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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Water-bellows
A blast-machine consisting of two cisterns partly filled with water, in which are placed the induction and education pipes, both standing a little above the water. Inverted chambers suspended on the ends of a working-beam inclose the pipes within the cisterns, and as each chamber is made to rise alternately the air is drawn up through the induction-pipe into the chamber, and expelled at the eduction-pipe by means of suitable valves; the valve being at the top for induction, at the bottom for eduction.
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Water-boshes
Hollow cast-iron boshes or chambers, through which a constant supply of water is made to circulate, to prevent overheating and consequent fusion. See FINERY FURNACE; TYMP.
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Water-proof Glue
Melt common glue with the smallest quantity of water possible; add by degrees drying or boiled linseed oil. The ingredients must be well stirred while the oil is being added. See GLUE; CEMENT.
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Water-proof Polish
Alcohol 1 pint, gum-benzoin 2 oz., gum-sandarach 1/4 oz., gum-anime 1/4 oz.; put these in a stoppered bottle, and set in a hot-water or sand-bath until dissolved; then strain and add 1/4 gill of best poppy-oil, and shake well together.
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