Binghamton
city and county-seat of Broome co., N. Y., at the junction of the Chenango and Susquehanna rivers, and on several railroads; 50 miles E. of Elmira. It occupies a site more than 850 feet above tide water, and both rivers are here spanned by several bridges. The city has excellent street, sewer, and water systems. It has libraries, parks, hospitals and banks. The noteworthy buildings include the State Asylum for the Insane, United States Government Building, State Armory, court house, city hall, orphan asylums, the Commercial Travelers' Home, an opera house, and the Casino. The leading industries are the manufacture of boots and shoes, motors, cigars, cotton goods, and clothing. Other important manufactures are scales, chemicals, furniture, sheet metal work, glass, gloves, s, and refined oils. An interesting feature of the city is the large number of cottages owned by the working people. Binghamton received a city charter in 1867. Pop. (1910) 48,443; (1920) 66,800.
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Binnacle
corrupted from bittacle, a wooden case or box in which the compass on board a ship is kept to protect it from injury. A light is placed within it at night to insure that its indications are seen. It is placed immediately in front of the wheel or steering apparatus, and secured to the deck, usually by metal stays.
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Binocular
literally, having two eyes or pertaining to both eyes; an instrument having two tubes, each furnished above with an eyeglass, so as to enable one to see with both eyes at once. Many opera glasses, telescopes, and microscopes are now binocular. Binocular Eye Piece. - An eye piece so constructed and applied to the object glass as to divide the optical pencil transmitted to the latter, and form, as to each part of the divided pencil, a real or virtual image of the object beyond the place of division. Binocular Microscope. - A microscope with two eyeglasses, so that both eyes may use it simultaneously. Binocular Telescope. - A pair of telescopes mounted in a stand, and having a parallel adjustment for the width between the eyes. The tubes have a coincident horizontal and vertical adjustment for altitude and azimuth. The inventor of this instrument is said to have been a Capuchin monk, Schyrleus de Rheita. Galileo also made a binocular telescope in 1617.
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Binomial
literally, having two names. Binomial System. - A system (that which now prevails) which gives to an animal, a plant, or other natural object, two names, the first to indicate the genus, and the second the species to which it belongs, as canis familiaris (the dog), bellis perennis (the daisy). Binomial Theorem. In algebra, a theorem, or it may be called a law, discovered by Sir Isaac Newton, by which a binomial quantity can be raised to any power without the trouble of a series of actual multiplications. Actual multiplication shows that the 7th power of x+a is x² + 7x + 21x²a² + 35xa² + 35xa² + 21²a + 7xa + a². It is evident that the several powers of the two letters x and a and the co-efficients stand so related to each other that study of them might enable one to educe a law from them. In its most abstract form it is this: (x+a) be raised to the nth power, that is, (x+a)", it x² + пxпm_1a + (n-1) = 1.2 (n - 1) (n-2) xn xn-a³+..etc. (xm_2a² + n 1.2.3
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Bintang
an island of the Dutch East Indies, 40 miles S. E. of Singapore. 18.000 Area 454 square miles; pop. 18,000. . Gambir, rice and pepper are exported BINTURONG (arctictis = bearmarten), a genus of carnivores in the civet section. It is a slow, arboreal and nocturnal animal, partly vegetarian, indeed omnivorous, in its diet, with lank body, coarse, dark hair, long, tufted ears, and prehensile tail. There is but one species (A. binturong), found in India, Malay, Sumatra, and Java. Its nature is fierce, but it is frequently kept in captivity.
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Binyon
LAWRENCE, British poet, born at Lancaster, Aug. 10, 1869, and educated at Oxford. He took the Newdigate prize in 1890, and entered the British Museum in 1893 as cataloguer of English drawings. He wrote "Lyric Poems," (1894); "Attila" (1907); "England" (1909); "Botticelli" (1913); "Auguries" (1913); "The Winnowing Fan" (1915).
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Biobio
the largest river of Chile, has a W. N. W. course of about 200 miles, from near the volcano of Antuco in the Andes to Concepcion on the Pacific Ocean. It is 2 miles wide at its mouth, and navigable for 100 miles. The river, since 1875, has given name to a province with an area of 5,245 square miles, and a pop. over 100,000.
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Bioclimatic Law
a law worked out by Dr. A. D. Hopkins by which the occurrence of various periodical events in plant and animal life may be accutely predicted for various localities of a rately country by noting the appearance of such events in any one part. The rate of advance of spring events over the United States, for instance, has been found to be one degree of latitude northward, five degrees of longitude eastward, and 400 feet in altitude every four days. By means of this law the Department of Agriculture has been enabled to publish rules for the guidance of farmers as to the best time to plant winter wheat, etc., in order to escape common ravages. (See also NECROLOGY.) ANGELL, JAMES ROWLAND, became president of Yale University, 1921. BECK, JAMES MONTGOMERY, appointed Solicitor-General of the United States, May, 1921. BENTON, GUY POTTER, inaugurated as president of University of the Philippines, Dec. 17, 1921.
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Biogenesis
in biology, a word invented by Professor Huxley, and first used by him in his address, as President of the British Association, at Liverpool, 1870, to indicate the view that living matter can be produced only from that which is itself living. It is opposed to abiogenesis. The first who established the doctrine of biogenesis was Francesco Redi. He considered that there were two kinds of it; the first, and by far the most common, that in which the offspring passes through the same series of changes as the parent, and the second, that in which the offspring is altogether and permanently unlike the parent. The former is now called homogenesis and the latter xenogenesis.
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