The Wonder Book Of Knowledge Part 28

The term "aestivation" has been used to describe a similar condition into which certain animals, such as serpents and crocodiles, in tropical countries pa.s.s during the hottest months of the year.

How do Peanuts Get in the Ground?

Peanuts are really the seeds or pods of a plant belonging to the family called the earthnut in Great Britain, the nuts there being used chiefly to fatten swine. The peanut-stand so commonly seen on street corners here is kept well supplied by the extensive cultivation of peanuts in the United States, mainly in the South, and in several tropical countries.

As most people have discovered, the nuts have a much more agreeable taste after being roasted. They also yield an oil which is often used for olive oil, and very good "peanut b.u.t.ter" is now made by grinding them up and mixing them with oil.

The peanut plant, or groundnut as it is also called, has a hairy stem and the leaves usually grow in sets of two pairs each, on the extreme end of each little branch-stem. The pod or nut is situated at the end of a separate stalk, which is longer than the leaf-stems, this stalk having the peculiarity, after flowering, of bending down and pushing the fruit into the earth. After the peanuts have reached their full growth, they are dug up very much in the same way as potatoes, a machine potato digger now being extensively used for this purpose.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MACHINE POTATO DIGGER DIGGING PEANUTS]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PICKING PEANUTS BY HAND]

How did Your State Get Its Name?

Alabama is named after the Indian word which means "Here we rest;"

Alaska comes from the Eskimo word "Alakshak" or "Alayeska" and means "The main land;" Arizona is the result of the Indian word "Arizonac,"

meaning "small springs" or "few springs;" and Arkansas is sort of a mixture of the Indian "Kansas," which means "smoky water," and the French prefix "arc," meaning "bow" or "bend."

California comes from the Spanish words "Caliente Fornalla," or "hot furnace;" Colorado, also from the Spanish "colored," from the red color of the Colorado River; and Connecticut, in Indian, means "long river."

Delaware was named after Lord De la Warr; Florida originated from the Spanish "Pascua de Flores," which means "Feast of Flowers," because it was discovered on Easter Day; Georgia was called after King George II of England; and Hawaii is a native name peculiar to the natives there, although Captain Cook called it part of the "Sandwich Islands" after Lord Sandwich.

Idaho is Indian, meaning "Gem of the Mountains;" Illinois is another mixture of Indian and French, the Indian word "illini" and the French suffix "ois" meaning "tribe of men;" and Indiana and Iowa are both plain Indian, the former standing for "Indians' land," and the latter, "beautiful land."

Kansas and Kentucky are Indian, too, Kansas meaning "smoky water" and Kentucky "at the head of the river," or "the dark and b.l.o.o.d.y ground;"

and Louisiana is named after Louis XIV of France.

Maine and Maryland each come from abroad, Maine being called after the Province of the same name in France, and Maryland after Queen Henrietta Maria of England, consort of Charles I; while Ma.s.sachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi and Missouri are all from the native Indian language, meaning, in the order in which they are given, "place of great hills," "fish weir," "sky-tinted water," "great father of waters" and "muddy;" and Montana traces back to the Latin word "monta.n.u.s," meaning "mountainous."

Nebraska is another Indian name, and means "water valley;" while Nevada is Spanish, meaning "snow covered;" New Hampshire and New Jersey are both from across the water, the former after Hampshire County in England, and New Jersey after the Island of Jersey at the time when Sir George Carteret was its Governor; New York and both North and South Carolina were also named after monarchs abroad, New York after the Duke of York in England, and the Carolinas after Charles IX of France; while North and South Dakota bring us back to the Indian language again, meaning "allies."

Ohio and Oklahoma are both Indian, too, Ohio meaning "beautiful river,"

and the latter, "Home of the red men;" while Oregon is from the Spanish word "oregano," which stands for the wild marjoram, a plant abundant on the coast; Pennsylvania traces back to the Latin, meaning "Penn's woody land;" the Philippine Islands come from the Spanish words "Islas Filipinas," after King Philip; and Porto Rico is also Spanish, from "Puerto Rico," meaning "rich port."

Rhode Island is called after the Island of Rhodes; Tennessee, Texas and Utah are all Indian, Tennessee meaning "river with the great bend,"

Texas coming from several different forms of very old Indian language, meaning "friends," and Utah after the tribe by that name, also called the "Utes;" Vermont is from the French, meaning "green mountains," and Virginia is called after Elizabeth, the "Virgin Queen" of England.

Washington gets its name from a good, straight American source--George Washington; West Virginia is so called because it was formerly the western part of Virginia; and Wisconsin and Wyoming are both Indian, the former meaning "gathering of the waters," and the latter, "great plains."

The Story of Coal Mining

An interesting story is told in an English book by Edward Cressy, of the great coal strike in 1912. Many factories and workshops had to close for want of fuel. A workman from one of these, on reaching home, purchased a sack of coal and set it up against the back door. Then he sat in the kitchen, in which there was no fire. From time to time, when he felt chilly he got up, flung the sack of coal across his shoulders and ran around the yard until he became warm. That was his way of saving fuel.

He was only doing in his own fashion what all engineers and manufacturers are trying to do in other ways all the year round.

The extent to which all manufacture and transport, all industry there, was paralyzed during the strike, shows the complete dependence of modern life upon fuel. In spite of the fact that in Great Britain nearly 240,000,000 tons of coal are raised annually, a temporary stoppage of supply threw all the ordinary machinery of existence out of action and revealed the magnitude of the debt that the world owes to those who win precious stores of fuel from the depths of the earth.

Probably no industrial operation excites more widespread interest, when accorded publicity, than the mining of coal, and that because of the dangers which attend it. The annual list of victims buried beneath a falling roof, or mangled by runaway cars, causes little comment, but every now and then the world is startled by an appalling catastrophe in which hundreds of men lose their lives. From the early days when growing industry demanded more coal, inventors have been busy devising all sorts of safety appliances for the miner.

The original safety-lamp, with which practically everyone is familiar, is the parent of scores of others, each claiming to offer some special advantage. All sorts of mechanical devices to prevent overwinding--an accident which would fling the cage with its coal or human freight out of the pit mouth--have been invented, and every section of the work has been made as safe as human ingenuity and human skill have been able to make it. But the number of disastrous explosions has not been materially reduced.

Many varieties of coal give off a gas known as marsh-gas or fire-damp.

This is inflammable and, when mixed with air, violently explosive. It is the presence of this gas that necessitates the safety-lamp. There are a few kinds of mines which evolve no gas, and in these naked lights are used. But all mines must be ventilated by forcing air through them with a fan, and this air must be in sufficient quant.i.ty to keep the percentage of gas below a dangerous standard. Most mines are examined at regular intervals by a "fireman" who can estimate approximately the percentage of gas present by the size of the faintly luminous "cap"

which hovers above the flame of his lamp.

Explosions have occurred, however, in cases where it is extremely doubtful whether gas has been present in dangerous quant.i.ty, and attention has been drawn to the possible causes. Many varieties of coal produce a quant.i.ty of fine dust which settles in the roadways, on roof, and sides, and floor. For many years there has been a controversy as to the relative importance of gas and dust in producing explosions, and the question is still one which gives rise to a lively difference of opinion. But there is no doubt that a mixture of coal-dust and air is explosive, and that even if an explosion is started by gas the disturbance creates clouds of dust which gives rise to secondary explosions and spread the disaster over a wider field than was originally affected.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Courtesy of the Link-Belt Co., Chicago._

HANDLING COAL

Four-ton grab buckets operating on the four bridge-tramways pick up the coal from the hold of lake steamers and deposit it either on the dock or in cars. The four machines can be moved to any part of the dock to which steamers are moored and four ships can be unloaded rapidly at one time.

The motive power is electricity.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Courtesy of the J. M. Dodge Co._

STORING COAL

A 480,000-ton anthracite coal storage plant. Coal cars are dumped into hoppers under the tracks and the coal carried to the top of the piles by conveyors. It is reloaded into cars by other conveyors operating at the base of each pile. This system has been of great value in preventing a shortage of coal during strikes.]

Consequently a plan has been evolved for the ventilating current to be reversed periodically, in order to remove dust which has settled on the side of timbering and crevices, and the roadways to be watered in order to allay the dust. A plan has also been tried of spreading fine stone-dust in the roadways. This mixes with the coal-dust and renders it less inflammable.

Unfortunately the disastrous effects of an explosion do not end with the explosion itself. The main products of combustion, whether of fire-damp or coal-dust, are carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. The latter causes suffocation and the former is a dangerous poison. It is the dreaded "after-damp" of the miner. Those who survive an explosion are therefore in danger of suffocation or poisoning, and it becomes imperative to restore the circulation of the air with the least possible delay. For even if the fan has escaped injury, fallen portions of the roof may have choked up some of the roadways, or the explosion may have torn down doorways and provided a short cut for the air. But if the atmosphere is dangerous for men in the pit at the time, it is equally dangerous for others to go down and effect repairs or render first aid.

The work of the rescue party is therefore a labor of desperate heroism and often attended by additional loss of life. It has recently been found possible to reduce the dangers of after-damp by providing rescue parties with respirators fitting over the mouth and nose, and supplied with oxygen from two steel bottles of the compressed gas strapped across the back. An effective apparatus of this kind, such as has been adopted by the United States Government for the use of the Bureau of Mines Rescue Crew, is shown in the accompanying ill.u.s.tration. The bag in front is known as a "breathing bag" and has separate compartments for the inhaling and exhaling, the tube at the right leading to the former and that at the left to the exhaling compartment, which usually contains sticks of caustic soda to absorb the carbon dioxide exhaled by the wearer.

Coal is largely formed from vast ma.s.ses of vegetable matter deposited through the luxuriant growth of plants in former epochs of the earth's history. In the varieties of coal in common use the combined effects of pressure, heat and chemical action upon the substance have left few traces of its vegetable origin; but in the sandstones, clays and shales accompanying the coal the plants to which it princ.i.p.ally owes its origin are presented in a fossil state in great profusion and frequently with their structure so distinctly retained, although replaced by mineral substances, as to enable the microscopist to determine their botanical affinities with existing species. Trees of considerable magnitude have also been brought to light.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SECTION OF PART OF A COAL-FIELD, SHOWING A SUCCESSION OF BURIED TREES AND LAND SURFACE

_a_, sandstones.

_b_, shales.

_c_, coal-seams.

_d_, under-clays or soils.]

The animal remains found in the coal-measures indicate that some of the rocks have been deposited in fresh water, probably in lakes, while others are obviously of estuarine origin, or have been deposited at the mouths of rivers alternately occupied by fresh and salt water. The great system of strata in which coal is chiefly found is known as the carboniferous.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MINE SAFETY CREW]

[Ill.u.s.tration: MINE RESCUE WORK

Upper view, Bureau of Mines Rescue Crew in safety helmets, ready to enter a gas-filled mine. Lower view, resuscitating a victim overcome by gas by means of the oxygen reviving apparatus.]