Baker, William

MUMFORD (pen-name George F. Harrington), a Presbyterian clergyman and novelist, born in Washington, D. C., in 1825. While pastor in Galveston, 1850-65, he wrote, in secret, Inside: a Chronicle of Sece ion, and subsequently published The New Timothy (1870), His Majesty Myself (1879), Ble ed Saint Certainty (1881), The Ten Theophanies, 1883, etc. Pastor in South Boston (1874-83). Died in 1883. Bakers field, in California , a town, cap. of Kern co. It has a considerable general trade and is surrounded by a fruit growing district. Pop . 1890, 2,626. Ba'king Powders, substances used for bread making in place of veast, and, like the latter, giving off carbon dioxide or carbonic acid gas, whose effect is to expand or puff up the ma of dough. B. P. are usually composed of tartaric acid and bicarbonate of soda. By the action upon these of the water and the dough a chemical change takes place, the result being tartrate of soda and carbon dioxide. The tartaric acid is often replaced by cream of tartar, or acid pota ium tartrate, the reaction in this case yielding carbon dioxide and rochelle salts. Bicarbonate of ammonia is occasionally used instead of that of soda, while other substances are at times employed to replace the more expensive tartaric acid. Alum is one of the most common of these, though much objection to its use has been made, it and its products being considered as po ibly injurious to health. Most baking powders contain acid phosphate of calcium, which causes the formation of some compounds in addition to those named, though none of a harmful nature. Baking powders have in great measure replaced yeast in household bread-making, and their use has grown to enormous proportions. Ba'kou, Continued from SEC. I. The growth of the Ru ian oil metropolis of Bakou has been phenomenal. Thirty years ago it was a sleepy town of some 1,400 inhabitants, its principal reason for existence being its po e ion of the ancient temple of Zoroaster, which for many centuries had made it a sacred resort for pilgrimages of the fire-worshipers of Asia. It is now a flourishing city of over 100,000 inhabitants, and is rapidly increasing. This growth has two causes. The first is the magnificent harbor which it presents on the Caspian. The second and principal is the fact of its being the commercial centre of the great petroleum industry of Southern Ru ia. The existence of naphtha deposits in this region has long been known, and attempts were made to establish refineries here as early as 1823, but the first succe was attained in 1859, and the first in B. was built in 1865. Since then the industry has had a phenomenal development and the town has prospered in accordance therewith. The great petroleum wells are about 8 miles northeast of B., and although there are many other important oil fields in Ru ia, B. almost monopolizes the industry. Formerly, it was so enveloped in dense clouds of black smoke that it became known as the "black city." This has been overcome by the proce of burning the smoke and the removal of the refineries beyond the city limits; but the soil is so saturated with oil that danger of fire from gaseous emanations is constant, and many serious conflagrations have occurred. As a result, B. is not a desirable place of residence, and is largely given over to a commercial population. The crude naphtha is carried from the reservoirs at the wells (the largest of which can hold 600,000 poods216,000 pounds) in pipes to the city, whose workshops and refineries extend far along the shores of the Caspian. The latest statement gives the annual yield of the wells at about 40,000,000 barrels, which is not greatly le than that of the American wells. The oil from B. is transported 400 miles by rail to Batoum, on the Black Sea, where is constantly a large fleet of ve els to convey it to its various markets.