BARI 



591 



BARK 



island off the coast of Maine, so named because 

 of the sandy bar which connects Mount Desert 

 with a neighboring island. Aside from its loca- 

 tion on a beautiful harbor, tin* town is near 

 many interesting points, including Green Moun- 

 tain, Eagle Lake. Great and Schooner Heads, 

 Thunder Cave and Eagle Cliff. It lies forty-six 

 miles southeast of Banger, Me. Bar Harbor* is 

 one of the more exclusive of the Eastern sum- 

 mer resorts for the well-to-do; so given to 

 \< lusiveness and quiet is the summer colony 

 that it was not until the summer of 1915 that 

 automobiles were permitted on the island. The 

 permanent population is about 2,000. See 

 MirNT DESERT, also full-page illustration in 

 article MAINK. 



BARI, bah' re, the capital of the province 

 of Bari delle Puglie, and a seaport on the Adri- 

 atic coast of Southern Italy, sixty-nine miles 

 northwest of Brindisi. As early as the third 

 century B.C. Bari was a place of importance; 

 it has been three times destroyed and rebuilt. 

 The present town has broad streets and numer- 

 ous gardens and squares. The cathedral is a 

 massive building with a tower 260 feet high, 

 but in historic interest it is surpassed by the 

 Church of Saint Nicholas, founded in 1087. 

 Here are kept the bones of Saint Nicholas, from 

 which, tradition says, a healing fluid flows. 

 Thousands of pilgrims annually visit the tomb. 

 In July, 1915 ; during the progress of the War 

 of the Nations, and soon after Italy joined the 

 allies, the town of Bari was heavily bombarded 

 by the Austrian fleet, much damage being done 

 lie docks and buildings. The city manu- 

 factures cotton and linen goods, hats, soap, 

 glass and liquors. A United States consul is 

 stationed here. Population in 1911, 103,520. 



BARIUM, bay' Hum, a silver-white to yel- 

 low metallic element which is chemically 

 obtained from barite, witherite and some oth. r 

 more complex minerals. The name is from the 

 Greek and means heavy, referring to its den- 

 sity. Barium was first obtain. -.1 in 1808 by 

 Davy, the celebrated English chemist. It is 

 pliant and can be easily worked without break- 

 MIL'. It ,,..!> ;/es readily, decomposes water, and 

 fuses at a low temperature. Barium forms a 

 number of corn mem ill \ important salts, and 

 barium compounds are used for many purposes, 

 .soluble and carbonate salts are poisonous. 



Barium Sulphate, one of the salts of barium, 



precipitates as a fine white powder. It is 



found as the mineral bnnt> in many parts of 



rica and Europe, and is used as a common 



adulterant of ordinary white paint, to it 



the weight of paper, and was used by Wedg- 

 wood in his jasper- ware. It is also used in the 

 manufacture of artificial ivory, leather, wall- 

 paper and asbestos cement. The value of the 

 production in the United States amounts to 

 about $250,000 annually, but the production is 

 decreasing. Canada produces between $5,000 

 and $10,000 worth each year. 



Barium Nitrate, another of the salts of bar- 

 ium, is used extensively in the manufacture of 

 fire-works, especially "green fire." 



Barium Sulphide shines freely in the dark, 

 after having been exposed to a bright light, 

 and, on this account, is used in making lumin- 

 ous paint. 



Barium Chromate is used as a pigment and 

 as an ingredient of matches. 



Barium Dioxide or Peroxide is used in the 

 .manufacture of peroxide of hydrogen (which 

 see), and as a bleaching agent in preparing 

 oxygen. 



Barium Monoxide, or Baryta, a grayish-white, 

 poisonous substance, is used in sugar refining. 

 When added to molasses or sugar solutions it is 

 insoluble. 



Barium Hydrate, uniting readily with lime, is 

 used to soften water in boilers and thereby 

 prevents formation of lime deposits. E.D.F. 



BARK, the outer covering of stems, branches, 

 trunks and roots of trees, most shrubs and 

 some plants, as distinguished from wood. It is 

 usually composed of three layers. The inner 

 bark, or fibrous bark, lying next to the wood, 

 carries food and water very much as arteries 

 and veins of animals carry blood. This part 

 is also called the bast. It is composed of long 

 woody cells which, in some plants, form valu- 

 able fibers. The middle bark, or green bark, is 

 merely a tissue, but it contains the green color- 

 ing matter (see CHLOROPHYU > which manu- 

 factures starch here in the same way as it does 

 in leaves. This part does not grow much, and 

 in woody stems is later covered by the our. r 

 bark, or corky bark, which is generally heavy, 

 rough or corky, and usually dead. It protects 

 tip living inner portions. It does not contain 

 green coloring matter, but gives the sterns and 

 twin- thru red, purple, brown or light gray 

 color. 



In some trees lite the birches, the sweet-gum 

 and the cork-oak, the corky bark grows and 

 forms new layers year by year, but the older 

 bark dies and falls away until, on very old 

 trunks, only the inner bark remains. That 

 inner bark adds new layers each year, from 

 within The outer bark, not being able to stand 



