A Catechism of Familiar Things; Their History, and the Events Which Led to Their Discovery. With a Short Explanation of Some of the Principal Natural Phenomena. For the Use of Schools and Families. Enlarged and Revised Edition.

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Ti­tle: A Cat­echism of Fa­mil­iar Things; Their His­to­ry, and the Events Which Led to Their Dis­cov­ery With a Short Ex­pla­na­tion of Some of the Prin­ci­pal Nat­ural Phe­nom­ena. For the Use of Schools and Fam­ilies. En­larged and Re­vised Edi­tion.

Au­thor: Ben­ziger Broth­ers

Re­lease Date: Septem­ber 20, 2005 [EBook #16728]

Lan­guage: En­glish

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[Il­lus­tra­tion: THE AU­RO­RA BO­RE­ALIS IN THE ARC­TIC RE­GIONS.]

A CAT­ECHISM OF FA­MIL­IAR THINGS;

THEIR HIS­TO­RY, AND THE EVENTS WHICH LED TO THEIR DIS­COV­ERY.

_WITH A SHORT EX­PLA­NA­TION OF SOME OF THE PRIN­CI­PAL_

NAT­URAL PHE­NOM­ENA.

FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS AND FAM­ILIES.

En­larged and Re­vised Edi­tion.

NEW YORK, CINCIN­NATI, AND ST. LOUIS: BEN­ZIGER BROTH­ERS PRINT­ERS TO THE HOLY APOS­TOLIC SEE.

COPY­RIGHT, 1881, BY BEN­ZIGER BROTH­ERS.

PREF­ACE.

This book, a reprint of a suc­cess­ful En­glish pub­li­ca­tion, has been so en­larged as to be to all in­tents and pur­pos­es new. It has been care­ful­ly re­vised by a Rev­erend gen­tle­man, who for some time filled the chair of Physics and Chem­istry in one of our col­leges.

Re­cent in­ven­tions and im­prove­ments are de­scribed in a sim­ple, pop­ular style, so as to be eas­ily un­der­stood by all, and short no­tices are giv­en of promi­nent in­ven­tors and sci­en­tists. The para­graphs re­lat­ing to doc­tri­nal mat­ters con­form in ev­ery re­spect to the teach­ings of the Church.

A fea­ture which will com­mend the book to ev­ery teach­er is the def­ini­tions of dif­fi­cult words and terms, fol­low­ing the para­graphs in which such words oc­cur.

Tech­ni­cal lan­guage is avoid­ed as much as pos­si­ble, so as to en­able young pupils to be­come fa­mil­iar­ly ac­quaint­ed with the var­ious phe­nom­ena of na­ture, the lead­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics and gen­er­al his­to­ry of the ob­jects of the an­imal, veg­etable, and min­er­al king­doms, and the fun­da­men­tal truths of the arts and sci­ences.

The il­lus­tra­tions are of a su­pe­ri­or or­der, and a very com­plete In­dex, which will be ap­pre­ci­at­ed by ev­ery teach­er, sup­ple­ments the book. In a word, no pains have been spared to en­hance the val­ue of the work, and ren­der it an im­por­tant aux­il­iary in the dis­sem­ina­tion of use­ful and en­ter­tain­ing knowl­edge.

The pub­lish­ers beg to ac­knowl­edge their obli­ga­tions to the Sis­ters of Mer­cy, Loret­to, Pa., to whose kind­ness they are in­debt­ed for many valu­able sug­ges­tions.

In the hope that the book may be found suit­ed to the ac­com­plish­ment of its aim, it is re­spect­ful­ly sub­mit­ted to schools and in­struc­tors of youth, who are the best judges of its mer­its.

CON­TENTS.

CHAP­TER

I. Dew, Wa­ter, Rain, Snow, Hail, At­mo­sphere, Wind, Light­ning, Thun­der, Elec­tric­ity, Twi­light, and the Au­ro­ra Bo­re­alis

II. Corn, Bar­ley, Pearl Bar­ley, Oats, Rye, Pota­toes, Tea, Cof­fee, and Choco­late

III. Cal­ico, Cot­ton, Cloth, Wool, Baize, Linen, Flax, Hemp, Di­aper, Hol­land, Can­vas, and Flan­nel

IV. Co­coa, Tod­dy, Cher­ries, Bark, Cork, Cochineal, Cloves, Cin­na­mon, and Cas­sia

V. Bom­bazine, Crape, Cam­let, Cam­bric, Lace, Silk, Vel­vet, and Mo­hair

VI. Cur­rants, Raisins, Figs, Rice, Sug­ar, Sug­ar Can­dy, &c., Sa­go, Mil­let, Gin­ger, Nut­meg, Mace, Pi­men­to or All­spice, Pep­per, and Cayenne Pep­per

VII. Glass, Mir­rors, Earth­en­ware, Porce­lain, Nee­dles, Pins, Pa­per, Print­ing, Parch­ment, and Vel­lum

VI­II. Ca­pers, Al­monds, Or­anges, Lemons, Cit­rons, Limes, Olives, Oils, Mel­ons, Tamarinds, and Dates

IX. Hats, Stock­ings, Shoes, Gloves, Leather, Furs, and Ink

X. As­bestus, Salt, Coal, Iron, Cop­per, Brass, Zinc, and Lapis Calam­inaris

XI. Yams, Man­goes, Bread-​Fruit, Shea or But­ter Tree, Cow Tree, Wa­ter Tree, Licorice, Man­na, Opi­um, To­bac­co, and Gum

XII. Spec­ta­cles, Mariner's Com­pass, Barom­eter, Ther­mome­ter, Watch­es, Clocks, Tele­scope, Mi­cro­scope, Gun­pow­der, Steam En­gine, and Elec­tro-​Mag­net­ic Tele­graph

XI­II. Soap, Can­dles, Tal­low Tree, Sper­ma­ceti, Wax, Ma­hogany, In­dia Rub­ber or Caoutchouc, Sponge, Coral, Lime, Car­bon, Oxy­gen, Ni­tro­gen, Gas, Hy­dro­gen, Chalk, and Mar­ble

XIV. Gold, Sil­ver, Lead, Tin, Plati­na, Sul­phur, Gems or Pre­cious Stones--as Di­amonds, Ru­bies, Emer­alds, Turquois, Pearls, Moth­er-​of-​Pearl, and Ivory

XV. Starch, Ar­row-​root, Tapi­oca, Isin­glass, Caviare, the Vine, Wine, Gin, Rum, Brandy, Vine­gar, In­di­go, Gam­boge, Log­wood, Tar, Pitch, Cam­phor, Musk, Myrrh, Frank­in­cense, and Tur­pen­tine

XVI. Bricks, Mor­tar, Gran­ite, Slate, Lime­stone, or Cal­care­ous Rocks, Steel, Earths, Vol­ca­noes, and Earth­quakes

XVII. Ar­chi­tec­ture, Sculp­ture, Use of Mon­ey, and Nav­iga­tion

XVI­II. Mu­sic, Paint­ing, Po­et­ry, As­tron­omy, Arts and Sci­ences, Art of Writ­ing, and Chem­istry

XIX. At­trac­tion, Tides, Grav­ity, Arte­sian Wells, Air, Aneroid Barom­eter, Ear-​Trum­pet, Stetho­scope, Au­di­phone, Tele­phone, Phono­graph, Mi­cro­phone, Mega­phone, Tasime­ter, Bath­ome­ter, Anemome­ter, Chronome­ter

XX. Light, Lime Light, Mag­ne­sium Light, Elec­tric Light, Rain­bow, Prism, Spec­trum, Col­ors, Pho­tog­ra­phy, Cam­era Ob­scu­ra, Stere­oscope, Kalei­do­scope

XXI. Elec­tric­ity, Elec­tric Cur­rents, Elec­tric Bat­tery, Elec­trotyp­ing, Stereo­typ­ing, Tele­graph, Ocean Ca­ble, Light­ning Rod, The Gulf Stream, The Mt. Ce­nis Tun­nel, The Suez Canal, Sus­pen­sion Bridges, Em­inent Amer­icans

A CAT­ECHISM

OF

FA­MIL­IAR THINGS.