What is MENISCUS? The departure from a flat surface where a liquid meets a solid, due to surface tension. The effect can be seen clearly through the wall of a glass tube. The surface of water in air rises up the wall of the tube, while that of mercury is depressed, SIGHT-FEED LUBRICATOR.
An abandoned mud-covered scooter is found during the draining of the Canal Saint-Martin in Paris, France Charles Platiau/Reuters
In the late 1890s Bunau-Varilla began lobbying American lawmakers to buy the French canal assets in Panama, and eventually convinced a number of them that Nicaragua had dangerous volcanoes, making Panama the safer choice.