NITROUS OXIDE 



4242 



NOBEL PRIZES 



with an equal volume of gunpowder, it has an 

 explosive force thirteen times as great. It is 

 never used alone because of its dangerous ex- 

 plosive properties, hut is mixed with clay to 

 make dynamite, or soaked into cotton to make 

 guncotton, for the manufacture of ammuni- 

 tion, firecrackers and blasting mixtures. See 

 AMMUNITION. 



NITROUS OXIDE, ni' trus ok'sid, the proper 

 name of "laughing gas." The latter name was 

 popularly applied many years ago because 

 when inhaled in small quantities it produces 

 spasmodic action of the facial muscles which 

 somewhat resembles laughing. It is a colorless 

 gas, somewhat soluble in water, and has a 

 faintly sweet odor. When breathed in suffi- 

 cient quantity it produces anesthesia, or in- 

 sensibility to pain, the effects of which are not 

 severe and soon pass off. For this reason it is 

 used in dental work. Since it contains a larger 

 proportion of oxygen than does air, such sub- 

 stances as wood, phosphorus and glowing sul- 

 phur burn in it almost as brightly as in pure 

 oxygen. 



NIX, in the folklore of the German people, 

 the name given to a water sprite, either male 

 or female. Like the water divinities of the 

 Greeks and Romans, Proteus, Nereus and the 

 Naiads, the nixies were supposed to have the 

 gift of prophecy, which they were not always 

 willing to exercise for the good of men. The 

 nixies were particularly fond of music and danc- 

 ing and sometimes joined in the dance with 

 human beings, but as they were treacherous 

 and often malignant, it was never considered 

 wise to trust them. 



NIZHNI NOVGOROD, nyeez'ne nawv' go 

 roht, or NIJNI NOVGOROD, a city of Russia, 

 founded in 1221, and known as the Cradle of 

 the Russian Empire on account of its age. It 

 has also attained celebrity by reason of the 

 great commercial fair which has been held there 

 every summer since 1817. The city is situated 

 265 miles east of Moscow, at the junction of 

 the Volga and Oka rivers, and is the capital of 

 the government of the same name. The upper 

 part of the city contains the Kremlin, or cita- 

 del, the historic buildings, the governor's pal- 

 ace, cathedrals, libraries and schools. The lower 

 town, built along the banks of the Oka and 

 Volga, is the industrial section. The fair is 

 held on a sandy tongue of land between the 

 rivers. It is attended each year by 500,000 

 visitors and dealers, and the booths for the 

 sales extend along sixty city blocks. Hundreds 

 of apartments have also been erected for the 



usr of those frequenting the fair, and in pros- 

 perous years goods having a value of over 

 $125,000,000 are brought there. The city has 

 manufactories of coarse cloth, cordage, soap, 

 leather, glass, flour, machinery and pottery, and 

 (hen 1 is a thriving trade in corn, salt, iron, tea, 

 fish, groceries and manufactured goods. Popu- 

 lation in 1913, 109,000. 



NO 'AH, the Biblical hero of the story of the 

 Flood, as told in Genesis VI-IX. For his right- 

 eousness he was chosen of God to preserve life 

 during the Deluge. He was directed to build 

 an Ark of gopher wood, smeared with pitch, 

 into which he and his family retired, with 

 beasts, creeping things and fowls, "two and two 

 . . . male and female." After the receding 

 of the waters after the Deluge of forty days 

 and 120 days of drying the earth, Noah offered 

 a sacrifice on Mount Ararat, where the Ark 

 rested, to which God responded with the prom- 

 ise that the earth should no more be destroyed 

 by a flood. The rainbow was made the visible 

 sign of this covenant. 



Noah's sons, Ham, Shem and Japheth, are 

 credited with founding the three great races of 

 mankind. The descendants of Ham are gen- 

 erally believed to have pushed southward into 

 Egypt and Abyssinia, thus peopling Africa; 

 those of Shem into Babylonia, Assyria, Phoe- 

 nicia, Syria, etc., peopling the greater part of 

 Asia, while the Japhetic, or Aryan races, divid- 

 ing into two great branches, populated Media, 

 Persia, India and the continent of Europe. 



NOBEL, nobel', PRIZES, five prizes annu- 

 ally awarded to persons, regardless of nation- 

 ality, who have made valuable contributions in 

 a particular field to the "good of humanity," 

 each prize being one of five equal shares of the 

 income from the estate of Alfred Nobel (1833- 

 1896), the Swedish inventor of dynamite. The 

 will of Mr. Nobel directed that the interest on 

 his fortune of $9,000,000 should be divided each 

 year among five persons, in the following man- 

 ner. Award should be made 



(1) For the most Important discovery or in- 

 vention in the domain of physics ; 



(2) In chemistry ; 



(3) In physiology or medicine; 



(4) For the most distinguished literary work of 

 an idealistic nature ; 



(5) For the most effective work in the interest 

 of international peace. 



These prizes have an average value of $40,000 

 each, and are awarded by several organizations: 

 the prizes for physics and chemistry by the 

 Royal Academy of Science in Stockholm; the 

 prize for medicine by the Caroline Institute, 



