Watch Hand Pliers
Fig. 313 shows Horton's combination watch hand pliers for removing watch hands, second, hour and minute. It also takes the place of the 9-hole hand sliding tongs.
Only in American Watchmaker and Jeweler
Single-source entries: W (10)
Each of these 15 subjects appears in only one of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. None is long enough to carry a page by itself, so they are gathered here by letter. Anything that grows moves out to a page of its own.
Watch Papers
These were circular pieces of paper, silk, velvet, or muslin, placed in the outer cases of the old watches, and were decorated with verses or devices; some of them were very elaborate specimens of scroll work, and had a miniature painted in the center, others merely bore verses. Later this same device was used by repairers as a means of placing a business card in the watch. Many old watches in various collections contain over a dozen of these cards, of repairers in whose hands the watch has been.
Only in American Watchmaker and Jeweler
Watchmakers' Cement or Wax
Eight ounces of gum shellac, heated and thoroughly incorporated with one-half ounce of ultramarine, makes the strongest and best wax for use on cement brasses and chucks.
Only in American Watchmaker and Jeweler
Watchman's Clock
A clock having a paper dial, which is used to control the movements of a watchman by means of keys fastened to short chains at various portions of his beat. The various keys operate variously shaped punches which perforate the dial, and thus show the time of his presence at any particular station.
Only in American Watchmaker and Jeweler
Water Bed
a device that origone inated with Dr. Neil Arnott, of Queen Victoria's physicians. It consists wide of a trough of the dimensions of a sofa or a bed, having six or seven inches a depth of water in it, and over it caoutand pilchouc covering on which clothes bed. A lows are laid as in a common more convenient and portable contrivance is the water mattress, consisting of a coutchouc or waterproof bag of the size of an ordinary mattress, which may any degree of be filled with water of temperature, or with air, as may be deusesired. The water bed is exceedingly give ful in many diseases, but it is frequently a considerable time before the patient can become accustomed to its use, and some can never be reconciled to it.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Water Colors
pigments prepared for the use of artists and others by mixing coloring substances in the state of fine powder with a soluble gum such as gum arabic. These are made up in the form of small cakes, which are rubbed down with water and applied with a brush to paper, ivory, and some en other materials. Moist water colors are made up with honey or glycerine as well as gum, and are prepared so as to be kept in small earthenware pans or metallic tubes. Dry cakes require to be rubbed down with water on a glazed earthenware palette or slab, but moist colors can be mixed with water for use by the friction of a brush, so that the japanned lid of the box which contains them serves for a palette. The latter are accordingly very convenient for sketching from nature. WATER CRESS. See NASTURTIUM. WATER CURE See HYDROTHERAPY.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Water Dog
a variety of the dog having a curly coat, long ears, a rounded head, and webbed toes. It seems to be allied to the poodle, but differs from the latter in its firmer set and stouter body, and in its larger size. The water dog is highly intelligent, but less so than the retriever. It is usually of a grayish white varied with black and brown.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Water Flea
a popular name for minute aquatic Crustaceans such as daphnia among Cladocera, cypris among Ostracoda, and cyclops among Copepoda. The common Daphnia pulex, abundant in fresh water, is a good representative.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Water Gas
gas obtained by the decomposition of water. Water in the form of steam is passed over red-hot coke, resolving it into hydrogen and carbonic oxide, the oxygen being absorbed. The hydrogen and carbonic oxide are then passed through a retort, in which carbonaceous matter, such as resin, is undergoing decomposition, absorbing therefrom sufficient carbon to render it luminous when burned.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Water Glass
a substance which, when solid, resembles glass, but is slowly soluble in boiling water, though it remains unaffected by ordinary atmospheric changes. It consists of the soluble silicates of potash or soda, or a mixture of both. It is prepared either by breaking down and calcining flint nod ules, the fragments or particles of which are then added to a solution of caustic potash or soda, whereupon the whole is exposed for a time to intense heat, or by fusing the constituents together in a solid state, and afterward reducing them to a viscid condition. Among the purposes to which water glass is applied are painting on glass, coating stone, wood, and other materials to render them waterproof, glazing scenery and paintings, fixing wall paintings, etc.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Water Hen
the Gallinula chloropus, generally distributed throughout the world. Length of male about 13 inches; back, wings, rump, and tail rich dark olive-brown; head, neck, breast, and sides dark slate gray; thighs and flanks streaked with white, belly and vent grayish white; under tail coverts white; beak yellowish, becoming red, as Pennant notes, in the breeding season; naked patch on forehead red; red garter above tarsal joint; legs and toes greenish-yellow, claws dark-brown. The female rather larger and more vividlycolored than the male. They frequent ponds covered with aquatic herbage, overgrown water courses, and the banks of slow rivers, swimming and diving with facility, assisted by an expansion of the membrane along the sides of the toes.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Water Meter
a contrivance for measuring the amount of water received are numerous varieties. Also an instrument for determining the amount of water evaporated in a given time, as from a steam boiler.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Water Scorpion
the popular name of Nepa, a genus of hemipterous insects, the species of which inhabit ponds, etc. Some of them are powerul insects, two or three inches in length. They receive their popular name from the scorpion-like form of the forelegs, with which they seize their prey.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Water Vascular
in biology, a term applied to a system of canals, in the Annuloidea. They communicate with the exterior, and open internally into the perivisceral cavity. Their function is not certainly known, but they are probably excretory and respiratory.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Water Vine
in botany, the Phytocrene gigantea, a large climber occurring in Martaban. The wood, which is soft and porous, discharges when wounded a quantity of pure, tasteless, and wholesome fluid, drunk by the natives, Also the Tetracera potatoria, a climber about 20 feet long, with yellow flowers. A native of Sierra Leone.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia