ Thirdly, many people, not only the well-to-do, but those in moderate circumstances, use needless quantities of food. Part of the excess, however, is simply thrown away with the wastes of the table and the kitchen; so that the injury to health, great as it may be, is doubtless much less than if all were eaten. Probably the worst sufferers from this evil are well-to-do people of sedentary occupations—brain workers as distinguished from hand workers. ”

“ Any stone is said to be harder than the minerals of this scale which it can scratch, and softer than those by which it can be scratched. In the right hand column the gem stones are arranged according to their hardness.
Among precious stones diamond stands out pre-eminent as the hardest of all known substances. Ruby and sapphire are scratched by diamond alone, while chrysoberyl, topaz and spinel scratch all the remaining stones, although they do themselves yield to the scratch of ruby and sapphire. The hardness is a character still generally utilized by the expert when he is in doubt ”

“ The sad side of the story is that the poor are the ones who practice the worst economy in the purchase as well as the use of food. The Massachusetts Bureau of Labor, in collecting the dietaries above referred to, made numerous inquiries of tradesmen regarding the food of the poor in Boston, meaning by poor "those who earn just enough to keep themselves and families from want." ”

“ The frame of the motor is of aluminum, by which considerable saving in weight is effected; as in the earlier model, the moving parts of the motor are immersed in an oil bath. The pedals are employed to start, or as an auxiliary, or in the event of a breakdown. When not required for propulsion, they are thrown out of gear, when they serve as foot rests, and also as a means for actuating an emergency brake. The carburetor is no longer attached to the gasoline reservoir, but is separate; the explosions in the cylinder are regulated by a lever close to the steering bar. ”

“ How much food is required on the average by men whose labor is mainly intellectual is a question to which physiology has not yet given a definite answer, but it is safe to say that the general teaching of the specialists who have given the most attention to the subject would call for little more than the 104 grammes of protein and very much less than the 3,400 calories of energy in the food estimated to be actually consumed by these young men when the second examination was made. ”

“ No other of the countries named has less than 3 per cent. of loss, while only the British colonies have less than 4, as the subjoined table shows.
When we turn from the contemplation of the complete fleets, and differentiate between steam and sail, we find that the United Kingdom no longer holds the premier position, being surpassed, as regards steam, both by the colonies and by the United States. Steam vessels are safer than sailing craft all over the world, partly, of course, because their average age is less. ”

“ Of course, two laths of wood can be used, merely resting them on the top of printing frame and camera, but the other plan is preferable, the arrangement being more complete and adaptable to both day and artificial light, and also more rigid, especially when the camera is sloped toward the sky.
The ordinary camera may be used, but a carrier to take lantern plates must be used in the dark slide. The ordinary lens may be used unless of inordinately long focus, when it becomes inconvenient on account of the great distance between negative and lens. ”

“ When the solar spectrum produced by admitting ordinary daylight through a slit, and transmitting it through a prism, is passed through the glowing vapor of certain substances, particular rays of light are absorbed, and their absence from the emerging fight is manifested by corresponding dark bands in the spectrum. The instrument by which the observations are made is the spectroscope. It is well known to most people that the solar spectrum itself contains certain dark bands of this sort, which are produced by vapors that can be identified by the position of the bands in the spectrum ”

“ By long practice it is possible to form a very close estimate of the hardness of a given stone, and that often, not by the scratch of the other minerals in the scale, but by the feel of the stone against a file; the resistance offered by the stone to the file is taken as a measure of its hardness. ”

“ The gas is turned on in the regular way and a small screw is turned which admits a small flow of gas through the burner. The gas is lighted, and the heat expands the metal and automatically opens a valve permitting a full flow of gas. The gas can be turned off in the ordinary way, but if the gas is blown out the metal contracts, closing the valve, and all the gas that escapes is the very small quantity admitted by the screw valve.
A movement is on foot in Europe having for its object the securing of a complete census of the inhabitants of all the civilized countries of the world. ”

“ This depends upon two things—first, the manner in which rays of light are affected when they enter or leave the stone, and, secondly, the manner in which this action can be intensified by the art of the lapidary.
When light passes from one transparent substance to another it is bent or refracted, as every one knows from the bent appearance of a stick plunged into water. Consider, now, a ray of light falling upon the surface of a transparent stone; a portion of the light is reflected, but a portion enters the stone. In passing from air into the stone it is refracted inward. ”

“ First, many people purchase needlessly expensive kinds of food, doing this under the false impression that there is some peculiar virtue in the costlier materials, and that economy in our diet is somehow detrimental to our dignity or our welfare. ”

“ The total capacity of the gasometer is so calculated that the acetylene produced by a single one of the compartments, F, may be stored up therein upon its exit from the gasometer through the pipe, K. The acetylene traverses a purifying column, I, filled with pumice stone saturated with a solution of sulphate of copper and surmounted by a thin layer of carbide of calcium. The object of the sulphate of copper is to free the gas from phosphorus and arseniuret of hydrogen. The layer of carbide serves to dry it. ”

“ Oysters are a delicacy. If one can afford them, there is no reason for not having them, but 25 cents invested in a pint would bring only about an ounce of protein and 230 calories of energy. The same 25 cents spent for flour at $6 a barrel, or 3 cents a pound, would pay for nine-tenths of a pound of protein and 13,700 calories of energy. When a day laborer buys bread at 71⁄2 cents a pound, the actual nutritive material costs him three times as much as it does his employer, who buys it in flour at $6 a barrel. ”

“ What is called a kilogrammeter is the force capable of lifting 1 kilogramme to 1 meter in height during 1 second. Further along we shall estimate the watts in carcels.
This stated, let us ascertain the net cost of the unit of light in each system of lighting. We shall take as a basis the Paris prices, which are generally higher than those of other countries, owing to taxes, and shall confine our researches to the eight following systems:
Electricity (incandescent and arc lamps) , gas (butterfly, Auer and Denayrouse burners) , lamp oil, kerosene and acetylene. ”

“ Upon the whole, if the experiments that are being made publicly at this moment confirm the data of the laboratory, the Denayrouse burner will be destined to play a considerable role in the lighting of public gardens, streets and buildings, for the very intensity of the light that it gives renders it unfitted for private use. Moreover, it must not be forgotten that it requires a motor to actuate its fan, and everyone has not the necessary motive power in his house. ”

“ The chemical composition, though of great general importance in mineralogy, is of little practical value in the discrimination of precious stones, since it is usually impossible to sacrifice a sufficient quantity for chemical analysis. If we are dealing with a faceted stone, not even the smallest portion can be utilized, for fear of injuring it.
There is, however, one remarkable optical property, which is ultimately related to the chemical composition. As is well known, many substances possess the property of absorbing certain rays of light. ”

“ Of the over 50 dietaries of reasonably well-to-do people thus far examined the smallest is that of a mechanic's family. In this the potential energy per man per day was about 3,000 calories. The next smallest was that of the family of a chemist who had been studying the subject and had learned something of the excessive amounts of food which many people with light muscular labor consume. This dietary supplied 3,200 calories of energy per man a day. ”

“ Having satisfactorily arranged our image as regards composition by shifting the camera nearer to or farther from the negative—because it will be obvious that the nearer the lens to the negative, the less of the negative we shall include, and vice versa—we fill our dark slide and are ready for exposure.
For daylight work the arrangement of frame and camera should be placed near a window, and if anything but sky is seen opposite the negative, place outside the window a large sheet of white cardboard at an angle of 45°. ”

“ In Stanislau oil gas is being a good deal used for incandescent lighting, says the Gas World. The gas is used at a pressure of from 1.1 in. to 1.2 in. When 1.7 cubic feet per hour is used the Welsbach mantle gives 691⁄2 candles at first, 65 candles after 120 hours, 481⁄4 candles after 500 hours. The fall in lighting power is comparatively slow with oil gas, and the mantles are not so much worn by lighting the gas, for the kind of oil gas is not as explosive as that of coal gas. The mantles are found to last from 400 to 600 hours. ”

“ Magnesium is objectionable because the particles of magnesia form a voluminous cloud, which tastes and smells unpleasantly and settles down on everything. Still, for those who wish to work with this substance, about 18 inches burnt close to the opal and moved about all over it will be about sufficient to obtain good results under above mentioned conditions. An ordinary oil lamp or gas may also be used, provided the light is diffused.
Only the bromide lantern plates are suitable for reduction, the exposure, especially with the chloride emulsions, being so long as to place them out of court. ”