TOURMALINE n.
ineral occurring usually in three-sided or six-sided prisms terminated by rhombohedral or scalenohedral planes. Black tourmaline (schorl) is the most common variety, but there are also other varieties, as the blue (indicolite), red (rubellite), also green, brown, and white. The red and green varieties when transparent…
TROMBONE n.
ces, soprano) is commanded. It is the only member of the family of wind instruments whose scale, both diatonic and chromatic, is complete without the aid of keys or pistons, and which can slide from note to note as smoothly as the human voice or a violin. Softly blown, it has a rich and mellow sound, which becomes hars…
TRUMPET n.
metallic tube, curved (once or twice) into a convenient shape, and ending in a bell. Its scale in the lower octaves is limited to the first natural harmonics; but there are modern trumpets capable, by means of valves or pistons, of producing every tone within their compass, although at the expense of the true ringing…
UNIT n.
maginary number of the form a + b-1, when a2 + b2 = 1. -- Duodecimal unit, a unit in the scale of numbers increasing or decreasing by twelves. -- Fractional unit, the unit of a fraction; the reciprocal of the denominator; thus, unit of the fraction -- Integral unit, the unit of integral numbers, or 1. -- Physical un…
VEGETABLE a.
ing the sexual plant most conspicuous, but destitute of vascular tissue, as in Mosses and Scale Mosses. 2. Thallogens. -- Plants without distinct stem and leaves, consisting of a simple or branched mass of cellular tissue, or educed to a single cell. Reproduction effected variously. Divided into Algæ, which contain ch…