Thicket

“ After eating they rested an hour or more in the covert of a thicket and Henry saw the beautiful day unfold. The sunshine was dazzling in its glory, the crisp wind made one's blood sparkle like a tonic, and it was good merely to live. A vast horizon inclosed only the peace of the wilderness. ”

“ We must run back to the thicket," Seizing her companion's arm, the strong Northern woman hurried her across the sand, through the belt of sand hills, and into the thicket, where they crouched on its far side close down under the protecting backbone. "The bushes will break the sand, and the ridge will keep us from being buried in it," she said. ”

“ The entire form of this thicket, which in the few species observed was never complete, but always more or less destroyed, is usually probably subspherical or polyhedral, sometimes cordate or kidney-shaped. Its surface is densely studded with thousands of spathillæ. Its diameter is about four to eight times as great as that of the enclosed bivalve shell. ”

“ The deepest silence had prevailed for hours, when the quick ears of the trapper and the Pawnee were startled by a faint cry of surprise from Inez. Springing to their feet, like men, who were about to struggle for their lives, they found the vast plain, the rolling swells, the little hillock, and the scattered thickets, covered alike in one, white, dazzling sheet of snow. ”

“ The atmosphere has now become a little cloudy, and the morning was very dark, even in the oak woods; but when we had entered the thickets of the swamp, all objects became utterly invisible; and the obscurity was as total as if our eyes had been closed. Our companions on the dry ground, lost sight of the pine trees, and could not give us any directions in our journey. We became entangled in briers, and vines, and mats of bushes, from which the greatest exertions were necessary to disengage ourselves. ”

“ I was not the only person interested in this thimble. There was a young man, a student, a French exquisite, who also observed it; and I saw him poking at it in the water with the ferrule of his umbrella. Indeed it was his behaviour towards the thimble that attracted my attention to it. Presently he managed to extricate the thimble from the flood, to lodge it on a paving-stone, but it was slippery and round, and rolled off between two cobbles. Then he put up his eye-glass and studied it. ”

“ If the medium or the substance of the thin plate is water, as in the case of the soap-bubble, which produces beautiful colours according to its different degrees of thinness, the thicknesses at which the most luminous parts of the ring appear are produced at 1/1.336 the thickness at which they are produced in air, and, in the case of glass or mica, at 1/1.525 at thickness, the numbers 1.336, 1.525 expressing the ratio of the sines of the angles of incidence and refraction which produce the colours. ”

“ Some have lain across, some along, and some oblique to the cleavage of the slate in which they are found; but in all cases the distortion is such as required for its production a compressing force acting at right angles to the planes of cleavage. As the trilobites lay in the mud, the jaws of a gigantic vice appear to have closed upon them and squeezed them into the shapes you see.
We sometimes find a thin layer of coarse gritty material, between two layers of finer rock, through which and across the gritty layer pass the planes of lamination. ”

“ A portion of the cushion below the triangular leaf-scar often shows transverse gaping cracks or depressions (fig. 185, C) such as occur on a smaller scale on the older cushions of a Fir twig (fig. 140) . Secondary thickening, as in recent trees, is not confined to the vascular cylinder but at an early stage, frequently before there are any signs of secondary wood, the outer region of the broad cortex becomes the seat of active cell-formation which results in the addition of a considerable thickness to the bark. ”

“ Vessels are distinguished from other cells by their arrangement, by their large size when seen in cross-section, and by the thickening of the wall when seen in longitudinal sections of the plant or in powders. The side walls of vessels are thickened in a number of striking yet uniform ways. The chief types of thickening of the wall, beginning with one that is the least thickened, are annular, spiral, sclariform, pitted, and pitted with bordered pores. ”

“ To test a pole remove the bark, then prise across the grain with a penknife. If the fibres break up short and brown, the pole is decayed and useless.
To test a pole for any local weakness lift one end, leaving the other on the ground. Two or three sharp jerks will cause undue bending at any spot that may be seriously defective.
Balk timbers ring, if in a sound condition, when struck with a hammer. A fresh-cut surface should be firm, shining, and somewhat translucent. A dull, chalky, or woolly appearance is a sign of bad timber. ”

“ The thickness of the finished beads is [pg 222] governed in a great measure by the thickness of the shell from which they are manufactured.
The Venus mercenaria of the Atlantic coast and the heavier Unios of the Mississippi Valley give a general thickness of from one-eighth to three-eighths of an inch, while others, such as the heavy clams of the Pacific, are very much thicker. The walls of univalves, especially near the base, are often extremely heavy, while the smaller varieties of shells furnish specimens of wafer-like thinness. ”

“ The thickening of the edge of the film cannot be accounted for by contraction. For an extension of the upper portion of the film and contraction of the lower and thicker portion, with descent of the intervening portions, would be far less resisted by viscosity, and far more favored by gravity than such extensions and contractions as would produce the appearances described. But the rapid formation of a thin spot by an internal current would cause an accumulation at the edge of the spot of the material forming the interior of the film, and necessitate a thickening of the film in that place. ”

“ Adhering water films can vary greatly in thickness. But if the water molecules adhering to a soil particle become too thick, the force of adhesion becomes too weak to resist the force of gravity, and some water flows deeper into the soil. ”

“ On each side of the dyke, betwixt it and the regular strata, there is a thin layer of clay, or, as it is called, a 'gut' or 'core,' about 6 inches thick, which turns the water from the rise to the dip side of the dyke, and forces it to the surface in several springs, in the direction of the dyke, where it crosses the country. ”

“ In applying heat to glass vessels, thickness is a source of weakness or liability to fracture, on account of the unequal expansion of the two sides, due to inequality of temperature, which, of course, increases with the thickness of the glass. ”

“ Sheets are of thicknesses of less than 1/4 in. This distinction of thickness is of importance in its bearing on workshop practice. A thin sheet requires a very different kind of treatment from a thick plate. Not only is more powerful machinery required for the latter, but in bending it allowance has to be made for the difference in radius of outer and inner layers, which increases with increase of thickness. Short, sharp bends which are readily made in thin sheets cannot be done in thick plates, as the metal would be stressed too much in the outer layers. ”

“ Various thicknesses are used, from, say, 11⁄8 inch up to and over two inches, the general principle being that, the thicker the bed is, the quieter the balls run. But, as in most other things, there is a reasonable limit, because the weight of the slates increases so enormously with the increased thickness, that beyond two inches in thickness they become very difficult to handle, and 77the risk of damage in transport is more than proportionately increased. ”

“ If on arriving at the point of your leaf, instead of going round the edge, you work back by the side of the first row of stitching, there results a streakiness of texture, apparent in the stem on Illustration 13. What you get is, in effect, a combination of crewel and outline stitches, as at J, which in the other case only occurs in the centre of the shape where the files of stitches meet.
To represent shading in crewel-stitch, to which it is admirably suited (A, Illustration 41) , it is well to work from the darkest shadows to the highest lights. ”

“ When we consider, on the one hand, the thickness and stiffness of the petioles, and, on the other hand, the thinness and softness of fine cotton thread, and what an extremely small weight one-sixteenth of a grain is, these facts are remarkable. But I have reason to believe that even a less weight causes a curvature when acting over a broader surface than can be affected by thin thread. ”

“ The cause of their sinking, therefore, is not death of the creatures, but weight of their shells. The thickening consists in a deposit of calcareous matter upon the outside of the proper wall after the creatures' full growth, which not only increases the weight, but alters the contour of the shell. ”

“ The strips (inae, philyrae) , which were cut with a sharp knife or some such instrument, were laid on a board side by side to the required width, thus forming a layer (scheda) , across which another layer of shorter strips was laid at right angles. The two layers thus “woven”—Pliny uses the word texere in describing this part of the process—formed a sheet (plagula or net) , which was then soaked in water of the Nile. The mention of a particular water has caused trouble to the commentators. ”

“ From this we should suppose the body or substance of hair and wool to be exceedingly hard and solid, which is really the case, as no pressure has yet been applied sufficiently powerful to entirely deprive wool of the water with which it has been washed—the interstices between the fibres of the assemblage never having been closed by the power applied, as the water therein collected may still be drained off when the pressure is removed. ”

“ The length formed last year has two layers of wood (if we look in summer) , and the current year’s growth has one layer, all of which has been formed since spring.
The advantages of secondary thickening.—The formation of secondary wood and bast is very important. The new wood is required (1) to provide additional water-vessels to supply the demands of an [Pg 74] increasing number of leaves, and (2) to give the necessary increase of mechanical strength to the growing tree. ”

“ Thus cut down annually, it does not despair; but, putting forth two short twigs for every one cut off, it spreads out low along the ground in the hollows or between the rocks, growing more stout and scrubby, until it forms, not a tree as yet, but a little pyramidal, stiff, twiggy mass, almost as solid and impenetrable as a rock. ”

“ The density of colouring and thickness of the principal component parts must always be studied, as the same depth of tint by a very thin layer as that of a thick one will not have the same effect, and one or the other, when making a contrast with the adjacent old surface, will be conspicuous as a failure. ”

“ I had it of this thickness to ensure comparative immunity from splitting when the sides should be nailed on, for these were to form the floor or bottom of our punt. When planed on both sides, this thickness was of course reduced. The edges of the planks were ‘shot,’ and made to fit as for a glue joint. After being cramped together they were kept in position by nailing on transverse pieces 1 in. thick and 4 in. wide, these transverse pieces not reaching quite to the whole width of the floor. ”

“ If the heat is unevenly distributed, or if the stock is not of a uniform thickness, the results will not be exactly as120 estimated. When a heavy ring is formed of oblong material and bent through its larger diameter, as shown in sketch A, Fig. 100, and the product is to be finished to a uniform thickness, the expansion of the outer portion will make it necessary to use somewhat thicker material, to provide for the decrease of metal which will take place. ”

“ Thickness of needle must correspond to the size of yarn or, in other words, the yarn must suit the thickness of needle. It is the needle which determines the interspaces in the fabric, for a certain proportion must be 11allowed if the fabric is to possess the required elasticity and stretch. This property is essential to good wearing service, for if loops are stiff and stodgy in construction, due to over-tight knitting or meagre allowance of space, the fabric will not yield to the movements which occur in wear and will more rapidly give way under strain. ”

“ This is thus described in the specification: 'A represents a thimble of any suitable dimensions, provided on one side with a nut or enlargement, a, having a hole through it with female screw threads. The thimble, A, is fastened on the rope, B, at any desired place, by means of a sharp-pointed screw, C, x, which passes through the thimble at the nut, a, and the rope. ”

“ Sides of the expanded stem are incurvate. The basal edge is usually excurvate but may be straight. Rarely, it is ground; usually it is beveled on one or both faces.
FLAKING: Fairly deep random flaking shapes the faces of the blade and hafting area. Fine, regular retouch finishes the blade edges, often resulting in fine serrations. Notches, formed by the removal of one or more flakes, are found near the basal edge. Short, deep flakes were removed in order to bevel the basal edge. Unbeveled faces are thinned. Local materials were used and all examples are patinated. ”

“ Seamed or riveted parts are, of course, thicker than the ordinary plate, will expand and contract differently, will take longer to heat and longer to cool, and the conclusion, therefore, that must be arrived at is that the thickness should be reduced as much as possible, and the joints be made as smooth as possible. ”