Part 54

Why Do People Shake Hands With the Right Hand?

In the days of very long ago when all men were prepared to fight at any and all times because one could not know whether another approaching was a friend or an enemy, all men went armed. This was before the day of guns when the sword was the great weapon of defense.

Upon occasion when one man approached another, each had to decide whether the other came on a peaceful mission or not.

People in those days were mostly right handed as they are now and when fighting carried their swords in their right hands.

If, then, a man wished to speak with a stranger or, as might easily be necessary, to one who may even be known to be unfriendly, he put out his right hand upon approaching to show that he had no deadly or dangerous weapon in it. The other man could see this and knew from the extended open hand that no harm was intended and that the approach was peaceful. If, then, he was willing to meet the other, he also extended his right arm with the hand open to show him who was approaching that his fighting hand was empty also; and when they met each would grasp the hand of the other so that neither one could change his mind and assume a fighting attitude without the other having an equal warning.

How Did the Custom of Clinking Glasses When Drinking Originate?

In the days of the Roman gladiators, before a duel with swords, it became the custom of each of the participants to drink a glass of wine before fighting. Just before the fighting commenced two glasses of wine were brought and the gladiators drank. These two glasses of wine were provided by the friends of either one or the other of the gladiators. To guard against treachery, through some over zealous friend of the fighters furnishing poisoned wine was necessary. So before drinking and to show there was no treachery, the gladiators came close together and poured wine from one glass into the other back and forth until the wine in the glasses was thoroughly mixed. If the wine in one glass then had been poisoned, the poisoned wine would thus be in both glasses, and if there had been any treachery, both gladiators would be poisoned if they drank. The wine was poured from one glass to the other to show that there was no treachery.

This custom continued in use for a long time until the idea of drinking before a fight was abandoned. The custom, however, of showing friendliness in this way while drinking continued for a long time. Later it became a mere custom, however, to show a friendly spirit toward the one who was drinking with you, and when the danger of poisoned wine was past, the actual act of pouring the wine from one glass to another was changed to merely touching the glasses together. Thus today we have the friendly custom of touching glasses together long after the necessity of guarding against treachery while drinking has passed.

Why Cannot Fishes Live In the Air?

It is a curious thing isn’t it that if a boy falls into the water, he will drown if he cannot swim or someone does not help him out, and that if a fish falls out of the water onto the land, he will drown also, even though he knows how to swim, better than anything else he does. A boy cannot secure the air which he needs to live on if he is under the water, because there is not enough air for him there and a fish cannot secure enough air for him to live on when he is on land where the air is plentiful, because, the boy takes his air from the air itself and the fish gets his air out of the water.

To live by breathing the air we find on or above the land, it is necessary to have lungs and fishes do not have lungs. In the case of the boy under the water he would have to have gills to enable him to make use of the air which is in the water to live by and he has no gills.

A fish can only live a little while out of the water, but even so he can live longer out of the water than a boy can under the water.

Lest you read sometime of the flying fish and think they must be able to live out of the water, I will tell you before you ask the question that the flying fish never stays out of the water for more than a few seconds at a time. His flying leaps amount to little more than long leaps from wave to wave. He swims along very fast in the water, coming right up to the surface and out into the air and the speed at which he has been swimming regulates the distance he will go when he shoots into the air, as he has no means of propelling himself through the air, but only into it. He has, however, wing-like fins, which he spreads out when in the air and which enables him to glide through the air and thus remain in the air longer.

What Makes a Fish Move in Swimming?

This is a puzzling question, I am sure. Of course, you at once cause several other questions as soon as you ask this one such as the following: Does the water in front of him move out of the way and then close in behind him? If so, where does it go in the meantime? Does the fish move the water forward or up or down or what does he do?

The answer is, of course, in the movements of the fish’s tail. The fish in swimming is surrounded with water, top, bottom and all sides of him. The pressure of the water on the fish is the same at all points so that any motion made by him would have a tendency to make him move. As a matter of fact the tail in moving from side to side creates a current in the water from the head to the tail, or rather would produce an actual current if the fish remained perfectly still. Instead of making an actual current of water, the body of the fish is moved forward.

As to whether the water ahead of him opens up first and then the water behind him is a more difficult question to answer. To the appearance it would seem as if the water moved at both ends and sides at once, but according to scientific theory, the water at the head of the fish is displaced first.

Why Are Birds’ Eggs of Different Colors?

This is a wise provision of nature to help the mother birds hide her eggs away from the eyes of her enemies. In the animal kingdom every kind of life is the natural prey of some other kind of animal. A bird will have enemies which try to catch her as food. A bird cannot fight back, so must fly away when danger threatens, in order to save her life. This means that she must leave the eggs in the nest for the time being. At certain times she must also leave her nest and search for food for herself. In order that the eggs so left alone may have a better chance of not being discovered, nature has arranged matters so that the eggs take the color very much of the surroundings in which they are laid. Eggs of some birds are spotted or look like pebbles, because the mother bird lays them in the sand. Some of them are green, almost the color of the materials from which the bird builds the nest, and so the colors have a real, and to the birds, a valuable purpose.

Why Does a Hen Cackle After Laying an Egg?

The hen cackles because she is glad. She is glad because she has just accomplished something, which she was put on earth to do. If you study the life on the earth carefully with this in mind, you will discover that all kinds of life give expression in some form of gladness, when they have performed the things they are on earth for. It’s the hen’s way of expressing herself and letting the chicken world know. The dog wags his tail when he is pleased; boys and girls jump up and down when they are pleased, whether they have been doing anything commendable or not. No doubt also the actual laying of the egg causes some discomfort to the hen and the corresponding feeling of gladness would come naturally after the discomfort disappeared.

Why Will Water Run Off a Duck’s Back?

The reason that water runs of a duck’s back, is that the feathers of ducks are oily and, as water and oil will not mix, the water runs off instead of soaking in. The feathers on a duck are so thick on the body of the duck, top and bottom, that even if it were not for the oil which is on the feathers the water would have some difficulty in soaking through the feathers. But the main reason why the feathers on a duck’s back cause water striking them to run off is that the duck has an oil gland which is constantly producing grease or oil and which the duck uses in giving his feathers a thin coating of oil to make them slick with oil and when any water strikes the duck it runs off. Other birds which live in the water a great deal have this oil gland for the same reason.

THE STORY IN A STEEL RAIL

Molten iron is brought from the blast furnaces to the open-hearth furnaces, and dumped into a receptacle called a mixer, the capacity of which ranges from 400 tons to 1000 tons, depending upon the number of furnaces to be served.]

Pictures in this story by courtesy of Bethlehem Steel Co.

Charging Side of an Open-hearth Furnace.

An open-hearth furnace consists of a long, shallow hearth, suitably enclosed in fire-brick, and bound together with steel binding. The furnace is heated by burning gas and air, which have previously been preheated, so that a temperature is obtained in the furnace ranging from 2900 to 3050 degrees Fahrenheit.]