The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-07-16
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.

- A-oN@A1 ~ AO0A
p~entine to one part of beeswax
Which are the four or five Oldest colleges
in the United States?-E.
William and Mary. founded in 1917; Har-
ward University. 1886: Yale University, 100;
University of Pennsylvania, 174O; Princeton
University. 1746.
When did the steamship Great Eastern
hrst arrive in New York harbor?-Anxious.
On June %. 1860. having been eleven days
in crossing the Atlantic. She started the
previous September. but put back owing to
an explosion Of steam pipes.
-S:-
What will take a flesh mole off the face?
Beauty.
There are several preparations that are
said to remove moles. but none, so far as
We know, that is entirely safe for self
treatment. You had better advise with a
physician.
What were the names of the ships in
Deweys- fleet and the number of men on
each?-M.J j. s.
The Olympia, flagship, 429 men: Balti-
more. 3S6 men; Boston, 2s4: the Raleigh,
BIZ; Concord. 1913. and the Petrol. 132. Be-
sides these there were the revenue cutter
McCulloch. the storeship Narstan and the
collier Zafro.
In almost every English novel the serv-
ants OF the house, at some period of the
story; are put on board wages" what are
board wages?-R. n. T.
Board and lodging in lieu of wages. The
family is always away, you will notice,
when the servants are put on board wages,
and the idea is that, as the servants are
doing no work, they should not receive
working pay.
Are ostriches natives of America. and do
they set In hen fashion Phi. l..
The South American rhea is
called an ostrich. though he has three toes
to two for the foot of the African bird and
differs anatomically in other respects. The
males set, usually at night. the eggs being
left to the suns warmth during the day.
The male rhea attends to the young chicks.
too, for a time.
Is there any truth in the statement that
there are fish which can give any one
touching them an electric shock?-O. V.
Yes; there are at least fifty marine ami
mails that have this power. Most of them
belong to the eel or ray families. Faraday
declared that one species could give a
shock equal to that of fifteen highly
ClldIScu htyutH jars. II mas not Deen
discovered that this remarkable power is
used in any way as a defense.
~
Did builders among the a~ncients employ
arches such as are used nowadays?-Henry.
The arch principle was known to the
ancients. but the earliest arches were made
crudely and the Intel system answered most
demands. Rude arches are found in Egyp-
tian pyramids that date back twenty CEN
turtles before Christ. The Romans used the
arch extensively, but the Greeks. though
knowing its usefulness, retarded it's devel-
opment because they did not allow i'm
portant curved lines to be visible in their
structures.
1 am told that I have a pterygium in each
eye. My friends claim that there is no such
disease known. Please tell us something
about it?-J. ID. M.
There is such a development of the eye.
Medical works describe it as "a circum-
scribed v~aricose excrescence of the conjunc-
tive or the su~bconjunctival tissue You
may not have ii as bac as that. In plain
English. a %pterygium is an abnormal growth
of the eye. 1t develops slowly. may in time
affect the sight. and is removable by a
painless operation.
Please give the names of the islands that
the United States now own. 2. What are
trusts and how did they originate?-E. b.
The Philippines. the Hawaiian group,
Guam and Porto Rico are the ones acquired
recently. 2. They are trade combinations
OF firms or corporations in similar lines of
business intended TO control that line. They
had their origin in England fifty years ago.
but have. perhaps. reached their greatest
development in this country; certainly most
all of the laws on the subject are to be
found in the statutes of this country and
Canada.
H.
What is meant by the factor of safety In
a building?-Prent.
The ratio of strength to actual strain. For
structures supporting quiet loads, the factor
of safety is usually about four for wrought
iron and steel. six for cast iron, eight for
timber. and fifteen for masonry. Where
shocks are to be withstood, as in bridges and
machinery. the factor is a great deal higher.
The factor of safety varies so much. any
how, owing TO different grades of materials
and varying Judgment of builders. that it is
sometimes styled the factor of ignorance.
The term is passing out of use with engi-
neers.
How many typewriters have been put on
the market?-A. S. V.
We do not know, but a great many. The
typewriter developed quite as gradually as
do other elaborate mechanisms. The ear
lest one recorded was invented by an Eng
lish engineer n patented in 1714. II was
not perfected and no description of ii exists.
The first for this country was a crude ma
chine devised by William Austin Burt. of
Detroit, who also invented the solar COM
pass. Later machines that were far better
than these were practically useless, because
1t was impossible to get speed out OF them.
Typewriter mechanics are now wrestling
with the problem of a machine that shall
write in books.
How many soldiers did Spain have in the
field in the late war with the United States?
2. What is the smallest country in Europe.
by whom 1t is ruled. and how is il bounded?
ID. 5.
SPANS army In Cuba. including 5000
troops in Porto Rico. was reported in Sep
TENDER of 1897 as POI, S12 men. but her lighting
force was not nearly so many. On Nov. so,
1885, there remained in Cuba 1900 men. 2.
The smallest of Europe's independent prin-
cipalities is Monaco. 1t has a sovereign
prince, a standing army of seventy-five men.
its own courts. coinage and postage stamps,
and Is supported by the revenues of the
gaming tables az Monte Carlo. 1t Is almost
surrounded by the easternmost department
of France.
When did the United States first have an
arMy? . What has been the standing army