Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 April 1887 — "Englyshe Undefylde." [ARTICLE]

"Englyshe Undefylde."

To Webster’s dictionaries more than to any or all other causes this nation owes its purity and unity of language, and yet in the spoiling of such words as "theater,” “center,” “meter,” etc., a few publishers of the present day retain the old fogy IS' orman French re, which “came in with the conqueroure.” If this is right, why not go back to the good old well of “Englyshe undefylde” of Chaucer ? Take his prologue to the,Canterbury tales, lines 181, 182: ‘‘This is to seyn, a monk out of his cloystre But thilk text liild he not worth an oy’stre.” Lines 300, 301: “But al though ho were a i>hiiosofre Yet had he butlltuigold in eofre.” We find also, propre, lettre, ordre, tendre, slendre (slender),suilre, slaughtre, membre, and many more such. - The Norman French itself being but corrupt Latin, we find the Latin pater, noster, vester, enter, and the like, changed to patre, nostre, vestre, entre, etc. beati,” etc., which in Norman French would be “Tre, quatre,” etc. But it is needless to multiply examples of this kind. The question is simply this: having changed the spelling of chambre,- cidre, ordre, gendre, etc., to chamber, cider, order and gender, is it not advisable to change the remaining dozen or so from metre, saltpetre, theatre, centre, etc., to meter, saltpeter, theater, center, etc. ? If not, why not ? And if ever, why not now? —Ex hange. In a paper on steam boilers, read befofe the Hcotch Institution of Engineers, the writer makes the statement that all qualities of iron get hard and brittle after the boilers have been at work more than a dozen years, more especially where exposed to the action of the fire; and that in the furnaces even Lowmoor iron becomes as brittle as common iron in that time, so that great care has to be taken in making repairs to prevent the plates from cracking. For this reason sixteen to seventeen years is long enough for a boiler to be in use at a pressure of forty to forty-five pounds, and if used longer the pressure ought to be lowered. Mention is made ia this connection of two boilers which had been in use some nineteen years, and on being taken in hand for repairs were found to be so brittle that the rivet heads on the outside flew off when the inside heads were struck, showing that the rivets had deteriorated as much as the plates. —4ry — : rrr ■ ■ ■■ « An electric low-water alarm, says an exchange, based upon a very simple principle, has been recently described before the American Institute. The apparatus consists of two gauge-cocks, a water gauge, a mercurial thermometer, two Leclanche cells and an electric bell. Two wires are inserted in the thermometer tube, and are connected with the battery and the bell. As the water in the boiler gradually lessens, steam; comes down through the upper; arm and gauge glass, and when a certain level is reached it enters also through the lower arm. Being hotter than the water, the increased temperature of the steam expands the mercury in the tube, and closes the circuit. The bell then, continues to ring until sufficient feed-water has been supplied; the feed-water being cooler, the mercury contracts, the circuit is broken, and the al arm ceases. Throw a bean into a street crowd and you strike talent; but you : can’t scoop genius with an extra size drag net.