B (bē), the second letter, is a consonant, and is called a sonant labial, because made by the lips and representing a sound, as in able, boy, cab. After m in the same syllable or before t, it usually is silent, as in bomb, debt, bdellium. The form is Roman, from Greek β, which, perhaps, is of Phœnician origin. All letters of the English alphabet, except J, U and W, come from the Latin, which derived them through the Greek from the Phœnician.
Baal (bā′ăl), the principal god of the Phœnician and Canaanitish nations, among whom Ashtoreth was the principal goddess. He was the god of the sun, as ruling and giving life to nature, while Moloch represented the sun as a destroyer, and both these ideas were united later in the god Melkarth. The oldest form of his worship was on the tops of mountains; thus the Midianites and Amalekites worshiped him on Mount Peor; the Phœnicians on Carmel and the Canaanites on Hermon. Upright conical stones, either in the open air or in temples, were a mark of his presence, but there were no images of him. From the earliest foundations of Tyre he seems to have been the protecting god of that city. His worship spread among all the towns of Phœnicia, including their distant colonies, such as Malta, Carthage and Cadiz. The Greeks connected him with Hercules, calling him the Tyrian Hercules. The worship of Baal was very attractive to the Jews, and many years of punishment were necessary to banish it from Israel. The word Baal is often used in connection with some epithet; as Baal-Berith (the Covenant Lord), and Baal-Zebub or Beelzebub (the Fly-God), the idol of the Philistines at Ekron, where he had a temple. Such proper names as Jezebel and Hannibal are compounds of the word Baal.
Babcock Test, a method of determining the amount of butter-fat in milk, named after Prof. S. M. Babcock, of Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station, who invented it in 1890. It depends upon (i) the separation of light from heavy parts by centrifugal force and (2) the action of sulphuric acid on all the solids of the milk other than butter-fat. The machine consists of deep brass cups attached to an upright revolving shaft, so that they will swing out horizontally when the machine is rotated by hand or steam power. In the cups are placed Babcock milk bottles.
These are vase shaped with long narrow necks, and hold about 2½ cubic inches. Almost equal parts of milk and acid are mixed in the bottles in a special way. The acid decomposes the other solids and frees the fat. Being warmed by the chemical action, the fat particles run together, and being so much lighter than the acid mixture, the fat rises into the neck, which is so graduated that the amount of fat can be read off in percent. The rapid rotation of 900 to 2,000 or more revolutions per minute separates practically all the fat. The Babcock test was the first practical method of testing milk for commercial use. It has made it possible for creameries to pay for milk on a basis of cream value and has made it possible for the dairyman to estimate accurately the performance of each of his cows and so tell the amount of cream produced by each. Milk from different cows may vary in amount of butter-fat from 2% to 8%. Some cows will test less than others, but may, by reason of a greater quantity of milk, produce the same amount of butter. Milk for retailing is usually required by law to test at least 3% of cream. Cream is sold in different grades, as 12%, 18%, etc. See Cream Separator. Ref.: L. L. Van Slyke: Modern Methods of Testing Milk and Milk Products.
Ba′bel, Tower of. According to the story in Genesis xi, the descendants of Noah journeyed from the east till they came to the plain of Shinar (Chaldæa), the Hebrew form of the native name Sumir, and there began to build a tower of burned bricks and pitch, whose top should reach the sky. But God confounded the language of the builders so that they could not understand each other, and the tower was called Babel or Confusion. A similar story has been found among the Babylonians, and the Greek story of the giants who attempted to scale the sky but were overthrown by Zeus has some likeness to it. The site of the tower was somewhere in Babylonia. It is usually supposed to be represented by the great pile of Birs Nimrud, which stood eight miles from the city of Babylon, was dedicated to Nebo, and was called the Temple of the Seven Lights. It had stood unfinished, till Nebuchadnezzar undertook to finish it, and its ruins still rise 153 feet above the plain. Another possible site is the ruin called Amram, within the city
