BAKER 



545 



BAKU 



navy in 1798 as a lieutenant. Two years later 

 he commanded the frigate George Washington, 

 which carried to Algiers the tribute the United 

 States was required to pay the ruler of that 

 country for commercial privileges in the Medi- 

 terranean. In 1801, as captain of the Essex, 

 he cruised in the Mediterranean. Under Com- 

 modore Preble he commanded the frigate 

 Philadelphia during the war with Tripoli, which 

 put down the Barbary piracy. While chasing 

 a blockade runner in 1804 his vessel grounded 

 and was forced to surrender, the captain and 

 his 300 men being held as prisoners for over a 

 See BARBARY STATES. 



In 1812 he commanded a squadron compris- 

 ing the Constitution, Essex and Hornet, and 

 later in the year captured the British frigate 

 Java after a two hours' engagement in which 

 the British lost: 300 in killed and wounded, the 

 Americans, thirty-four. It was for this achieve- 

 ment Congress voted the commodore a gold 

 medal, and in addition voted his crew $50,000 

 as prize money. In 1815 Bainbridge com- 

 manded the Mediterranean squadron, and held 

 the same post again in 1821, which was his last 

 foreign assignment. 



BAKER, SIR SAMUEL WHITE (1821-1893), a 

 distinguished English explorer, the discoverer 

 of the important lake Albert Nyanza. In 1861 

 he began his travels in Africa that resulted in 

 the discovery of the lake named for Albert, con- 

 sort of Queen Victoria, and that also added 

 much to what was then known of the sources 

 and course of the Nile. In 1866 he was made a 

 knight. The following year he headed an 

 expedition sent by the khedive of Egypt to 

 annex and open up to trade a large part of the 

 newly-explored country, and was appointed 

 Governor-General of the new territory formed. 

 1 1 successor in this work was Colonel Charles 

 Gordon (which see). Baker's writings include 

 The Albert Nyanza, Great Basin of the Nil<\ 

 nut as / Saw It in 1879 and Wild Beasts and 

 T Ways. 



BAKERSFIELD, CAL., the county seat of 

 K rn County and a thriving industrial nt\, 

 situated in the southwestern part of the state, 

 on the Kern River. Fresno is 106 miles north- 

 west, Los Angeles is 171 miles southeast, and 

 San Francisco is 313 miles northwest. The 

 Southern Pacific .tml the Atchison, Topeka A 

 Santa Fc railroads serve the city. The place 

 was settled in 1869 and named in honor of 

 Colonel Baker, an American soldier of * 

 California history. In 1914 the population was 

 15,538, an increase of 2,809 since 1910. 

 35 



Bakersfield is located in a stock-raising and 

 fruit-growing section and is a shipping point 

 for live stock, wool, hides, grain and fruit. It 

 has large fruit-packing establishments, oil- 

 refineries, foundries and railroad and machine 

 shops. In the locality are found deposits of 

 gold, gypsum, borax, marble, salt, copper, tung- 

 sten, iron and sulphur. The Kern River fur- 

 nishes water for irrigation and power for manu- 

 factures. Bakersfield has a $400,000 courthouse, 

 two high schools, a library and a county hos- 

 pital. L.C.B. 



BAKING POWDER, a fine white powder 

 which the housewife uses in place of yeast to 

 "raise" bread, biscuits and other preparations 

 of flour or meal. The baking powder of best 

 repute is made of cream of tartar and soda 

 mixed with starch or flour. The starch or 

 flour keeps the soda and cream of tartar dry 

 and thus prevents their acting upon each other 

 until ready for use. As soon as the baking 

 powder is wet the cream of tartar attacks the 

 soda and sets free carbonic acid gas. The gas, 

 passing through the dough, makes it light and 

 porous, and it "rises." Soda and sour milk 

 have the same effect as baking powder. 



Cheaper baking powders are made by using 

 alum or acid phosphate of lime, or both, in 

 place of the cream of tartar. As a food con- 

 stituent alum has always been regarded with 

 suspicion, but recent investigations by the 

 Referee Board of Consulting Scientific Experts 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture 

 failed to reveal any injurious effects due to 

 alum baking powders in the quantities used in 

 an ordinary diet. They, however, advised 

 against the excessive use of foods made with 

 baking powders, since all the commercial kinds 

 leave substances in the bread, which in large 

 doses affect the bowels. See ADULTERATION IN 

 FOODSTUFFS AND CLOTHING. J.F.S. 



BAKU, bah koo' , a Russian port on the west- 

 ern coast of the Caspian Sea, and the com- 

 mercial center of a district that produces nearly 

 one-fourth of the world's supply of petroleum. 

 Tlii- principal industries are connected with 

 tin iiiin|>iim and refining of oil, but the city 

 has large tobacco and chemical factories and 

 big plants for distillation of water from the 

 Caspian Sea for domestic purposes, for the 

 water in the oily regions is unfit for home use. 

 Baku, which has an r\ ll< nt harbor, is also 

 an important forwarding depot, transmitting 

 eastern products from Persia and manufactured 

 goods from Europe. The city presents a 

 curious combination of ancient and modern 



