General Information (B)


Babel
The
tower of Babel was built by the people of Babylon in an attempt to reach heaven.

Babelavante
Babelavante is an old term from the Middle Ages for a bad joke.

Bacampicillin Hydrochloride
Bacampicillin hydrochloride is a drug used to treat upper and lower respiratory
tract infections; urinary tract infections and skin infections. It has the possible side effects of: Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, glossitis (inflammation of the tongue), stomatitis (inflammation of the mouth), hypersensitivity (rash) and itching.

Baccarat
Baccarat is a gambling card game.

Backgammon
Backgammon is an old board game also called tric trac,
tavla or tables.

Background noise
In electronics, background noise is the aggregate of random noise in a sound-reproducing system, arising from such causes as radio interference,
valve and other circuit noise, record scratch, etc. and not from the signal being reproduced.

Bacon
Bacon is the side or back of pork which has been preserved by salting and drying.

Badminton
Badminton is a game played on a rectangular
court by two players, or two pairs of players, with light rackets used to volley a shuttlecock over a high net that divides the court in half.

Badminton
Badminton is a game played on a
court divided in half by a 30 inch deep net five feet above the ground.

Baffle
A baffle is a rigid structure, such as a sheet of sound-insulating material, used to improve the distribution of
sound waves.

Bagpipe
The bagpipe is a Scottish musical instrument.

Bakelite
Bakelite is a strong synthetic material resistant to heat and chemicals.

Balalaika
A balalaika is a stringed
Russian musical instrument.

Baldric
A baldric is a
belt used to support a sword or bugle.

Ballad
A ballad is a narrative song.

Ballistics
Ballistics is the theory of missile projection.

Balloon
A balloon is a bag filled with gas.

Ballot
A ballot is a method of secret voting.

Balun
Balun is a shortened term derived from BALanced to UNbalanced
transformer. A balun is often used in radio to allow the connection of an unbalanced cable to a balanced aerial system.

Banjo
A banjo is a stringed musical instrument.

Bank Of England
The Bank Of England was projected by William Paterson, a Scottish merchant, to meet the difficulty experienced by
William III in raising the supplies for the war against France. 40 merchants subscribed 500,000 pounds towards the sum of 1,200,000 pounds to be lent to the government at 8 per cent., in consideration of the sunscribers being incorporated as a bank. A royal charter was granted in 1694 appointing Sir John Houblon the first governor and the bank commenced avtive operations on the 1st of January 1695.

Banns
In the feudal law, banns were a solemn proclamation of any kind; hence arose the present custom of asking banns, or giving notice before marriage.

Barbitone
see "
Veronal"

Barge
A barge is a type of long narrow flat bottomed
boat.

Barium
Barium is a metal
element of the alkaline earth group with the symbol Ba.

Barometer
A barometer is a device for measuring
air pressure.

Baron
Baron is an
English peerage title.

Barque
A barque is a type of masted sailing
ship.

Barquentine
A barquentine is a 3 mast sailing
ship.

Barrel
A barrel is a dry and liquid measurement that varies with substance.

Basalt
Basalt is the name given to
lava. It is high in ferrous and magnesian silicates.

Baseball
Baseball is the national game of
USA.

Basin
In geography, a basin is a drainage area of a river and its confluents.

Basket
A basket is a woven container.

Basset-horn
A basset-horn is a tenor
clarinet.

Bassoon
A bassoon is a wooden double-reed wind musical instrument invented in the 16th century by Afranio.

Bathometer
A bathometer is an apparatus invneted by William Siemens in 1861 to measure the depth of
water without submerging a sounding line. Its action depends on the diminution of the effect of gravitation on the surface of the water as compared with its effect on the earth, owing to the mass of water (of less density) which replaces earth (of greater density); which is duly registered.

Baud
Baud is a unit of
computer etc. signalling speed. The speed in Baud is the number of discrete conditions or signal elements per second. If each signal event represents only one bit condition, then Baud is the same as bits per second. Baud does not equal bits per second.

Bauhaus
Bauhaus is a
German institution for training architects, artists and industrial designers founded in 1919 at Weimer.

Bay
In geography, a bay is a broad open indentation in a coast-line.

BBS
A BBS (Bulletin Board System) is a communicating
computer equipped so as to provide informational messages, file storage and transfer and a degree of message exchange to dial-up data terminal or personal computer users.

BCD
BCD (Binary Coded Decimal) is a binary-coded notation in which each decimal digit of a number is expressed in binary form; Example: 23 decimal is 10111 in binary, and 0010 0011 in BCD.

Beat-frequency Oscillator
A Beat-frequency Oscillator (B.F.O.) is a device for generating oscillations of approximately sinusoidal waveform by combining two radio-frequency electrical oscillations of different frequencies.

Beaufort scale
The
beaufort scale measures wind speed at sea.

Becquerel Rays
Becquerel Rays was a name originally given to the radiations emitted by
radioactive substances, and now distinguished as Alpha Rays, Beta Rays, and Gamma Rays.

Beer
Beer is a drink of fermented
hops, malt and barley.

Bellini-Tosi Aerial
A Bellini-Tosi
aerial is an arrangement of two large fixed-frame aerials mounted at right angles to each other and used in conjunction with a radiogoniometer in radio direction finding.

Bellows
Bellows are apparatus for creating a draught.

Belt
A belt is a flat strip of material worn around the
waist.

Benedictine
Benedictine is a
green liqueur.

Bengal Hemp
see "
Sunn Hemp"

Benzene
Benzene is a distillate of
petroleum used in dry cleaning.

Benzine
Benzine (benzole) is a
compound of hydrogen and carbon, discovered by Faraday in the oils of portable gas in 1825 and obtained by Mitscherlich from benzoic acid in 1834, and by Mansfield from coal tar in 1848 (he also died as the result of burns sustained while experimenting with benzine).

Benzole
see "
Benzine"

Beryllium
Beryllium is an alkaline metal
element with the symbol Be.

Bessemer converter
The bessemer converter is a process for making cheap
steel. Basically, impurities are removed from the pig iron by blasting air through the molten metal and adding lime to remove phosphorus from the metal. The process takes about twenty minutes.

Beta Particles
Beta Particles are electrons travelling at velocities up to 99 per cent of the
velocity of light, such as are emitted from the nuclei of the atoms of radioactive materials.

Beta Rays
Beta rays are streams of high-velocity
beta particles travelling at speeds approaching that of light.

Betatron
A betatron is an apparatus for accelerating electrons to very high velocities by means of a periodic magnetic field, thus producing "artificial"
beta rays.

Bezique
Bezique is a card game using some of two packs of cards.

Bhang
Bhang is an Indian drink prepared from the leave and shoots of the
hemp (cannabis) plant.

Bicycle
A bicycle is a two wheeled vehicle.

Bight
In geography, a bight is a
shallow even indentation in the sea coast, often of great width.

Bikini
The Bikini is a two-piece item of women's swim-wear. It was invented in 1946 by a
French designer and was called the ''bikini'' after the atom bomb test at bikini atoll, the premise being that the bikini was as small as an atom, and the results were explosive! When first revealed, no professional model could be found to model such a revealing item of clothing, and so a cabaret dancer was hired to model the first bikini.

Billiards
Billiards is a game played with two white balls and one red ball and a cue on a
slate bed table. One of the white balls has two black spots on it, this ball is called the spot-ball and is used to start the game.

Biotin
see "
Vitamin H"

Bise
The bise is a dry north wind prevalent in
Switzerland and southern France.

Bitter
Bitter is a taste sensation caused by stimulation of the gustatory
nerve.

Bitters
Bitters is an
alcoholic beverage of sugar herbs and alcohol.

Bitumen
Bitumen is a natural inflammable pitchy
hydrocarbon.

Black Feet
The Black Feet are a north American Indian tribe.

Black Friday
Black Friday was the name given to a commercial panic in
London on the 11th May 1866 through the stoppage of Overend, Gurney and Co. who were committed to trial for conspiracy to defraud. On Friday 21st November 1890 a temporary panic was produced by the embarrassments of the Baring Brothers.

Black Monday
There have been many dates dubbed ''Black Monday'', but the first was
Easter Monday, 14th April 1360, ''so full dark of mist and hail, and so bitter cold that many men died on their horsebacks with the cold.'' The day on which a number of English were slaughtered at a village near Dublin in 1209. The day of panic in 1745 when the Scottish rebels were reported to have arrived at Derby, and the Bank of England paid in sixpences.

Blackhead
A blackhead is dirt blocking a pore that often causes
acne.

Blanket
A blanket is an extensive covering. Often a warm bed covering.

Bloom
A bloom is a lump of puddled
iron, which leaves the furnace in a rough state, to be subsequently rolled into bars or whatever.

Bloomer Costume
The
Bloomer costume was a style of dress adopted around 1849 by Mrs Bloomer of New York. It consisted of a jacket with close sleeves, a skirt reaching a little below the knee, and a pair of Turkish pantaloons secured by bands around the ankles.

Blue peter
The blue peter is a flag flown by ships as they are about to sail.

Bluefish
The bluefish is a
fish found off the east coast of north America.

Board of Green Cloth
The Board of Green Cloth was an ancient
court in the department of the lord-steward of the household with jurisdiction of all offences committed in the verge of the court. It was abolished in 1849.

Boat
A boat is transport for conveyance across
water.

Bog
Bog is the name given to soft spongy land.

Bohea
Bohea is an inferior kind of black
tea.

Boiling To Death
Boiling To Death was made a capital punishment in
England by Henry VIII in 1531 as a result of seventeen people being poisoned by Richard Rosse, the bishop of Rochester's cook, two of whom died. Margaret Davy, a young woman was similarly executed in 1542 for a similar crime. The act was repealed in 1547.

Bolero
The bolero is a Spanish
dance of the ballet class for couples or a single female dancer. It is a slow step with much waving of the arms.

Bolometer
A bolometer is an electrical instrument, invented by
Langley, which is sensitive to radiant heat, and who used it to make discoveries in the utra red rays of the spectrum.

Bolt-ropes
Bolt-ropes were ropes used to strengthen the sails of a
ship.

Boltzmann's Constant
Boltzmann's constant is the ratio of the mean total enery in a
molecule to its absolute temperature.

Book of the Dead
The Book of the Dead was an ancient
Egyptian collection of religious texts for guiding the departed soul safely through the dangers of the Amenti, the lower world. A copy of the work was placed with the mummy in his tomb.

Boopsy
Boopsy is a Jamaican term for a man who supports a woman materially, and yet receives no sexual gratification in return (being boopsed). Hence the expression; ''
Mi a no boops!'' which translates as ''I am not a boopsy''.

Bootikin
A bootikin was a wood and
iron boot used in torture to extract confessions from the victim. Wooden wedges were hammered between the leg and the boot with a mallet so as to crush the victims bone.

Bootstrap Loader
A bootstrap loader is a
computer input routine in which pre-set operations are placed into a computer that enable it to get into operation whenever a reset condition occurs; in electronic PBXs this may be called Automatic Program Loading or a similar term; in personal computers it is the sequence that searches predetermined disks for a Command Interpreter program, then a Configure System file; finally an Autoexecution Batch file.

Bore
In geography, a bore is a tidal wave produced in river estuaries by the rapid narrowing of the channel.

Boric acid
Boric acid is an
acid of borax found naturally.

Boron
Boron is an
element with the symbol B found in borax.

Bort
Bort is a powdered form of
diamond.

Boston
The Boston is variation of the
waltz danced in very slow time against the rhythm of the music.

Bournous
A bournous is a hooded garment worn in
Algeria, and introduced to England and France in a modified form in 1847.

Bovril
Bovril (Ox-strength) is a preparation of lean
beef from which the water, about 75 per cent., has been excluded; and the albumen and fibrine, the nutritive parts retained by processes gradually invented by Lawson Johnston, who began his experimental researches in Canada in 1872.

Bowline
The bowline is a non-slip
knot.

Braccae
Braccae were an early trouser-like garment worn by the ancient Britons at the time of the
Roman Invasion.

Bran
Bran is the outer covering of wheat
grains.

Brandy
Brandy is an
alcoholic beverage of distilled wine.

Branks
A branks was a kind of bridle constructed of
iron bands, acting as a gag, formerly used in England and Scotland as an instrument of punishment for scolds and slanderous women. The culprit was paraded through the streets by the bellman, beadle, or constable, or chained to the market cross where she was exposed to public ridicule.

Brass
Brass is an
alloy of copper and zinc.

Brig
A brig is a two masted sailing
ship.

Brigantine
A brigantine is a 2 mast sailing
ship.

British Gum
see "
Dextrin"

Brocade
Brocade is a silken stuff, variegated with
gold or silver, and enriched with flowers and figures. It was originally made by the Chinese, a manufacturing plant was established in Lyons in 1757.

Bromide
see "
Potassium Bromide"

Bromine
Bromine is a non-metallic
element with the symbol Br. It is a poisonous voltaile liquid which was first discovered in salt water by Balard in 1826.

Bronchitis
Bronchitis is a chronic inflammation of the
bronchial mucous membrane.

Brontometer
A brontometer is an apparatus for measuring thunderstorms invented by
Richard, of Paris in 1890.

Bronze
Bronze is an
alloy of copper and tin.

Brunswick Theatre
The
Brunswick Theatre was a theatre in Well-street, east London. It was built in 1828 to replace the Royalty which burned down in 1826. Four days after opening it was destroyed by the walls falling in as a result of too much weight being attached to the heavy iron roof. The catastrophe occured during a rehearsal of ''Guy Mannering'' killing twelve people.

Bubo
Bubo is a swelling in the groin due to inflammed lymph nodes.

Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace is the
London residence of the British royal family. It was built by John Sheffield, duke of Buckingham, in 1703. In 1761 it was bought by George III who in 1775 settled it on his queen, Charlotte who made it her town residence.

Buckram
Buckram was a coarse
textile fabric stiffened with glue and used in garments to give them and to keep them in the form intended.

Buckskin
Buckskin is a soft form of
leather.

Bude Light
The bude light was a very bright gas
lamp invented by Mr Gurney who lived in Bude, Cornwall. The bude lamp fed a stream of oxygen into the flame of an argand-lamp or gas-burner.

Buff
Buff is the stout velvety dull-yellow
leather of buffalo or ox hide.

Buff Leather
Buff leather is a type of
leather made from the skin of buffalo and other oxen. It is dressed with oil and used for making bandoliers, belts, pouches and gloves amongst other items.

Bugle
A bugle is a
brass musical instrument.

Bulimia
Bulimia is a disorder in which the patient has a morbidly voracious appetite. It is certainly not a new disorder, for it was known of in 1906.

Bulkhead
A bulkhead is an upright partition dividing watertight compartments of a
ship.

Bullion
Bullion is
gold or silver in bars, plates or other masses which has not been minted

Bum-boat
A bum-boat is a small
boat used to sell produce to ships lying at a distance from the shore

Bunion
A bunion is an inflamed swelling on the foot, especially at the
joint of the great toe.

Burking
Burking is a form of murder involving killing the victim by pressure or other modes of suffocation so as to leave no mark of violence on the body. It was first known to be used by
Burke who was executed in 1829.

Burl
A burl is a
knot. The term is used in veneering to refer to an overgrown knot in the wood.

Burnt Sienna
Burnt Sienna is the popular name for Terra di Sienna, a brown
ferruginous ochre used in painting, and obtained from Italy. Before being used as a pigment it is calcined, and hence the name Burnt Sienna.

Burwell Fire
The
Burwell Fire occured in a barn at Burwell, near Newmarket on 8th September 1727. A number of people had assembled to see a puppet-show in the barn when a candle set fire to a heap of straw. Seventy-six people died at the scene and others died later of their injuries.

Busby
A busby is a head-dress worn by British
army hussars.

Bushel
The bushel is a unit of capacity measurement equivalent to 4 pecks, 8 gallons or 3.637 dekalitres. It is also used a measure of weight for apples, equivalent to about 40
lbs. Henry VIII ordered that a bushel should hold eight gallons of wheat in 1520.

Bushels
see "
Bushel"

Butane
Butane is an
alkane inflammable gas by product of petroleum.

Butte
A butte is an isolated abrupt flat-topped hill found in the west
USA.

Butterine
Butterine, a composition of fats as a substitute for butter was first sold in
London in 1885. By the Margerine Act of 1887 it changed its name to margerine.

Buttress
A buttress in architecture is a pier built against the exterior of a wall.