Baking=Powders

Chemical substances used in¬ stead of yeast in bread-making, their action being to give off carbonic acid gas, which puffs up the dough, or causes the effect called “rising.” They are usually composed of tartaric acid and bicarbonate of soda. A chemical action takes place in these in contact with the wet dough, aud the gas is given off. Other substances are used, alnm being common, though it is thought to be injurious also acid phosphate of calcium. The use of baking-powders has grown enormously in recent years, aud yeast is little used. machine used for weighing. The common bal¬ ance consists of a beam supported at its middle point, having two scale-pans of equal weight hung from its extremities. The object aimed at in its construction is to secure delicacy and rapidity in weighing. Of other forms of lever, the Roman balance, or steelyard, consists of a rod suspended from a fulcrum, so that the two arms are of un¬ equal length. The subs i., uce to be weighed is sus¬ g the shorter which is graduated to indicate quantities. This form of balance is in use at railway stations for weighing luggage and loaded carts. The spring balance shows the weight of a body by the extent to which it stretches a spiral spring. and filled with light gas, coal gas being now gen¬ displaces. A car, supported by a network at¬ tached to the balloon, carries the aeronauts; when they wish to ascend more quickly, they throw out some of the ballast, which consists of bags of sand when they wish to descend, they open a valve at the top, wdiich allow'S some of the gas to escape. Ascents have been made to determine the pre ure and temperature of the air at different heights. In some cases balloons have risen to a height of five miles, and in one instance to seven miles. Balloons have been used as aids in war, and are now being applied in flying machines. substance, of resinous character, which under the name of Balm of Gilead has long been famous in the East for its fragrance and medicinal virtues. It is the product of a shrub growing in Arabia and Egypt. The word balsam, when used alone, now signifies the balsams of Peru aud Tolu, a viscid and very fragrant liquid, obtained from two species of South American trees. They are used to flavor confectionery, also in per¬ fumery, and as stimulants and tonics in medicine. Balsam of Canada is the liquid resin of Abies balsamea, a species of fir. There is also a genus of trees iu the East Indies and Japan known as balsam, of which some species are of great beauty and are widely grown elsewhere. (See Gums, Resins.) It is a most useful and graceful plant. Ils stem is hollow7, and at intervals it forms joints or knots; and its flow7cr is enclosed in scales, as in the common gra . It grows everywhere in the tropics—in China, India, and the valleys of the Andes. There are many kinds—the most com¬ mon being from 40 to 80 feet long, and of any thickne up to 20 inches. Many stems rise from the same root or from the higher joints. Young shoots contain a sweet pith, and are eaten as asparagus. With the stem the Malay builds his house, and furnishes it with chairs, tables, beds and bedding of the same material. It is made into sails, cables, hats, paper, fishing-rods, pipes, bridges, flutes, handles of tools and wea¬ pons, buckets and bottles. same name, belonging to the same family as the plantain. Its 'leaves are about 6 feet long, and its fruit grows in great bunches and is a most important food in hot countries. Its fibre is used for shoe-strings and for ropes of all kinds. The banana was probably first grown in the Bast Indies, but is now much cultivated in the West Indies and in tropical America. Its produce is enormous, being estimated on an acre as 133 to 1 of wheat. A plant of the same genus, in the Phillipine Islands, yields the well known and very useful fibre named Manila hemp. calico handkerchief with patterns or white spots. The handkerchiefs are pre ed between hydraulic plates with holes or patterns, and the bleaching fluid poured into these holes pa es through and produces the spots or patterns. tree of India, and one of the wonders of the vegetable world. It is of the Fig family, and is called the Indian fig. Its seeds carried by the wind or dropped by birds are often deposited in the crowns of palms, and send down roots which become stems, in time taking the place of the palm. These grow’ to trunks from 60 to 100 feet in height, from whose branches in time, pendu¬ lous adventitious roots descend to the ground and in their turn become stems. This proce continues until a single tree spreads over acres of ground and becomes a w’ood in itself. At Nerbudda, India, there is a tree writh 354 large trunks and 3,000 small ones, which is inhabited by great numbers of birds, fruit-bats and mon¬ keys, the latter eating the leaves as well as the fruit. 'I he Brahmins of India hold the tree in great reverence, and build their temples in its vicinity.