Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

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Excerpt #1, from The Radio Amateur’s Hand Book, by A. Frederick Collins

…it will, therefore, be neither positive nor negative, that is, it will be perfectly neutral. When, however, one or more of its electrons are separated from it, and there are several ways by which this can be done, the atom will show a positive charge and it is then called a positive ion. In other words a positive ion is an atom that has lost some of its negative electrons while a negative ion is one that has acquired some additional negative electrons. When a number of electrons are being constantly given by the atoms of an element, which let us suppose is a metal, and are being attracted to atoms of another element, which we will say is also a metal, a flow of electrons takes place between the two oppositely charged elements and form a current of negative electricity as represented by the arrows at A in Fig. 70. [Illustration: Fig. 70.–Action of Two-electrode Vacuum Tube.] When a stream of electrons is flowing between two metal elements, as a filament and a plate in a vacuum tube detector, or an amplifier, they act as carriers for more negative electrons and these are supplied by a battery as we shall presently explain. It has always been customary for us to think of a current of electricity as flowing from the positive pole of a battery to the negative pole of it and hence we have called this the direction of the current. Since the electronic…

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Excerpt #2, from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection, by Charles Darwin

…Professor Huxley, to discover a single case of an hermaphrodite animal with the organs of reproduction so perfectly enclosed within the body, that access from without and the occasional influence of a distinct individual can be shown to be physically impossible. Cirripedes long appeared to me to present a case of very great difficulty under this point of view; but I have been enabled, by a fortunate chance, elsewhere to prove that two individuals, though both are self-fertilising hermaphrodites, do sometimes cross. It must have struck most naturalists as a strange anomaly that, in the case of both animals and plants, species of the same family and even of the same genus, though agreeing closely with each other in almost their whole organisation, yet are not rarely, some of them hermaphrodites, and some of them unisexual. But if, in fact, all hermaphrodites do occasionally intercross with other individuals, the difference between hermaphrodites and unisexual species, as far as function is concerned, becomes very small. From these several considerations and from the many special facts which I have collected, but which I am not here able to give, I am strongly inclined to suspect that, both in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, an occasional intercross with a distinct individual is a law of nature. I am well aware that there are, on this view, many cases of difficulty,…

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Excerpt #3, from The Man with Two Left Feet, and Other Stories, by P. G. Wodehouse

…The trouble with the man was that he wouldn’t make an effort. He went out of his way to avoid meeting people. I was fond of the man. He was the sort of person you never get to know very well, but we had been together for quite a while, and I wouldn’t have been a dog if I hadn’t got attached to him. As I sat and watched him creep about the room, it suddenly came to me that here was a chance of doing him a real good turn in spite of himself. Fred was upstairs, and Fred, as I knew by experience, was the easiest man to get along with in the world. Nobody could be shy with Fred. I felt that if only I could bring him and the man together, they would get along splendidly, and it would teach the man not to be silly and avoid people. It would help to give him the confidence which he needed. I had seen him with Bill, and I knew that he could be perfectly natural and easy when he liked. It was true that the man might object at first, but after a while he would see that I had acted simply for his good, and would be grateful. The difficulty was, how to get Fred down without scaring the man. I knew that if I shouted he wouldn’t wait, but would be out of the window and away before Fred could get there. What I had to do was to go to Fred’s room, explain the whole situation quietly to him, and ask him to come down and make himself pleasant….

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Excerpt #4, from Ten Months in a German Raider: A prisoner of war aboard the Wolf, by Cameron

…would be ready. Immediately after breakfast the dishes were cleaned and the quarters given their regular daily clean up. Usually during the forenoon, after their work was done, the prisoners were allowed to go up on deck and enjoy the fresh air. Dinner at 12:30 noon, coffee at 3:30 P.M., and supper at 6:30. Very seldom was anybody allowed on deck after coffee. At 8:00 P.M. all lights were extinguished excepting three, one over the steps at the exit and two at the back of the quarters. The distribution of the fresh water was also very poor. Each prisoner was allowed half a gallon per day for washing, drinking and bathing purposes. This amount, properly conserved, will answer the purpose, but unfortunately the method of distribution was so poor that not all got their regular allowance; and the loss of this water caused the unfortunate ones great inconvenience, especially during the time that the Wolf was in the tropics. Many of the men used tea to brush their teeth in; and I have heard of cases where tea had been used for shaving purposes, but imagine these cases to be rare. While there, a Captain of a big British oil tank steamer that had been captured and sunk told me the following piece of history. I afterwards verified this and can vouch for its truth. While the Wolf was lying at Sunday Island undergoing repairs to her boilers, the prisoners were…

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Excerpt #5, from Mental Radio, by Upton Sinclair

…[Illustration: Fig. 79a] Now why should an obelisk go on a jag, and have little circles at its base? The answer appears to be: it inherited the curves from the previous fish-hook, and the little circles from the next drawing. You will see that, having used up her supply of little circles, Craig did not get the next drawing so well (Figs. 80, 80a): [Illustration: Fig. 80] [Illustration: Fig. 80a] In series twenty-two I first drew a bed, and Craig made two attempts to draw a potted plant. My second drawing was a maltese cross, and Craig turned it into a basket (Figs. 81, 81a): [Illustration: Fig. 81] [Illustration: Fig. 81a] But she could not give up her plant. She added: “There is a flower basket in this lot, or potted plant.” The next drawing was a fleur-de-lis, which looks not unlike a potted plant or hanging basket (Fig. 82): [Illustration: Fig. 82] In drawing four she got the elements of a door-knob pretty well, and added: “See head of bird, too—eagle beak.” Drawing seven was a crane, with beak open….

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Excerpt #6, from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated, by Alexandre Dumas

…seemed to cling to life, I was ordered to the South. Four men carried me from Paris to Châlons, walking six leagues a day; Madame de Villefort followed the litter in her carriage. At Châlons I was put upon the Saône, thence I passed on to the Rhône, whence I descended, merely with the current, to Arles; at Arles I was again placed on my litter, and continued my journey to Marseilles. My recovery lasted six months. I never heard you mentioned, and I did not dare inquire for you. When I returned to Paris, I learned that you, the widow of M. de Nargonne, had married M. Danglars. “What was the subject of my thoughts from the time consciousness returned to me? Always the same—always the child’s corpse, coming every night in my dreams, rising from the earth, and hovering over the grave with menacing look and gesture. I inquired immediately on my return to Paris; the house had not been inhabited since we left it, but it had just been let for nine years. I found the tenant. I pretended that I disliked the idea that a house belonging to my wife’s father and mother should pass into the hands of strangers. I offered to pay them for cancelling the lease; they demanded 6,000 francs. I would have given 10,000—I would have given 20,000. I had the money with me; I made the tenant sign the deed of resilition, and when I had obtained what I so much wanted, I galloped to Auteuil. No one had entered the house since…

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Excerpt #7, from The Book of Hallowe’en, by Ruth Edna Kelley

…She says in to hersel; He bleez’d owre her, an’ she owre him, As they wad never mair part; Till fuff! he started up the lum,[2] And Jean had e’en a sair heart To see’t that night." BURNS: Hallowe’en. [1] Careful. [2] Chimney. Three “luggies,” bowls with handles like the Druid lamps, were filled, one with clean, one with dirty water, and one left empty. The person wishing to know his fate in marriage was blindfolded, turned about thrice, and put down his left hand. If he dipped it into the clean water, he would marry a maiden; if into the dirty, a widow; if into the empty dish, not at all. He tried until he got the same result twice. The dishes were changed about each time. This spell still remains, as does that of hemp-seed sowing. One goes out alone with a handful of hemp-seed, sows it across ridges of ploughed land, and harrows it with anything convenient, perhaps with a broom. Having said: "Hemp-seed, I saw thee,…

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Excerpt #8, from Text Book of Biology, Part 1: Vertebrata, by H. G. Wells

…called the medulla oblongata, and passes without any very definite demarcation into the spinal cord. Section 120. Figure 1 is a corresponding figure of the actual state of affairs in the adult. The brain is seen in median vertical section. (ch.) is the right cerebral hemisphere, an inflated vesicle, which, in the mammal– but not in our lower types– reaches back over the rest of the fore-brain, and also over the mid-brain, and hides these and the pineal gland in the dorsal view of the brain (Figure 2). The hollow of the hemisphere on either side communicates with the third ventricle, the original cavity of the fore-brain (1 in Figure 5), by an aperture (the foramen of Monro), indicated by a black arrow (f.M.). Besides their original communication through the intermediation of the fore-brain, the hemispheres are also united above its roof by a broad bridge of fibre, the corpus callosum (c.c.), which is distinctive of the mammalian animals. The original fore-brain vesicle has its lateral walls thickened to form the optic thalami (o.th.), between which a middle commissure, (m.c.), absent in lower types, stretches like a great beam across the third ventricle. The original fore-brain is often called the thalamencephalon, the hemisphere, the prosencephalon, the olfactory lobes, the rhinencephalon. Section 121. The parts of mid-brain (mesencephalon) will be easily…

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Excerpt #9, from The Prince, by Niccolò Machiavelli

…declares himself in favour of one party against the other; which course will always be more advantageous than standing neutral; because if two of your powerful neighbours come to blows, they are of such a character that, if one of them conquers, you have either to fear him or not. In either case it will always be more advantageous for you to declare yourself and to make war strenuously; because, in the first case, if you do not declare yourself, you will invariably fall a prey to the conqueror, to the pleasure and satisfaction of him who has been conquered, and you will have no reasons to offer, nor anything to protect or to shelter you. Because he who conquers does not want doubtful friends who will not aid him in the time of trial; and he who loses will not harbour you because you did not willingly, sword in hand, court his fate. Antiochus went into Greece, being sent for by the Ætolians to drive out the Romans. He sent envoys to the Achaeans, who were friends of the Romans, exhorting them to remain neutral; and on the other hand the Romans urged them to take up arms. This question came to be discussed in the council of the Achaeans, where the legate of Antiochus urged them to stand neutral. To this the Roman legate answered: “As for that which has been said, that it is better and more advantageous for your state not to interfere in our war, nothing can be more erroneous;…

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Excerpt #10, from Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson

…amusement, “Ye’re no very gleg* at the jumping,” said he. * Brisk. At this I suppose I coloured with mortification, for he added at once, “Hoots! small blame to ye! To be feared of a thing and yet to do it, is what makes the prettiest kind of a man. And then there was water there, and water’s a thing that dauntons even me. No, no,” said Alan, “it’s no you that’s to blame, it’s me.” I asked him why. “Why,” said he, “I have proved myself a gomeral this night. For first of all I take a wrong road, and that in my own country of Appin; so that the day has caught us where we should never have been; and thanks to that, we lie here in some danger and mair discomfort. And next (which is the worst of the two, for a man that has been so much among the heather as myself) I have come wanting a water-bottle, and here we lie for a long summer’s day with naething but neat spirit. Ye may think that a small matter; but before it comes night, David, ye’ll give me news of it.” I was anxious to redeem my character, and offered, if he would pour out the brandy, to run down and fill the bottle at the river. “I wouldnae waste the good spirit either,” says he. “It’s been a good friend to you this night; or in my poor opinion, ye would still be…

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Excerpt #11, from Appletons’ Popular Science Monthly, March 1899, by Various

…more important modern languages and literatures. But in such institutions these subjects usually hold only a subordinate place. It can hardly be denied that generally throughout the country, even although the literary side of education still maintains its pre-eminence in our public schools and universities, it is losing ground, and that every year it occupies less of the attention of students of science. The range of studies which the science examinations demand is always widening, while the academic period within which these studies must be crowded undergoes no extension. Those students, therefore, who, whether from necessity or choice, have taken their college education in science, naturally experience no little difficulty in finding time for the absolutely essential subjects required for their degrees. Well may they declare that it is hopeless for them to attempt to engage in anything more, and especially in anything that will not tell directly on their places in the final class lists. With the best will in the world, and with even, sometimes, a bent for literary pursuits, they may believe themselves compelled to devote their whole time and energies to the multifarious exactions of their science curriculum. Such a result of our latest reformation in education may be unavoidable, but it is surely matter for regret. A training in science…

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Excerpt #12, from Radioisotopes and Life Processes (Revised), by Baserga and Kisieleski

…labeling it with a radioactive precursor, because the amount of m-RNA in a cell is very small. [Illustration: Figure 20 Diagram of ascending paper chromatography.] Quantitative Analysis Another important feature of RNA (or DNA, for that matter) is its base composition, that is, the percentage of each of the nucleotides that make it up. The four bases that, with ribose and phosphoric acid, comprise the RNA molecule are guanine, adenine, cytosine, and uracil. It will be noted that three of the four—guanine, adenine, and cytosine—are the same as those in DNA, but thymidine in DNA has been replaced by another base, uracil. To determine the percentage of each base in a given RNA molecule, we must digest RNA with alkali to produce mononucleotides, which are smaller molecules, each consisting of a base, ribose, and phosphoric acid. We can now separate the four nucleotides by using paper chromatography (see Figure 20). [Illustration: Figure 21 A paper chromatography showing separation of amino acids in two directions. Radioactivity in samples then produced this record by radioautography.] In this technique a mixture of compounds is deposited on the edge of a special type of paper. This edge is then immersed in a solvent that slowly permeates the paper (at a constant speed) by capillary action. As…

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