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The Ansonia, a 17-story structure, which occupies an entire block on Broadway, New York, between 73d and 74th streets, is said to be the largest apartment building in the world. Some idea of the magnitude of the hotel may be formed from the fact that it contains no less than 2,500 rooms above ground, and consumed more than three years in its construction. The building is supplied with many modern and novel arrangements for heating, ventilation, and the supply of hot and cold water. The basement is a veritable repository of 20th-century inventions. Here are a storage, repair and charging room for automobiles; a grocery, where everything in the line of edibles and household necessaries may be obtained by the tenants at current prices; a meat market, bakery, milk depot, barber shop, laundry, ladies' hair dressing and manicuring parlors, safe deposit vaults, cold storage rooms for furs, and other conveniences. There is also one of the largest swimming pools in New York, which it is intended to use for a swimming school. The cheapest bachelor suites in the building rent for $600 a year, and consist of one room and a bath. The family apartments range in size from five to fourteen rooms, with bath, and the rent varies from $1,500 to $6,000 a year. These are rates for unfurnished rooms, and give a pretty good idea of the cost of living in style in the metropolis. CHRONOLOGY OF ELECTRICAL DISCOVERIES Alessandro Volta discovered the electric current, 1800. Sir Humphrey Davy produced an arc light, 1810. Induction discovered by Faraday, 1831. First electric road built by Thomas Davenport, of Brandon, Vermont, 1885. Automobile invented by Davenport, 1885. Wheatstone and Cooke invented a system of telegraphy, 1835. Zinc-copper battery invented by Daniell, 1835. Submarine cable laid across the Hoogly river, 1839. First Morse telegraph line constructed, 1844. Royal House discovered method for printing by telegraph, 1846. Automatic repeaters invented, 1848. First long submarine cable laid in British channel, 1850. First successful Atlantic cable laid, 1858. James Elkington invented system of electrolytic copper refining, 1865. Stearn's duplex telegraph system introduced, 1872. Edison introduced a quadruplex system, 1874. First modern electric road built by George F. Greene, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1875. Telephone invented by Bell and Gray, 1875. Continuous current dynamo discovered by Gramme, 1876. First telephone exchange operated at New Haven, Connecticut, 1878. Incandescent lamp invented by Edison, 1879. First central lighting station established in New York, I880. Storage battery, or accumulator, invented by Plant6, 1882. First practicable trolley line built by J. C. Henry at Kansas City, Missouri, 1884. The Siemens brothers built the first European electric road in Berlin, 1884. Electricity first used on elevated roads in New York, 1885. First long-distance, high-voltage power-transmission plant installed at Pomona, California, 1892. Telautograph invented by Elisha Gray, 1893. Heavy trains moved by electric locomotive in Baltimore, I895. The X-ray discovered by Dr. Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen, 1895. Road automobile came into general use, 1897. Wireless telegraphy developed by Guglielmo Marconi, 1899. Transatlantic telephony made possible by Dr. I. M. Pupin, 1900. Marconi talked across the Atlantic without wires, 1901. Improved storage battery for automobiles invented by Edison, 1901. DERIVATION OF WORDS STANDING FOR MONEY The derivations of the words relating to money and commerce are interesting and instructive. "Pecuniary" takes us back to the times when values were, reckoned by so many head of cattle ("pecus"). The word "money" is from "moneta," (MONEY), because in Rome coins were first regularly struck in the temple of Juno Moneta, which again was derived from monere (to warn), because it was built on the spot where Manlius heard the Gauls approaching to the attack on the city. Coin is probably from the Latin "cuneus," a die or stamp. Many coins are probably so called from their weight, as, for instance, our pound, the French livre and the Italian lira; others, from the metal, as the "aurens;" the rupee, from the Sanscrit "rupyra," silver, others from the design, as the angel, the testoon, from teste or tete, a head; others from the head of the state, as the sovereign, crown; others from the proper name of the monarch, such as the daric, from Darius, the Philip, Louis d'or, or the Napoleon. The dollar, or thaler, is short for the Joachimsthaler, or money of the Joachims valley, in Bohemia, where these coins were struck in the 16th century. Guineas were called after the country from which the gold was obtained, and the "franc" is an abbreviation of the inscription "Franco-rum Rex." The "sou" is from the Latin, solidus. The word "shilling" seems to be derived from a root signifying to divide. In several cases the name indicates the fraction of some larger coin as the denarious, half penny, farthing, cent and mull. The pound was originally not a coin, but a weight, and comes from the Latin, pondus. Our pound was originally a pound of silver, which was divided into 240 pennies. The origin of the word penny is unknown. Some have derived it from pendo, to weigh. Our word "sterling," is said to go back to the time of the conquest. Some have supposed that it was first attributed to coins struck at Stirling; others, that the name was derived from coins having a star on the obverse. The most probable suggestion is that it has reference to the Easterling or North German merchants. HOW SPECTACLES ARE MADE The white lens in use in the ordinary spectacle of commerce is made of the common window-pane glass rolled in sheets; sometimes it is made into balls. From these are cut pieces of from 1¼ to 1½ inches in size, which are taken into the grinding room, and each piece is cemented separately upon what is called a lap, of a semi-circular shape. These are made to fit into a corresponding curve or saucer, into which fine emery powder is introduced, and subjected to a swift rotary motion. The gradual curve in the lap gives to the glass as it is ground a corresponding shape, until the desired center is reached; the lap is then taken out and subjected to warmth, which melts the cement sufficiently to permit the glass being removed and turned upon the opposite side, when the same process is renewed. This being completed, the lenses are detached again from the lap and taken to another department, where they are shaped to fit the f rames. This is accomplished by a machine of extreme delicacy. Each piece of glass is put separately upon a rest, when a diamond is brought to bear upon it, moving in the form of an oval, thus cutting the desired size; but the edges, of course, are rough and sharp and must be beveled. For this purpose they are turned over to another set of hands, mostly girls, who have charge of the grindstones, which are about six inches in thickness. Each operator is provided with a gauge. The glass is taken between the forefinger and thumb, and held sufficiently sidewise to produce half the desired bevel. When this is attained it is again turned, and the other side of the bevel completed. During this process it is constantly gauged in order to be sure that the frame will close upon it without too much pressure, which would break the lens. The next process to which the lens is subjected Is that of focusing, and it requires extreme care. The person having this department to attend to is placed in a small room, alone. Across the entrance is hung a curtain, which is only drawn aside sufficiently to admit the required amount of light from a window several feet away. Upon one of the top panes of the window is placed a piece of heavy cardboard, with a small hole cut in the center, representing the bull's eye of a target. Through this the rays of light shine upon the lens in the hands of a workman, and are reflected through it to a dark background. The lens is then moved back and forth upon an inch measure, until the proper focus is attained. Say, for instance, the extreme end of the measure is 62 inches, the lens is placed at that, but does not focus; it is gradually moved along, inch by inch, until, perhaps, it is brought to 36 inches. At this the proper center, or focus, is attained, and it is then numbered 36. The same operation is of course necessary with every lens. This accounts for the numbers which are upon spectacles, or glasses of any kind, when purchased. THE OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN THE WORLD |