Artesian Wells, so called from the French province of Artois, where they appear to have been first used on an extensive scale, are perpendicular borings into the ground through which water rises to the surface of the soil, producing a constant flow or stream, the ultimate sources of supply being higher than the mouth of the boring, and the water thus rising by the well-known law. They are generally sunk in valley plains and districts where the lower pervious strata are bent into basin-shaped curves.
The rain falling on the outcrops of these saturates the whole porous bed, so that when the bore reaches it the water by hydraulic pressure rushes up towards the level of the highest portion of the strata. The supply is sometimes so abundant as to be used extensively as a moving power, and in arid regions for fertilizing the ground, to which purpose artesian springs have been applied from a very remote period. Thus many artesian wells have been sunk in the Algerian Sahara which have proved an immense boon to the district.
The water of most of these is potable, but a few are a little saline, though not to such an extent as to influence vegetation. The hollows in which London and Paris lie are both perforated in many places by borings of this nature. At London they were first sunk only to the sand B B, but latterly into the chalk c o. One of the most celebrated artesian wells is that of Crenelle near Paris, 1798 feet deep, completed in 1841, after eight years' work. Artesian wells are now common in many countries, and have been sunk to the depth of a mile or more. As the temperature of water from great depths is invariably higher than that at the surface, artesian wells have been made to supply warm water for heating manufactories, greenhouses, hospitals, fish-ponds, etc. Petroleumwells are generally of the same technical description. Artesian wells were later made with larger diameters than formerly, and altogether their construction was rendered much more easy after the industrial revolution. Research Artesian Wells
Bath is the immersion of the body in water, or an apparatus for this purpose. The use of the bath as an institution apart from occasional immersion in rivers or the sea, is, as might be anticipated, an exceedingly old custom. Homer mentions the bath as one of the first refreshments offered to a guest; thus, when Ulysses enters the palace of Circe, a bath is prepared for him, and he is anointed after it with costly perfumes. No representation, however, of a bath as we understand it is given upon the Greek vases, bathers being represented either simply washing at an elevated basin, or having water poured over them from above. In later times, rooms, both public and private, were built expressly for bathing, the public baths of the Greeks being mostly connected with the gymnasia. Apparently, by an inversion of the later practice, it was customary in the Homeric epoch to take first a cold and then a hot bath; but the Lacedemonians substituted the hot-air sudorific bath, as less enervating than warm water, and in Athens at the time of Demosthenes and Socrates the warm bath was considered by the more rigorous as an effeminate custom.
The fullest details we have with respect to the bathing of the ancients apply to its luxurious development under the Romans. Their bathing establishments consisted of four main sections: the undressing room, with an adjoining chamber in which the bathers were anointed; a cold room with provision for a cold bath; a room heated moderately to serve as a preparation for the highest and lowest temperatures; and the sweating-room, at one extremity of which was a vapour-bath and at the other an ordinary hot bath. After going through the entire course both the Greeks and Romans made use of strigils or scrapers, either of horn or metal, to remove perspiration, oil, and impurities from the skin. Connected with the bath were walks, covered race-grounds, tennis-courts, and gardens, the whole, both in the external and internal decorations, being frequently on a palatial scale. The group of the Laocoon and the Parnese Hercules were both found in the ruins of Roman baths.
With respect to modern baths, that commonly in use in Russia consists of a single hall, built of wood, in the midst of which is a powerful metal oven, covered with heated stones, and surrounded with broad benches, on which the bathers take their places. Cold water is then poured upon the heated stones, and a thick, hot steam rises, which causes the sweat to issue from the whole body. The bather is then gently whipped with wet birch rods, rubbed with soap, and washed with lukewarm and cold water; of the latter, some pailfuls are poured over his head; or else he leaps, immediately after this sweating-bath, into a river or pond, or rolls in the snow.
The Turks, by their religion, are obliged to make repeated ablutions daily, and for this purpose there is, in every city, a public bath connected with a mosque. A favourite bath among them, however, is a modification of the hot-air sudorific-bath of the ancients introduced under the name of Turkish Bath into other than Islamic countries. A regular accompaniment of this bath, when properly given, is the operation known as 'kneading,' or massage, generally performed at the close of the sweating process, after the final rubbing of the bather with soap, and consisting in a systematic pressing and squeezing of the whole body, stretching the limbs, and manipulating all the joints as well as the fleshy and muscular parts.
Public baths were common in Europe during the late 19th century, but the first English public baths and wash-houses of the kind common in all cities during the late 19th century were established in Liverpool and near the London docks in 1844. In 1846 an act was passed for their encouragement, and a Baths and Wash-houses Act of 1878 authorized the establishment of cheap swimming-baths.
The principal natural warm baths in England are at Bath in Somersetshire (the hottest), and Brixton and Matlock in Derbyshire. The temperature of the Bath springs ranges from 109 to 117 degrees, while that of the Buxton and Matlockwaters scarcely exceeds 82 degrees. The baths of Harrogate, which are strongly impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen gas, are also of great repute for the cure of obstinate cutaneous diseases, indurations of the glands, etc. The most celebrated natural hot baths in Europe are those of Aix-la-Chapelle, and the various Baden in Germany; Toeplitz, in Bohemia; Bagnieres, Bareges, and Dax, in the south of France; and Spa, in Belgium. Besides the various kinds of water-bath with or without medication or natural mineral ingredients, there are also milk, oil, wine, earth, sand, mud, and electric baths, smoke-baths and gas-baths; but these are as a rule only indulged after specific prescription.
The practice of bathing as a method of cure in cases of disease falls under the head of hydrotherapathy; in the 19th century it was advised that even when bathing was employed simply for pleasure or purification due regard should be paid to the physiological condition of the bather. During the Victorian era in Britain writers were concerned about the potential dangers of bathing, and one warned:
'in many cases cold bathing should be avoided altogether, especially by those who have any tendency to spitting of blood or consumption, by gouty people, or by those who have any latent visceral disease or apoplectic tendency. Wherever the bath is followed by shivering instead of by a healthy reactionary glow, it is undesirable; and a cold bath in the morning after any debauchery or excess in eating or drinking on the previous evening is exceedingly imprudent. Delicate persons and children ought not to bathe in the sea before ten or eleven o'clock in the morning, and in no case should bathing be indulged after a long fast. In cold streams and rivers additional precautions should be taken, the cold plunge, when heated or fatigued, being frequently attended with fatal results. Even warm baths are not wholly free from danger; apoplexy and death having been known to follow a hot bath when entered with a full stomach. As a rule the temperature should not exceed 105 degrees, and they should not be too long continued. Frequent indulgence in them has an enervating effect, though the majority of people need as yet no renewal of Hadrian's prohibitive legislation in this matter.'
The eminent author, George Black, in 1892, while generally encouraging bathing, and describing bathing as 'likely to be of excellent use and efficacy both in the prevention and cure of disease.' Also went on to warn:
'Baths should never be taken immediately after a meal, nor when the body is very much exhausted by fatigue or excitement of any kind, nor during nor just before menstruation; and they should be sparingly and guardedly used by pregnant women.' Research Bath
The bushel is a unit of capacity measurement equivalent to 4 pecks, 8 gallons or 3.637 dekalitres. It is also used as a measure of weight for apples, equivalent to about 40 lbs. Henry VIII ordered that a bushel should hold eight gallons of wheat in 1520. A bushel of barley was 47 lbs, of oats 38 lbs and of wheat 60 lbs.
The British imperial bushel introduced in 1826 has a capacity of 2218.192 cubic inches, and holds 80 lbsavoirdupois of distilled water at the temperature of 62° Fahrenheit with the barometer at 30 inches. Previous to this the Winchester bushel had been the standard measure. Its capacity was 2150.42 cubic inches. Research Bushel
The Challenger Expedition was a scientific and exploring expedition carried out at the expense of the British Government by means of the ship Challenger, a frigate-built vessel of about 2000 tons, fully equipped with all the most improved scientific appliances for ascertaining the depth, temperature, currents, etc, of the ocean, and the character of the ocean bottom, and for amassing natural history specimens. The ship set sail on December the 7th, 1872, under the command of Captain (afterwards Sir) George Nares, Professor (afterwards Sir) Wyville Thomson being at the head of the scientific staff attached to the ship. In the course of the expedition the ship called at Madeira, Teneriffe, the Bermudas, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Cape Verde Islands, Cape of Good Hope, Kerguelen Islands, Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong, Japan, Valparaiso, etc, returning home by way of the Strait of Magellan, and arriving on May the 24th, 1876. During the three and a half years of the cruise the ship traversed about 70,000 nautical miles, and a vast amount of highly useful information was accumulated, the results being published at government expense in a great many volumes. Several popular works on the expedition were also published. Research Challenger Expedition
Chinaware is a name given to porcelain (pottery made from kaolin), so called from China being the first country to supply it to Europeans. It is thought that the Chinese produced porcelain from ancient times, but it wasn't until around 500 AD that they perfected the art. Chinaware first came to Europe in the beginning of the 16th century and won immediate popularity for its beauty and novelty.
The European consumers thought it impossible to match the whiteness of Chinaware, until John Frederick of Saxony, an alchemist, discovered a means of producing a porcelain equal in whiteness to the Chinaware. This led to the establishment by the Government of a factory at Meissen which started to produce porcelain rivalling the Chinaware in beauty and quality.
In France also about the middle of the 18th century the celebrated factory at Sevres was set up and soon acquired a great renown. In England a porcfaiain work was established at Chelsea some years prior to 1745; it was made at Stratford-le-Bow about the same time, at Derby as early as 1750, at Worcester in 1751. About 1755 kaolin or porcelain clay was discovered in Cornwall, and this contributed greatly to improve the quality of English porcelain, which began to be largely manufactured in Staffordshire under the auspices of Josiah Spode and Thomas Minton.
Chinaware, when broken, presents a granular surface with a compact, dense, firm, hard, vitreous and durable texture. It is semi-transparent, with a covering of white glaze, clear, smooth, unaffected by all acids except hydroflouric acid, and able to withstand sudden changes of temperature. Research Chinaware
A clock is an instrument for measuring time and indicating hours, minutes, and usually seconds, by means of hands moving on a dial-plate, and traditionally differing from a watch mainly in having the movement of its machinery regulated by a pendulum, and in not being portable. A clock also chimes, though the term clock is frequently, and incorrectly, applied to the non-chiming instruments for measuring time, which are technically known as a timepiece.
The use of a horologium, or hour-teller, was common even amongst the ancients, but their time-pieces were nothing else than sun-dials, hour-glasses, and clepsydrae. In the earlier half of our era we have accounts of several attempts at clock construction : that of Boethius in the 6th century, the clock sent by Harun al Rashid to Charlemagne in 809, that made by Pacificus, archdeacon of Verona, in the 9th century, and that of PopeSylvester II in the 10th century. It is doubtful, however, if any of these was a wheel-and-weight clock, and it is probably to the monks that we owe the invention of clocks set in motion by wheels and weights. In the 12th century clocks were made use of in the monasteries, which announced the end of every hour by the sound of a bell put in motion by means of wheels. From this time forward the expression, 'the clock has struck,' is often met with. The hand for marking the time is also made mention of.
In the 14th century there are stronger traces of the later system of clock-work. Dante particularly mentions clocks. Richard, abbot of St Albans in England, made a clock in 1326, such as had never been heard of until then. It not only indicated the course of the sun and moon, but also the ebb and flood tide. Large clocks on steeples likewise were first made use of in the 14th century. Watches are a much later invention, although they have likewise been said to have been invented as early as the 14th century. A celebrated clock, the construction of which is well known, was set up in Paris for Charles V in 1379, the maker being Henry de Vick, a German. It probably formed a model on which clocks were constructed for nearly 300 years, and until Huyghens applied the pendulum to clock-work as the regulating power, about 1657. The great advantage of the pendulum prior to the invention of electronic oscillators is that the beats or oscillations of a pendulum all occupy substantially the same time (the time depending on its length), hence its utility in imparting regularity to a time-measurer. The mechanism by which comparative regularity was previously attained, though ingenious and simple, was far less perfect; and the first pendulum escapement that is, the contrivance by which the pendulum was connected with the clock-work, was also less perfect than others subsequently introduced, especially Graham's dead-heat escapement, invented in 1700.
In a watch, prior to the invention of electronics, the balance-wheel and spring served the same purpose as the pendulum, and the honour of being the inventor of the balance-spring was contested between Huyghens and the English pliilosopher Dr. Hooke. Various improvements followed, such as the chronometerescapement, and the addition of a compensation adjustment, by which two metals having unequal rates of expansion and contraction under variations of temperature are combined in the pendulum or the balance-wheel, so that, each metal counteracting the other, the vibrations are isochronous under any change of temperature. This arrangement was perfected by Harrison in 1726, and was especially useful in navigation. Research Clock
Dew is a deposition of water from the atmosphere upon the surface of the earth in the form of minute globules. During the day the earth both absorbs and emits heat, but after sunset its supply of warmth is cut off, though it still continues to radiate heat into the surrounding space. Grass, flowers, and foliage being good radiators, lose after sunset the heat which has previously been absorbed by them, without receiving any in return, and their temperature consequently falls considerably below that of the atmosphere. From the proximity of these cold substances the particles of vapour in the adjoining air are condensed and deposited upon their surfaces in the form of dew, or of hoar-frost where the temperature of the earth is below freezing.
When the sky is clouded the heat abstracted from the earth's surface by radiation is restored by the clouds, which, being good radiators, send back an equal amount of heat to what they receive; and a balance of temperature being thus maintained between the earth and the surrounding atmosphere, no dew is formed. The deposition of dew is likewise prevented by wind, which carries away the particles of air before the vapour contained in them has been condensed. Horizontal surfaces, and those which are exposed to a wide expanse of sky, receive a greater supply of dew than sheltered or oblique surfaces, where circumstances diminish the amount of radiation. The radiation from the earth's surface is one of those happy provisions for the necessities of living beings with which nature everywhere abounds.
The heavy dews which fall in tropical regions are in the highest degree beneficial to vegetation, which, but for this supply of moisture, would, in countries where scarcely any rain falls for months, be soon scorched and withered. But after the high temperature of the day the ground radiates under these clear skies with great rapidity, the surface is quickly cooled, and the watery vapour, which, from the great daily evaporation, exists in large quantities in the atmosphere, is deposited abundantly. This deposition is more plentiful also on plants, from their greater radiating power; while on hard, bare ground and stones, where it is less wanted, it is comparatively trifling.
In cold climates the earth, being cold and moist the clouds prevent the radiation of heat; the surface is thus preserved warm, and the deposition of dew is, in a great measure, prevented. Research Dew
Embalming is the process of filling and surrounding with aromatic and antiseptic substances any bodies, particularly corpses, in order to preserve them from corruption. The ancient Egyptians employed the art on a great scale, and other peoples, for example the Assyrians and Persians, followed them, but by no means equalled them in it. The ancient Peruvians appear to have injected and washed the corpses with the fluid that flows from imperfectly burned wood, which would of course contain pyroligneous acid, creosote, and other antiseptics. Pliny alludes to the use of a similar fluid by the Egyptians for embalming. In later times bodies have been preserved, a long time by embalming, especially when they have remained at a low and uniformtemperature, and have been protected from the air. The body of Edward I was buried in WestminsterAbbey in 1307, and in 1770 was found entire. Canute died in 1036; his body was found very fresh in 1776 in WinchesterCathedral. The bodies of William the Conqueror and of Matilda his wife were found entire at Caen in the 16th century. Of the various later artificial means of preserving bodies, impregnation with corrosive sublimate appears to be one of the most effective, next to immersion in spirits. An injection of sulphate of zinc into the bloodvessels is said to be very effective. Research Embalming
Frost is the name given to the state of the weather when the temperature is below the freezing-point of water. The intensity of the cold in frost is conveniently indicated by the popular expression so many degrees of frost, which means that the temperature of the atmosphere is so many degrees below the point at which the freezing of water commences.
Frost is often very destructive to vegetation, owing to the fact that water, which is generally the chief constituent of the juices of plants, expands when freezing, and bursts, and thus destroys, the vesicles of the plant. In the same way rain-water, freezing in the crevices of rocks and roads, breaks up their surfaces, and often detaches large fragments.
Hoar-frost is frozen dew. It may either freeze while it is falling, when it is found loosely scattered on the ground; or being deposited as dew in the early part of the night it may freeze during a subsequent part of it, owing to radiation. It is generally seen most profusely in spring and autumn; because at those times, while on clear nights the cold is sufficient to freeze the dew, the days are at the same time sufficiently warm to cause a very considerable quantity of moisture to evaporate into the air.
Gilding is the art of applying gold-leaf or gold in a finely-divided state to surfaces of wood, stone, or metals. It is a very ancient art, being practised among the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Ancient Persians. The processes employed through more modern times have been very varied. Metals are gilded either by what is called chemical gilding, mercurial gilding, by electro-gilding (electro-plating), or by the application of gold-leaf. Copper and brass, for instance, may be gilded by the process called wash or water gilding, with an amalgam of gold and mercury. The surface of the copper, freed from oxide, is covered with the amalgam, and afterwards exposed to heat until the mercury is driven off, leaving a thin coat of gold.
Gilding is also performed by dipping a linen rag in a saturated solution of gold, and burning it to tinder, the black powder thus obtained being rubbed on the metal to be gilded, with a cork dipped in salt water, until the gilding appears. Iron or steel is often gilded by applying gold-leaf, after the surface has been well cleaned, and heated until it has acquired the blue colour which at a certain temperature it assumes. Several leaves of gold are thus applied in succession, and the last is burnished down cold.
One process of chemical gilding was by dipping the article into a solution of gold, what is termed Elkington's solution being composed as follows: 5 oz. (troy) of fine gold; nitro-muriatic acid, 52 oz. (avoirdupois); dissolve by heat, and continue the heat until the cessation of red or yellow vapours; decant the clear liquid; add 4 gallons of distilled water, 20 lbs of pure bicarbonate of potassa and boiling for two hours.
Gilding on wood, plaster, leather, parchment, or paper, is performed by different processes of mechanical gilding. The first of these is oil-gilding, in which gold-leaf is cemented to the work by means of oil-size. In the case of paper or vellum the parts to be gilt receive a coat of gum-water or fine size, and the gold-leaf is applied before the parts are dry. They are afterwards burnished with agate. Lettering and other gilding on bound books are applied without size. The gold-leaf is laid on the leather and imprinted with hot brass types. Brass rollers with thin edges are employed in the same way for lines, and similar tools for other ornaments. When the edges of the leaves of books are to be gilt they are first cut smooth in the press, after which a solution of isinglass in spirits is laid on, and the gold-leaf is applied when the edges are in a proper state of dryness.
Japanner's gilding is another kind of mechanical gilding, which is performed in the same way as oil-gilding, except that instead of gold-leaf a gold dust or powder is employed. Frames of pictures and mirrors, mouldings, etc, are gilt by the application of gold-leaf, or by the cheaper process of 'German gilding,' that is, by tin-foil or silver-leaf, with a yellow varnish above.
Porcelain and other kinds of earthenware, as well as glass, may be gilt by fixing a layer of gold in a powdered state by the action of fire. The gold-dust or powder required in this operation may be obtained by precipitating it from a solution in aqua regia, either by means of iron sulphate or proto-nitrate of mercury. In order that the gold powder may be applied to the surface of the article to be gilt it must be well mixed with some viscous vehicle, such as strongly-gummed water. It is then laid on with a fine camel's-hair brush. Research Gilding
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Artesian Wells
