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Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), B. (search)
A hydrometer so graduated as to determine the strength of ooze according to a given scale of proportions, water being zero. Bark Paper. Throughout Southeastern Asia and Oceanica the Broussonesia papyrifera, or paper mulberry, is a common tree, and its bark is capable, by soaking and beating, of assuming the appearance ofre-and-aft rigged, like a schooner. Bar′ra-can. （Fabric.) A thick, strong stuff, known by this and similar names in most of the languages of Europe and Western Asia. It is made in Armenia and Persia of camel's hair, like camlet, whose name also indicates that its material is derived from the same animal. The name has bee of Tartary wear red boots and yellow cloaks. They leave their boots in the vestibules of the temples. So do the Turks. The latter brought the practice from Central Asia. There bought a pair of boots; cost me 30 s. — Pepys, 1662. The boot and shoe making business, more particularly since the introduction of pegs, which<
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), C. (search)
rrupted file. —Huc's Travels in Tartary, 1844-46. As Strabo (19 B. C.) says: The rest of the countries of Asia are principally inhabited by Scenites (inhabitants of tents; Scythians) and nomads (hamaxoeci, dwellers in wagons), who dwell at a great distance. Chilian cart. Sometimes a wave breaks over the boundary, and the West sees an irruption of Huns, Tures, or Tartars; sometimes the head of the horde becomes a conqueror, as when Genghis the Khan conquered China, Persia, and Central Asia, A. D. 1206; or Timour (Tamerlane) conquered Persia, founded a dynasty in India 1402-1749, and broke the power of the Turcs in Asia Minor. The Chilian cart d is a good illustration of the primitive vehicle on wheels. Its wheel consists of disks sawn or chopped from a log and bored for the axle. The tongue or pole is secured to the axle and forms the frame of the bed, somewhat like a city dray. Enlargements on the centers of the wheels outside form hubs, to prevent the wobbling of t
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), F. (search)
t fabric. As these barbs all incline in one direction, the fibers can readily work into a mass of fibers, partially felted, butend foremost. This is called sizing, and is produced in napping hats. Felt probably preceded woven fabrics. In Central Asia, the home of the argali, from whence the domestic sheep has probably sprung, the clothing and tents of the people are yet, and have been since the first recorded times, felted fabrics. The latticed huts referred to by Herodotus and Aeschylus atin, cogo, coactus, whence coactilis). Lanae et per se coactae vestem ficiunt. Pliny. The principal use of felt among the Greeks and Romans was in the manufacture of caps and hats. (See hat.) The art of felting no doubt passed from Central Asia into Greece. In the time of Aristotle, besides the felt hats (petasi), the helmets were lined with felt (pilos) or sponge. The mantles of Circassia and Phrygia to this day are heavy, stiff, and rain-proof. Colonel Leake describes a postil
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), G. (search)
8 In France, military purposes7512.512.5 In France, sporting781210 In France, blasting621820 In Prussia, military purposes7513.511.5 Although the use of gunpowder in Europe can be traced back only to the middle or earlier part of the fourteenth century, yet it seems fully proved from various passages in ancient authors that it is one of those inventions whose origin is lost in the obscurity of a very remote antiquity. The fact appears indisputable that it originated in Central or Eastern Asia, where it was used for many ages previous to its introduction into Europe, where it appears to have been first made known by the Saracens. In a code of Gentoo laws occurs a prohibition against the use by the ruler of deceitful machines, poisoned weapons, and weapons of fire. To this document is assigned the date 1500 B. C. When Ghengis Khan invaded China, A. D. 1219, he carried with him ho-pao, or fire-tubes, which killed men and set fire to buildings. Passages in Quintius Curtiu
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), I. (search)
ere exposed to the air during the night, and in the morning placed in a pit or cellar and bound around with fresh or green plants which were moistened with water, and preserved their contents cool throughout the whole day. In the countries of Southern Asia a similar opinion and practice still prevails. So far, the conditions of evaporation have been the exposure of water in an atmosphere not saturated with moisture and preferably to air in motion. It may also be added that an artificial mott; sextant. In′dia-ink. A composition of lampblack and size. Said to have been formerly made from the pigment of the cuttle-fish. The ink of the Chinese scribe, used with a brush. In′di — an steel. A fine kind of steel, made in Southern Asia direct from the ore, and known as wootz. The natural steel of India. In′dia-pa′per. The name given to a paper made with one exceedingly fine surface, and used for taking the finest impressions of steel, steel-plate, and wood engravin
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), L. (search)
-frame. （Flax-manufacture.) A machine in which several slivers of carded tow from the breaker, or first carding-machine, are united in a lap and wound on a bobbin, from which they may be fed to the finisher-card. Lap′i-da-ry-mill. The grinding and polishing apparatus of the lapidary. See lapidary-wheel; lap. Lap′i-da-ry-wheel. The art of diamond-cutting was probably known in China and India at an early day, but the stone was little known among the ancients of Europe and Western Asia. Other varieties of stones were mounted and used in great numbers. Pliny refers to gem-cutting: How many hands are worn down that one little joint of our finger may be ornamented. The Arabians brought the diamond into notice. The discovery of the Brazilian mines in 1730 made it more common. Berghen of Bruges furnished the lapidaries' wheel with diamond-dust, enabling him to cut diamonds, as other stones were cut by the emery previously used. Diamonds were previously set in the rough<
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), M. (search)
id against a block of magnetic iron became attached thereto, and directed attention to the mysterious attraction. Thales, B. C. 640, discoursed on amber and the magnet, and supposed them to be living because they had a moving force. From Eastern Asia has been handed down the knowledge of the directive force and declination of a freely suspended magnetic bar; from Phoenicia and Egypt the knowledge of chemical preparations (as glass, animal and vegetable coloring substances, and metallic oxia year after Columbus's third voyage), in the expedition of Alonso de Hojeda. He could not have had any motive in feigning a voyage in 1497, for he, as well as Columbus, was firmly persuaded until his death that his discoveries were a part of Eastern Asia. For more than 20 years after his death, which took place in 1512, and indeed until the calumnious statements of Schoner in the Opusculum Geographicum, 1533, and of Servet in the Lyons edition of Ptolemy's Geography, in 1535, we find no trace
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), P. (search)
ce of the buttons on the chain to the beads of the rosary. The latter is an old invention of Central Asia, used by the Boodhists. See chain-pump. Pa′ter-nos′ter-wheel. A water-raising device d in those turbulent republics. The Balinese, the inhabitants of Bali, an island of the Malay Archipelago, write with a steel point on the lanter-leaf. The sacred books of the Brahmins and Budd claim our attention, after we have stated that the brush has been used for many centuries in Eastern Asia, and still holds its career of usefulness in forming the Chinese and Japanese letters. It hae of the various conquering races by which that country has been suc- cessively subjugated. Central Asia contains memorials of conquerors of various dynasties. c, Fig. 3611, is a portion of an in says, these are the very characters which, before 700 B. C., were common to all the races of Western Asia, from Egypt to the foot of the Taurus, and from the Mediterranean to Nineveh; which were used
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), R. (search)
turated with vapor on their arrival, tend to prevent precipitation. Thus the desert of Sahara, Egypt, Arabia, Southern Persia, and the great desert of Gobi in Central Asia, constitute a rainless tract embracing a considerable portion of the earth's circumference. The tablelands of Thibet and Mexico, parts of California, and the section. Rat-tan. (Malay, rotan.) The stem of a cane of the genus Calamus, especially used for making splints for chair seats and backs. It abounds in Southern Asia in moist situations, and the various species are used for banks for sails; cables, sometimes as much as 42 inches round: cords, withes, and walking-sticks; alsForms a basis of black varnishes, as Japan black, etc. Used with sand for paying material. Affords petroleum or rock oil. AssafoetidaNarthex assafoetida, etc.Central AsiaUsed as a stimulant and antispasmodic in medicine. Australian gum-resinsEucalyptus (various)AustraliaAffords resins for varnishes, and produces tannin. Tasman
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), S. (search)
was before the invention of parchment by Eumenes II. of Pergamos (197 B. C.). The use of the papyrus was local, though very ancient, and Pliny ( History of nature, Lib. XIII. ch. 11) was much mistaken in stating that it was not used before the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great, 332 B. C. Rolls of papyrus inscribed by a reed pen and a pigment are found in the mummy envelopes, and were common in ancient times. Bark is referred to by Pliny as common. Palm-leaves are yet used in Southern Asia for this purpose, the writing being done with an iron pen or pointed instrument, which etches through one of the layers of cellular matter on the leaf; coloring matter is then rubbed into the channels made by the stylus. Graven with an iron pen and lead. If this be the correct mode of analyzing the sentence, it refers to the mode of writing by a pointed instrument on a leaden tablet. Pausanius (Lib. XII. ch. 31), giving an account of the Boeotians, who lived near fount Helicon, sta
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