Gypsy Moth
the Bombyx dispar an insect abounding in central Europe, where it does much damage to trees.
Linnæus was the first to describe it. The eggs are laid in August and hatch in the spring in the trunks of trees, and on rocks and fences, the caterpillars feeding on plants and trees. After a few months the caterpillars, having attained their full growth, pupate, the moths emerging from the cocoon some weeks after. The insect was brought to America by Leopold Trouvelot, who was experimenting at Medford, Mass., with silkworms, and the specimens escaped. Twenty years later the damage caused by the caterpillars attracted public notice, and since that time, despite public measures taken to cope with the ravage, the gypsy moth has become a pest in many localities in Massachusetts. An effort was made by the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture to exterminate the insect, and was carried on over a period of ten years, at an expenditure of over a million dollars. The work was not thorough, however, and in recent years the presence of the moth has become so notice- GYROSCOPE able that public measures have had to be resumed to counteract the injury to plants, shrubs, and trees caused by it.
The Massachusetts Board of Agriculture has issued bulletins giving the results of the methods originated by it, and, in so far as these methods have been followed by the various municipalities that have been obliged to deal with the insect, they have borne fruit.
GYROGONITE (ji-rog'ō-nīt), the sporangium, or seed-vessel, of the flowerless plant-genus Chara. It is very rough and hard, consisting of a membranous nut, covered by an integument, both of which are spirally streaked or ribbed. is form.
The integument is ment is composed of fine spiral valves of a quadrangular for GYROSCOPE (jirō), an instrument constructed by M. Foucault, to make the rotation of the earth visible. The principle on which it proceeds is this-that, unless gravity intervenue, a rotating body will not alter the direction in which its permanent axis points. In the gyroscope there is a rotating metallic disk, the middle point of whose axis is also the center of gravity of the machine. By this A B GYROSCOPE A. Gyroscope.
B. Gyroscope as used in torpedo. device the action of gravity is eliminated.
The instrument, moreover, is so constructed that the axis of rotation can be made to point to some star in the sky.
Then, as the heavy disk whirls round, it is found that the axis continues to point to the moving star, though, in consequence of this, apparently altering its direction relatively to bodies on the earth. If, again, the axis be pointed to the celestial pole, which is fixed, no alteration in its position relative to bodies on the earth takes place. The only feasible explanation of these appearances is that the earth is revolving on its axis.
The gyroscope has been a valuable adjunct as a stabilizer in the making of aeroplanes.
H alphabet, commonly classed among the H, h, the eighth letter of the English consonants, though not strictly such. It is frequently called the aspirate, though other letters are also aspirated in English. Its distinctive or proper sound is that which it has at the beginning of a word, as help, hard, hope, etc. This sound it also has when following w, as in whither, where, in which cases it originally preceded the w, as in Old English, hwidir, hwær. H has disappeared from many words, es Old English, hlaf=loaf; Old Engespecially before bef 1, n, r: as, Old En
United States Military Academy in 1889, Ind., in 1863. He graduated from the and in the same year was appointed 2d lieutenant of the 1st Artillery. During the Spanish-American War he acted as captain and acting quartermaster of volunteers, and was honorably discharged from the volunteer service in 1901. In the same year he was appointed captain of the Artillery Corps. He was promoted through the various grades, becoming colonel in 1916. In 1917 he was tional Army, and commander of the 57th appointed brigadier-general of the Nafrom many words, especially before 1, n, lish, hwidir, hwær. H has disappeared ring; Old English feoh=fee. It has been intruded into lish hnecca=neck; Old English hring= thine; joined with p it forms the sound chill; sh in shin, ship; th in this, that, symbols in the alphabet; as, ch in child, senting sounds for which there are no other consonants to form digraphs repre- whelk, whelm. H is commonly joined to intruded into some words as wharf, ring; Old English feoh=fee. It has been into some words as wharf, senting sounds for which there are no symbols in the alphabet; as, ch in child, chill; sh in shin, ship; th in this, that, thine; joined with pit forms the sound of f; with g it sometimes forms the sound of f, as in enough, tough; sometimes the digraph is silent, as in bough, plough.
The words derived from the Greek, where the combination rh is found only in h represents the rough breathing of the original rh. Ch is common in words derived from the Greek, and in such cases is generally hard, as chemistry, chyle, etc. It sometimes represents the Latin c, Greek k, as in English horn Lat. cornu, Gr. keras. grandson of exclusively Norwegian king since 1380.