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The book of wonders

HOW A KEY TURNS A LOCK

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Previous chapter ←Why Does Red Make a Bull Angry?Next chapter →What Happens When the Knob is Turned?

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THE BOOK OF WONDERS Introduction How Man Learned to Write How Does a Blotter Take Up the Ink of a Blot?Where Does Chalk Come From?How Did Men Learn to Talk?How Did Shaking the Head Come to Mean “No”?How Did a Nod Come to Mean “Yes”?Why Do We Count in Tens?What Does Man Mean by Counting Himself?Where Did All the Names of People Originate?Why Can You Blow Out a Candle?The Story in a Photograph Why Do Some Eyes In a Picture Seem to Follow Us?Where Does a Light Go When It Goes Out?Why Does a Fire Go Out?Why Does a Lamp Give a Better Light With the Chimney On?Does Light Weigh Anything?Why Does a Stick Seem to Bend When Put in Water?What Makes the Stars Twinkle?Why Does an Onion Make the Tears Come?The First Missile Who First Discovered the Power of Gunpowder?The Parts of a Big Gun What Is Motion?Is Perpetual Motion Possible?How Can an Explosion Break Windows That Are at a Distance?Why Do Some Things Bend and Others Break?Why Does a Ball Bounce?What Makes a Ball Stop Bouncing?What Makes a Cold Glass Crack if We Put Hot Water Into It?What Causes the Gurgle When I Pour Water from a Bottle?Where Does the Part of a Stocking Go That Was Where the Hole Comes?Why Do Coats Have Buttons On the Sleeves?Why Has a Long Coat Buttons on the Back?The Story in the Telephone Where Does Sound Come From?Why Can We Make Sounds With Our Throats?Why Does the Sound Stop When We Touch a Gong that Has Been Sounded?How Can Sound Come Through a Thick Wall?What Is Meant by Deadening a Floor or a Wall?What Makes the Sounds Like Waves in a Sea Shell?What Are the Sounds We Hear in a Shell?The Story in a Suit of Clothes Why Can’t We See in the Dark?Why Can Cats and Some Other Animals See in the Dark?Why Is It Difficult to Walk Straight with My Eyes Closed?Why Can’t We Sleep with Our Eyes Open?Why Do Our Eyes Sparkle When We Are Merry?Why Do We Laugh When Glad?Why Do I Laugh When Tickled?Why Don’t I Laugh When I Tickle Myself?What Happens When We Laugh?Why Do We Cry When Hurt?Where Do Tears Come From?Where Do the Tears Go?Story in a Barrel of Cement Why Don’t We Make Roads Perfectly Level?Why Are Some Roads Called Turnpikes?What Is Dust?What Becomes of the Dust?Are Stones Alive?What and Why Is Smoke?Why Can’t We Burn Stones?What Is Fog?What Becomes of the Smoke?Why Does an Apple Turn Brown When Cut?Why Does a Piece of Wood Float in Water?Why Does Iron Sink In Water?Why Doesn’t an Iron Ship Sink?Why Does a Poker Get Hot at Both Ends if Left in the Fire?Would a Wooden Spoon Get Hot?Why Does Iron Turn Red When Red Hot?How Did the Sand Get on the Seashore?What Makes a Soap Bubble?What Makes the Bubble Explode?Why Are Bubbles Round?The Story in a Yard of Silk What Animal Can Leap the Greatest Distance?Why Do We Call Voting Balloting?Why Do We Call a Cab a Hansom?Where Did the Name Calico Come From?Who Made the First Postage Stamp?How Many Languages Are There?What Is the Deepest Mine In the World?What Is Color?Where Did the Term Dixie Originate?How Big Is the Earth?What Causes Hail?Why Does a Human Being Have To Learn to Swim?Why Do I Get Cold in a Warm Room?Why Do They Call Them Wisdom Teeth?What Makes Freckles Come?The Flying Boat Where Is the Wind When It Is Not Blowing?Where Does the Wind Begin?What Causes the Wind’s Whistle?Why Does the Air Never Get Used Up?Why Can’t We See Air?Why Does Thunder Always Come After the Lightning?How Big Is the Sun?How Hot Is the Sun?Why Is It Warm in Summer?Why Is It Cold in Winter?Why Have We Five Fingers on Each Hand and Five Toes on Each Foot?Why Do We Have Finger Nails?Why Are Our Fingers of Different Lengths?Why Does It Hurt When I Cut My Finger?Why Don’t My Hair Hurt When It Is Being Cut?Of What Use Is My Hair?Why Does My Hair Stand On End When I Am Frightened?What Makes Some People Bald?What Makes Some Things in the Same Room Colder than Others?Why Does the Hair Grow After the Body Stops Growing?Will People All Be Bald Sometime?THE STORY IN A LUMP OF SUGAR How Can We Smell Things?How Do We Taste Things?What Happens When We See?Why Can We Hear?What Is a Totem Pole For?Where Does a Flower Get Its Perfume?Why Do Flowers Have Perfumes?How Do Flowers Produce Seeds?Why Are Leaves Not All the Same Shape?Why Are Some Radiators Longer Than Others?What Makes Roses Red?Why Do Plants and Trees Grow Up Instead of Down?What Becomes of the Plants and Flowers in Winter?How Can Some Plants Climb a Smooth Wall?What Are the Thorns on Roses and Other Plants Good For?Do Plants Breathe?What Happens When Breathing Occurs?How Do Plants Breathe?Why Do Plants Need Sunlight?Why Does Milk Turn Sour?The Story in a Rug The Making of Carpets Why Do I Yawn?Where Do Living Things Come From?What is Inorganic Matter?Where Did Life Begin on Earth?When Did Man Begin to Live?Why Must Life Be Reproduced?Have Plants Fathers and Mothers?How Do Plants Reproduce Life?Why Do Plants Have Seeds?Why Does an Ear of Corn Have Silk?How Does the Pollen Touch the Grain of Corn?Do Father and Mother Plants Always Live Together?Why Do Flowers Have Smells?How Are Fishes Born?How Birds Are Taught to Fly.What Makes the Hollow Place at One End of a Boiled Egg?Is Man an Animal?Why Cannot Babies Walk as Soon as Born?What Are Ball Bearings?Why a Gasoline Engine Goes Why Does the Heart Beat When the Brain Is Asleep?Why Do Our Hearts Beat Faster When We Are Running?Why Do I Get Out of Breath When Running?Why Does My Heart Beat Faster When I Am Scared?Why Does Cold Make Our Hands Blue?Why Do I Get Red in the Face?Is Yawning Infectious?What Makes Me Want to Stretch?What Happens When I Stretch?Why Can We Think of Only One Thing at a Time?Why Do I Turn White When Scared?What Makes Me Blush?What Occurs When We Think?Can Animals Think?Why Do I Sneeze?What Happens When I Swallow?What Makes the Lump Come In My Throat When I Cry?Why Do We Stop Growing?Why Do We Grow Aged?What Causes Wrinkles?Does Thunder Sour Milk?What Makes the Rings in the Water When I Throw a Stone Into It?Why Are There Many Languages?What Makes a Match Light When We Strike It?What Makes the Kettle Whistle?What Makes the Water From a Fountain Shoot Into the Air?What Keeps a Balloon Up?Why Did People of Long Ago Live Longer Than We Do Now?Is There a Reason for Everything?What Makes an Echo?What is a Whispering Gallery?Why Do We Get a Bump Instead of a Dent When We Knock Our Heads?The Deep Sea Diver What Happens When Anything Explodes?What Causes the Smoke When a Gun Goes Off?What is Smokeless Powder Made Of?What is Nitroglycerine?What Makes Nitroglycerine and Guncotton Explode So Readily?What Is Silver?What Is Worry?Why Do We Worry?The Story in a Tunnel Why Do My Teeth Chatter?Where Did All the Water in the Oceans Come From?Why Don’t the Water in the Ocean Sink In?Where Does the Water in the Ocean Go at Low Tide?Why Does the Ocean Look Blue at Times and at Other Times Green?Why Does Water Run?What Makes the Water Boil?At What Point of Heat Does Water Boil?What Do We Mean by Fahrenheit?Why Can’t We Swim as Easily in Fresh Water as in Salt Water?Why Do We Say Some Water Is Hard and Other Water Soft?How Does Water Put a Fire Out?Where Does the Rain Go?Why Does Rain Make the Air Fresh?Is a Train Harder to Stop Than to Start?What Makes the Knots In Boards?How Many Stars Are There?The Story in a Can of Paint Why Does a Dog Turn Round and Round Before He Lies Down?How Is Light Produced?What Makes Rays of Light?Why Does a Nail Get Hot When I Hammer It?How Do We Obtain Heat?Why Does a Glow-Worm Glow?Why Do They Call It Pin Money?Why Do People Shake Hands With the Right Hand?How Did the Custom of Clinking Glasses When Drinking Originate?Why Cannot Fishes Live In the Air?What Makes a Fish Move in Swimming?Why Are Birds’ Eggs of Different Colors?Why Does a Hen Cackle After Laying an Egg?Why Will Water Run Off a Duck’s Back?THE STORY IN A STEEL RAIL Who Made the First Felt Hat?What Is the Hottest Spot on Earth?Where Do We Get Ivory?How Did Trial by Jury Originate?Can Animals Foretell the Weather?Nearest Approach Ever Made to Perpetual Motion in Mechanics.Do Plants Breathe?What Depth of Snow Is Equivalent to an Inch of Rain?How Are the Stars Counted?How Is the Volume of Sound Measured?At What Rate Does Thought Travel?What Is the Largest Tree In the World?Where Did the Term Yankees Originate?How Far Does the Air Extend?What Makes Us Feel Hungry?What Makes Us Thirsty?What Is Pain and Why Does It Hurt?What Is the Horizon?How Far Away Is the Horizon?Why Can We See Farther When We Are Up High?What Makes Lobsters Turn Red?Why Do We Have to Die?Making Plate Glass Why Is the Sky Blue?What Makes the Colors of the Sunset?Are There Two Sides to the Rainbow?Do the Ends of the Rainbow Rest on Land?What Causes the Different Colors of the Rainbow?What Makes the Hills Look Blue Sometimes?Do the Stars Really Shoot Down?Will the Sky Ever Fall Down?What Is the Milky Way?Why Do They Call It the Milky Way?Why Don’t the Stars Shine in the Day-time?How Far Does Space Reach?What Does Horse Power Mean?The Story in a Lump of Coal What Is a Metal?What Is the Most Valuable Metal?Why Is Gold Called Precious?What Do We Mean By 18-Carat Fine?Why Does Silver Tarnish?Why Do We Use Copper Telegraph Wires?Why Is Lead So Heavy?Why Are Cooking Utensils Made of Tin?What Is Gravitation?What Is Specific Gravity?Why Do We See Stars When Hit On the Eye?The Story in a Submarine Boat Where Do Sponges Come From?How Do Sponges Grow?How Do Sponges Eat?How Are Sponges Caught?Why Does Yeast Make Bread Rise?What Is Yeast?Is a Moth Attracted By a Light?How Man Discovered Fire Are Matches Poisonous?Did Candles Come Before Lamps?What Were the Earliest Lamps?What Were the Lamps of the Wise and Foolish Maidens Made Of?When Were Street Lamps First Used?When Were Candles Introduced?Where Did the Word “Gas” Originate?How the Light Gets Into the Electric Light Bulb.How Does an Arc Light Burn?What Are X-Rays?How Man Learned to Fight Fire.How Did Man Learn to Cook His Food?Why Does a Sponge Hold Water?Why Is the Right Hand Stronger Than the Left?Why Do My Muscles Get Sore When I Play Ball In the Spring?Why Does a Barber’s Pole Have Stripes?How Was the Flag Made?Why Are Some Guns Called Gatling Guns?How Did Hobson’s Choice Originate?Why Do They Call It a Honeymoon?Why Is a Horseshoe Said to Bring Good Luck?Some Wonders of the Human Body.Where Did the Expression “Kick the Bucket” Originate?How Did the Word “News” Originate?Who Made the First Umbrella?The Story in a Time Piece Where Does the Day Begin?How Much of the Earth Does the Sun Shine on at One Time?Where Is the Hour Changed?Where Does the Day Change?Why Do We Cook the Things We Eat?The Story in a Magnet What Is a Lodestone?What Is Electricity?What Is a Leyden Jar?Who Discovered Electricity?What Is an Electric Current?Why Does a Bee Have a Sting?How Does a Honey Bee Live?THE BEGINNING OF A STEAMSHIP What Is Water Made Of?What Is a Molecule?How Do We Know a Thing Is Solid, Liquid or Gas?How Big Is a Molecule?What Is an Element?What Is Hydrogen Gas?What Is Oxygen?What Is Nitrogen?Why Are Some Things Transparent and Others Not?Why Is the Sea Water Salt?Why Does Salt Make Me Thirsty?What Are Diamonds Made Of?What Causes Dimples?Why Does the Dark Cause Fear?The Story in a Coil of Rope Why Do We Go to Sleep?Why Do We Wake Up in the Morning?Where Are We When Asleep?Why Does It Seem When We Have Slept All Night That We Have Been Asleep Only a Minute?Why Should We Not Sleep With the Moon Shining On Us?What Makes Us Dream?Why Do We Know We Have Dreamed When We Wake Up?What Causes Nightmare?What Are Ghosts?Why Do Girls Like Dolls?What Makes the Works of a Watch Go?What Makes a Hot Box?The Story in a Moving Picture The Story in a Ball of Rubber The Story in a Stick of Chocolate How Does an Elevator Go Up and Down?Does Air Weigh Anything?Why Does the Scenery Appear to Move When We Are Riding in a Train?Why Don’t the Scenery Appear to Move When I am in a Street Car?Why Does the Moon Travel With Us When We Walk or Ride?Is There a Man in the Moon?Does the Air Surrounding the Earth Move With It?Why Does Oiling the Axle Make the Wheel Turn More Easily?What Made the Mountains?What Makes the Sea Roar?Why Is Fire Hot?When I Throw a Ball Into the Air While Walking, Why Does It Follow Me?What Good Are the Lines On the Palms of Our Hands?What Makes Things Whirl Round When I Am Dizzy?Why Are the Complexions of Some People Light and Others Dark?What Makes Me Tired?Why Are Most People Right-Handed?Why Are Some Faculties Stronger Than Others?The Story in a Cup and Saucer How Do Birds Find Their Way?How Does a Captain Steer His Ship Across the Ocean?Why the Birds Come Back in Spring?Why Do Birds Go South in Winter?Why Don’t the Birds Stay South?How Do They Find the Old Home?Why Do Birds Sing?What Causes an Arrow to Fly?Why Do Children Like Candy?Why Does Eating Candy Make Some People Fat?What Makes Snowflakes White?What Makes the White Caps on the Waves White?What Good Can Come of a Toothache?How Can Microbes Spread Through the Body?What Causes Toothache?Of What Use Are Pains and Aches?What Causes Earache?What Is Soap Made Of?The Story in a Telegram The Story in an Ocean Cable THE STORY IN A RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVE The Story in the Wireless How Does a Fly Walk Upside Down?What Is Money?Why Do We Need Money?Who Originated Money?Metallic Forms of Money.Why Do We Use Gold and Silver as Money Principally?Who Made the First Cent?How Did the Name Uncle Sam Originate?The Story in a Loaf of Bread The Story in a Lead Pencil[5]The Story in a Bale of Cotton The Story in a Piano How Sounds Are Produced.What Is Sound?How Fast Does Sound Travel?What Are the Properties of Sound?Why Can You Hear More Easily Through a Speaking Tube?What Is Meant By the Length of Sound Waves?Musical Instruments.Talking Machines.Why Does Red Make a Bull Angry?HOW A KEY TURNS A LOCK What Happens When the Knob is Turned?What Happens When the Key is Turned?How Key Changes Are Provided.Where Does Salt Come From?Where Do All the Little Round Stones Come From?What Is Clay?Where Do School Slates Come From?What Causes Shadows?The Foundation of a Sky Scraper The Story in a Glass of Water What is Carbonic Acid?Is It a Fact that the Sun Revolves On Its Axis?What Is the Most Usefully Valuable Metal?The Story in a Pipe and Cigar[6]The Story in a Finger Print[7]The Story in a Honey Bee[8]Why Are Some Races White, and Others Black, Yellow and Brown?The Story in a Piece of Leather[9]The Story in a Pair of Shoes[10]How Shoes Are Made by Machinery How the Paper in this Book is Made How Is Photo Engraving Done?ACKNOWLEDGMENT INDEX Transcriber’s Notes

Illustration from The book of wonders: gives plain and simple answers to the thousands of everyday questions that are asked and which all should be able to, but cannot answer...

Fig. 1.

Illustration from The book of wonders: gives plain and simple answers to the thousands of everyday questions that are asked and which all should be able to, but cannot answer...

Fig. 2.

Illustration from The book of wonders: gives plain and simple answers to the thousands of everyday questions that are asked and which all should be able to, but cannot answer...

Fig. 3.

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