The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-12-20
Things You
Ought to Know

THEORY OF THE PUMP: Air, though
comparatively light. is positively heavy,
having a weight of its own. A square
inch of it carried from the surface OF
the earth to the top of the atmosphere
is no less than fifteen pounds in weight.
1t is this weight of the atmosphere. Is
pounds on every square inch, that pushes
water into the void left by the updrawn
piston of a pump. There is, Of course.
a limit beyond which it cannot push the
water-namely, the point of heighth at
which column of water in the pump
tube is exactly balanced by the weight
of the atmosphere 1t is just question Of
balance; Is pounds can support only 10
pounds-a thing which everybody under
stands nowadays, thanks to Calico, Tor
ricelli land Blaise Pascal, the seer. the
dscoverer, and the vertifier of the fact.
! NOISE IN SHELLS or the roar of the
seas as heard in them, is caused by the
hollow form of the shell and its polished
surface, enabling it to receive and return
the beatings of all sounds that chance to
be trembling in the air around the shell.
FORMER UNION OF AFRICA AND
EUROPE: Africa, hat line of desert
sand, rises abruptly out of the sea in a
tremendous tumble. backed by the eter-
nal SHOWS of the Atlas. Two continents
lie before US; we have reached the ex-
tremities of the ancient world, the separ-
ated continents stand aloft: they were
once united; dreary sea now flows be-
tween them and separates them forever.
IT. - II IL,
not exceed twelve miles across and their
gradual widening is historically certain.
That the two continents were united is
proven by geographical evidence Tradition
refers the cutting through the isthmus to
Hercules, that is, to a canal opened by
the Phoenicians. who were acquainted
with those of Suez and Sesostris. Scylax.
who wrote five centuries before Christ,
estimated the breadth at half q mile;
Euccemon, who wrote one hundred years
after Scylax, at four miles; Turranius.
Gracilis, Spaniard who lived on the
spot three centuries later is quoted by
PIiny, at FIVE; Livy and Cornelius Nepos
at six.-Quarterfy Review.
THE GLOVE is the unexpanded flower
bud of the Caryophyllus, aromaticus. 1t
has been brought into the European mar
ket for more than two thousand years.
The plant is a native of Moluccas and
other islands in the Chinese sea. "A fine
tree has been known to- yield hundred
and twenty-five pounds of this spice in
single season; and as five thousand
cloves only weigh one pound there must
at least have been $4,000 flowers upon
thiss ingle tree" says Brunette.
APPLES have been believed by some
to have been introduced into Italy from
Media. and that the Falisci. or inhabi-
tants of Montefascone. were the first to
plant them in rows. But this must apply
to some particular variety. not to the
species. declares a horticultural journal
Pliny enumerates twenty-three varieties,
which appear still more difficult TO iden-
tifv with ours than the pears. Among
the few that modern authors have recog-
nized, the Appiani of the Romans are
supposed to be the Apple or Appiode Of
modern Italians, the Appia pyriformis to
be the Appialona lunga. the Syriaca rub
errima to be the red Calvetto. In more.
Tuscany. Michili describes ffty-six sorts
under the Medici princes, ffty-two OF
which are figured by Costello.