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Originally, a punkah was a portable fan made from the leaf of the palmra, but in Anglo-Indian parlance a large fixed and swinging fan formed of cloth attached to a rectangular frame suspended from the ceiling and pulled backwards and forwards by means of a cord, thus causing a current of air in the apartment.
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The Daddy-Long-Legs Spider (Pholcus phalangioides) is a narrow-bodies, long- legged spider associated in Britain with buildings - being unable to survive the cold. The spider which spins a tangled, untidy web is often found hanging upside down from the ceiling.
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Fly is the term for a winged insect of various genera and species, whose distinguishing characteristics are that the wings are transparent and have no cases or covers. By these marks flies are distinguished from beetles, butterflies, grasshoppers, etc
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The true flies or Diptera have only two wings, the anterior pair. In common language, fly is the house-fly, of the genus Musca. The house-fly is found wherever man is, and in hot weather causes a good deal of annoyance. It is furnished with a suctorial proboscis, from which, when feeding on dry substances, it exudes a liquid, which, by moistening them, fits them to be sucked. From its feet being beset with hairs, each terminating in a disc which is supposed to act as a sucker, it can walk on smooth surfaces, as a ceiling, even with its back down. The female lays her eggs in dung or refuse; the larvas are small white worms (mahhots). They change into pupae without casting their skins, and in from eight to fourteen days the perfect fly emerges. The very small flies and the very large ones often seen about houses belong to other species.
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Andrea Appiani was an Italian painter. He was born in 1754 at Milan and died in 1817. As a fresco-painter he excelled every contemporary painter in Italy. He displayed his skill particularly in the cupola of Santa Maria di S. Celso at Milan, and in the paintings representing the legend of Cupid and Psyche, prepared for the walls and ceiling of the villa of the Archduke Ferdinand at Monza in 1795. Napoleon appointed him royal court painter, and portraits of almost the whole of the imperial family were painted by him.
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Buonarroti Michelangelo was an Italian painter. He was born in 1475 at Caprese and died in 1564. He painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
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In Norse mythology, Greip was a daughter of Geirrod. She with her sister Gjalp tried to kill Thor by changing into a cat and, arching her back under Thor's chair, trying to crush Thor against the ceiling. However, Thor wedged his unbreakable staff between the chair and the ceiling and the two sisters broke their backs in the effort and died.
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The Rheinmetall 105 mm Flak 38 was a German heavy anti-aircraft gun of the Second World War which entered service in 1937. The 105 mm Flak 38 fired a 14.8 kg high-explosive shell to an effective ceiling of 9450 meters with a muzzle velocity of 881 meters-per-second.
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The 13 pdr 9 cwt AA Gun was the standard British field anti-aircraft gun of the Great War and comprised a 13-pounder horse artillery gun mounted on a high-angle mounting. The 13 pdr 9 cwt AA Gun was a 3 inch calibre gun and fired a 13 lb shrapnel shell to an effective ceiling of 5790 metres at a muzzle velocity of 655 meters-per-second.
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The Rheinmetall 20 mm Flak 38 was a German heavy anti-aircraft gun of the Second World War which entered service in 1937. The 20 mm Flak 38 was a recoil operated cannon which took a 20-round magazine and fired with a muzzle velocity of 900 metres per second to an effective ceiling of 2200 metres. The 20 mm Flak 38 was produced on various mountings, the most popular being the four-gun Flakvierling 38 which was originally developed for naval use, but was quickly adopted by the army and air force also.
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The 3 inch M3 was an American anti-aircraft gun developed during the 1920s from a coastal defence gun, being standardised in 1928. The 3 inch M3 fired a 5.84 kg high-explosive shell to an effective ceiling of 8500 metres with a muzzle velocity of 853 meters-per-second.
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The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
©1993 - 2009 The Probert Encyclopaedia
Southampton, United Kingdom
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