Page 2561 : PUMP — PUNCTUATION
Individual articles:
much used for polishing wood, ivory, metals, glass, marble etc. Great quantities are exported from the Lipari Islands to all parts of Europe.
Pump, a machine for lifting water or other liquids to higher levels. The simplest form is the common suction-pump, which is shown in Figure 1. A is the barrel; B a pipe reaching into the water to be raised; C the spout; D a fixed valve opening upward only; E a movable valve opening upward only and carried in the bucket F, which is a hollow piece of wood or metal which, by leather or other packing, is made to fit in the barrel so closely that the water cannot pass between the bucket and the barrel; and G is the piston-rod which is operated by hand, steam, wind or other power and moves the bucket up and down in the barrel. The up-stroke of the piston at first lifts air, and, as the air cannot return past the air-tight bucket, a partial vacuum is produced in B. The external pressure of the atmosphere causes the water to ascend in B. By repeated strokes of the piston the air below E becomes exhausted and the water continues to ascend until the valve D is under water; thereafter the strokes of the pump lift the water above D and force it into the spout C.
The force-pump shown in Figure 2 is used to force water up into buildings. The piston is solid and the valve E, instead of being carried by the piston, is fitted in the discharge-pipe. When the piston is raised, the water rushes between the piston and the valve below and with the downward motion of the piston the water is forced past the valve E; it cannot return, and by repeated strokes the water may be forced to a considerable height. Force-pumps are used for deep wells and mines, hydraulic presses, steam and fire engines etc. There are other and more complicated forms of pumps, but all depend on the principles here explained. See Air-Pump.
Punch or the London Charivari, an English comic journal, is a weekly magazine of wit, humor and satire in prose and verse, copiously illustrated by sketches and caricatures. It draws its materials from the highest and lowest conditions of life, and, though stern in the exposure of sham and vice, is kindly in spirit when making merry over innocent foibles. The first number appeared in 1841, and under the joint editorship of Henry Mayhew and Mark Lemon it soon became a household word as well as an acknowledged power throughout England. It has done much to purify and elevate the standard of current wit in England. Sir F. C. Burnand, its editor for 25 years, retired in 1906.
Punch and Judy, the chief characters in a popular, comic puppet-show of Italian origin. It is generally ascribed to Silvio Tiorillo, an Italian comedian who flourished about 1600. The performance of the play requires only two persons, one to carry the theater and work the figures, the other to bear the box of puppets, blow the trumpet and sometimes keep up the dialogue with the hero of the piece.
Punc′tua′tion may be defined as the art of so dividing sentences or clauses with certain marks, as to make the sense more complete. Manutius, a Venetian printer of the 16th century, is generally regarded as the father of our present system of punctuation. Its principal marks are the period (.) generally placed at the end of a sentence and at the end of abbreviated words; the comma (,) used to separate words or pairs of words and, sometimes, clauses; the semicolon (;) used to separate clauses or divisions of a sentence requiring a more marked separation than is indicated by the comma; the colon (:) used where the sentences require a more marked separation than is indicated by the semicolon; the dash (—) sometimes performing the offices of the comma, the semicolon or the colon, but generally used to indicate a break in the thought or a change in the structure of a sentence; the interrogation point (?) used to denote a question; the exclamation point (!) used to express surprise or any special emotion; the hyphen (-) used between the divisions of a compound-word and to divide any word at the end of a line; the apostrophe (’) used as a sign of the possessive case and to supply the place of any letter or letters omitted from a word; the parentheses or curves ( ) used to inclose any word or words essential to the meaning of the passage; the brackets [ ] used to include the words or remarks of the author within the writing of some other person; the quotation-marks, consisting of two inverted commas and two apostrophes (“ ”) used to inclose any word or words quoted from another person; the ellipsis ( * * * * * * ) or dots ( . . . . ), used to denote the omis-
Image: FIG. 1
Image: FIG. 2
