Student and Schoolmate (Volume 21-22) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: very intense. The success of our army in the use of fire-arms during the war, depended upon the oxygen of the nitre combining at a high temperature with the carbon and sulphur of the gunpowder, thereby producing gaseous substances suddenly, to send forth the messengers of death. The following diagram will explain the chemical changes of the firing of gunpowder. Gunpowder.- 3 atoms of Carbon I Atom of Sulphur, ( Sulphide of ( I atom of Potasslum, . ( Potassium. Nitre. ? I atom of Nitrogen,. . Free, Gaseous. Carbonic Acid Gas. ' 6 atoms of Oxygen, . M. B. Manwaring. THE CITY OF LONDON. In London the houses number more than 350,000, and the streets, if placed in line, would extend from Liverpool to New York, and are lighted at night by 660.000 gas lamps, consuming every twenty-four hours about 13,000,000 cubic feet of gas. Of the water supply 44,383, 328 gallons are used per day. The traveling public sustains 5000 cabs and 1500 omnibuses, besides all the other sorts of vehicles which human need can require or human wit invent. Its hungry population devour' in the course of every year, 1,609,090 quarters of wheat, 249.000 bullocks, 1,700,000 sheep, 28,000 calves, 35,000 pigs, 10,000,000 head of game, 3,000,000 salmon, and innumerable fish of other sorts, and consume 43.209,000 gallons of beer, 200,000 gallons of spirits, amd 65,900 pipes of wine. As a consequence, 2,400 doctors find employment. London, finally, supports 852 churches, which are presided over by 930 divines of greater or less note. It is also computed that the average extension of London is at the rate of two miles of finished buildings per day. The need of this rapid construction can be estimated when it is known that the railroad improvements projected, and now being constructed, will, du...