James B. Eads. Born at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, May 28, 1820, he began life as a clerk on a Mississippi river steam-boat. In 1842 he entered a firm engaged in recovering sunken property, and with such success that he retired with a fortune in 1857. During the civil war he devised a plan for the defence of the Western waters, and constructed several iron gun-boats with many novel features of his own invention. He has since acquired reputation as projecting and constructing engineer of the Illinois and St. Louis bridge, and by building jetties at the South Pass of the Mississippi, by which the depth of the river is increased, and it is made more navigable. These jetties are projecting dikes of brush, fascines, and stone. _Fascines_, bundles of rods or of small sticks of wood, bound at both ends and at intermediate points, used in filling ditches, etc. Give the names of some distinguished American inventors. Eli Whitney, the inventor of the Cotton Gin, born in Westborough, Mass., 1765; died 1825. Jethro Wood, the inventor of the modern cast-iron plow, born at White Creek, N.Y., 1774; died 1834. Cyrus H. McCormick, inventor of the mowing machine, born at Walnut Grove, Virginia, in 1809. Who was the inventor of the Sewing Machine? Elias Howe. He was born at Spencer, Mass., July 9, 1819. When a boy he worked in a cotton mill at Lowell, but afterwards entered a machine shop in Boston. Here he conceived the idea of the sewing machine, and after long days of labor, part of which time he and his family lived on the kindness of a friend, he completed his invention. After many struggles, his talent, industry, and perseverance were rewarded, and long before his death, which occurred in October, 1867, he had acquired a large fortune. INDEX. Abyssinia, 142 Adhesion, 201 Affinity, Chemical, 197, 199 Air, 17 fixed, 112 Albert Durer, 130 Alchemy, 194 Alcohol, 137 Alexander, 161 Alexandria, 168 Allspice or Pimento, 51 Alluvial formations, 152 Almonds, 61 Alphabet, invention of, 43 Alum, 74 Alumina, 154 Amalgam, 20 Amber, 18 Ambergris, 66 Analysis and Combination, 195 Anemometer, 206 Angelo, Michael, 162 Anno Domini, 35 Apelles, 182 Apollo, 178 Arabic, gum, 94 Arabia, Felix and Deserta, 72 Archipelago, 32 Architecture, 156 orders of, 159, 160 Argil, 154 Armenia, 67 Arrow-root, 134 Arsenic, 126 Artesian Wells, 203 Arts, 190 liberal, 190 fine, 191 mechanical, 191 Art of writing, 191 Asbestus, 76, 78 Astronomy, science of, 187 Athenians, 23 Atmosphere, 17 Attraction, 201 Audiphone, 204 Aurora, the, 21 Aurora Borealis, 22 Australia, 31 Author, 54 Azores, islands of, 62 Azote gas, 113 Babel, tower of, 144 Babylon, 145 Bacon, Roger, 99 Baize, 32