"Focusing" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... must be ready to watch the signals from the arctic circle," said Bearwarden. "At midnight, if the calculations are finished, the result will be flashed by the searchlight." It was then ten minutes to twelve, and the earth was already over four hundred thousand miles away. Focusing their glasses upon the region near the north pole, which, being turned from the sun, was towards them and in darkness, they waited. "In this blaze of sunlight," said Cortlandt, "I am afraid we can see nothing." Fortunately, at this moment the Callisto entered the moon's tapering shadow. ...
— A Journey in Other Worlds • J. J. Astor
... George, "and why certain phenomena should prevent us from focusing our attention—— This brings me to the vexed question of sleep. Why is it that we are able to sleep through some vast convulsion of Nature when a dripping tap is enough to keep us awake? I am told that there were people who slumbered peacefully through the San Francisco ...
— The Clicking of Cuthbert • P. G. Wodehouse
... one visiplate, manipulating levers and dials as he drove the Skylark hither and yon, dodging frantically, the while the automatic focusing devices remained centered upon the enemy and the enormous generators continued to pour forth their deadly frequencies. The bars glowed more fiercely as they were advanced to full working load—the stranger was ...
— Skylark Three • Edward Elmer Smith
... proceed to bring our studies to a close. All that has been said, from the beginning, has been gradually but surely focusing itself upon a single point; for the development of all these several faculties and powers leads directly to the forming of ...
— The True Citizen, How To Become One • W. F. Markwick, D. D. and W. A. Smith, A. B.
... a new focusing of attention upon him, and this time Arizona seemed to regret that he stood in ...
— The Rangeland Avenger • Max Brand
... becomes a sea. At the first roll an Englishwoman becomes seasick. She casts an expiring glance upon Chillon, the ancient towers of which are being lashed by the foam. Her husband does not think it worth his while to cease reading his guide-book or focusing his field-glass for ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet
... of the air should be felt more against the chest. I know of a great many singers who, when they come to very difficult passages, put their hands on their chests, focusing their attention on this one part of the ...
— Caruso and Tetrazzini on the Art of Singing • Enrico Caruso and Luisa Tetrazzini
... and specifics, the judgment of Dr. Karl F. Meyer, of the Hooper Institute of Medical Research of the University of California, may be accepted as focusing the consensus of unbiased opinion on the subject. It was as follows: "Serums have not yet been introduced which produce immunity from Spanish Influenza. The serums now employed are of no use whatsoever. ...
— Valere Aude - Dare to Be Healthy, Or, The Light of Physical Regeneration • Louis Dechmann
... the teacher of history solve the problem of bringing out the subject as a whole, and of so focusing it as to make the picture clear-cut and vivid in the pupil's mind—in other words, they give the proper perspective to the prominent figures and the smaller details, the multitude of memories and impressions made by the text-book, note-book, and ...
— Legends of the Middle Ages - Narrated with Special Reference to Literature and Art • H.A. Guerber
... an hour or so before, he had been peaceful and calm, entirely occupied with his duties in the great Temple of Pallas Athena. His mind gave a sudden, panic-stricken leap and he was back there again, standing at the rear of the vast room and focusing all of his strained attention ...
— Pagan Passions • Gordon Randall Garrett
... the arid wastes of Turkestan by way of the fertile spots of Khiva, Bukhara and Merv to the irrigated slopes of the Hindu Kush and Tian Shan Mountains. The French extended the boundaries of Algiers southward into the desert to include the caravan routes focusing at the great oases of Twat and Tidekelt, years before their recent appropriation ...
— Influences of Geographic Environment - On the Basis of Ratzel's System of Anthropo-Geography • Ellen Churchill Semple
... path was bathed in moonlight for a good part of its length; Veronica was plainly visible as she ran lightly along, and Sahwah watched wonderingly. Sahwah was very far sighted, and constant practice in focusing on distant objects enabled her to distinguish plainly things quite far away. Down at the bottom of the hill, where the path met the road, Sahwah saw Veronica come to a standstill and look about her for a few moments; ...
— The Camp Fire Girls Do Their Bit - Or, Over the Top with the Winnebagos • Hildegard G. Frey
... of the guests found an outlet in long-drawn breaths and indignant but unconvincing murmurs that "they'd rather starve," which did not prevent all attention focusing upon Prentiss, whose face wore a forbidding grimness from which all semblance of friendliness had long ...
— The Fighting Shepherdess • Caroline Lockhart
... looked uneasily out over the tumbling ocean, focusing his gaze on a section of the horizon that for want of something more definite than mere hope lay in a direct line with the City ...
— West Wind Drift • George Barr McCutcheon
... possibilities of country life are without number. The surface attractions of the city are most alluring. A focusing of the public mind upon the problem, its pros and cons, will, it is to be hoped, turn the scales without delay in favor of country ...
— Rural Life and the Rural School • Joseph Kennedy
... the knapsack on my back, the heavy tripod under my arm; his aneroid, surveying instruments, and satchel of the almost microscopic notes which he kept fully and precisely every night by the camp-fire (even when I had to crouch over him and the precious paper with my water-proof focusing cloth) somehow bestowed about him. Up and down pathless cliffs, through tangled canons, fording icy streams and ankle-deep sands, we travailed; no blankets, overcoats, or other shelter; and the only commissary a few cakes of sweet chocolate, and a small sack ...
— The Delight Makers • Adolf Bandelier
... great increase in general ability and critical ability has been going on throughout the last century, that no isolated great personages have emerged. Never has there been so much ability, invention, inspiration, leadership; but the very abundance of good qualities has prevented our focusing upon those of any one individual. We all play our part in the realisation of God's sanity in the world, but, as the strange, dramatic end of Lord Kitchener has served to remind us, there is no single individual of all the allied nations whose death can ...
— War and the Future • H. G. Wells
... up the color, and one other subject occasionally used this method of bringing about a change that was difficult. With D. the color did not come at repetition of the name. G. was assisted by auditory recall of the name. Nine subjects reported a feeling of strain, usually in the eyes as of focusing, occurring especially when there seemed a difficulty in producing the desired change. The tension attended almost exclusively changes of the presented color, not restorations of that color. For D. this strain was considerable, ...
— Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1 • Various
... present time. The origin of fire as represented in any of the myths of the superstitious beings of early ages is as suitable as any other, inasmuch as definite knowledge is unavailable. Active volcanoes, spontaneous combustion, friction, accidental focusing of the sun's image, and other means may have introduced primitive beings to fire. A study of savage tribes of the present age combined with a survey of past history of mythology, of material relics, and of the absence of lamps ...
— Artificial Light - Its Influence upon Civilization • M. Luckiesh
... titanic battle a huge disc appeared, carried by the gaseous clouds. It was a concave lens, like some powerful optical instrument. But instead of focusing beams of light, it reflected, not only light but all forms of energy. As the spheres attacked they were shattered into spores ...
— The Whispering Spheres • Russell Robert Winterbotham
... out in history as the war's richest heritage. Problems which had been considered insoluble were solved. The casting aside of all conventions, all restrictive habits of thought, all selfishnesses, and the focusing of the highest scientific ability in a struggle which might mean the life or death of the nation, had brought as a by-product a development ...
— Opportunities in Aviation • Arthur Sweetser
... table. But however constructed it must be considerably larger than the largest sheet of bromide paper which is to be used, thus allowing for nearly all necessary adjustments of the paper. It is preferably covered with white paper or fine blotter to aid in focusing. The reflector F is considerably larger than the negative-box, and adjusted at an angle which will reflect the light from the sky or sun evenly upon the ground glass. It is best covered with good white blotting paper. G is a hood which I have found useful in sunlight enlarging, ...
— Bromide Printing and Enlarging • John A. Tennant
... probably equal in dimensions to that of a quarter plate. Proceed to focus by sliding the outer tube to and fro until the colors are quite clear and distinct, and at same time screw down the slit until the Fraunhofer lines appear. By using the direct rays of the sun, and focusing carefully, and adjusting the slit to the correct width, the lines can be got fairly sharply. Slide your front so that the spectrum falls on the ground glass in just such a position as a quarter plate glass would occupy when in the dark slide, and arrange matters so that the red comes to ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 821, Sep. 26, 1891 • Various
... vanished save in moments of rare exaltation, so Joan's newfound faith took upon itself an aspect of sunshine. Her clouds were made beautiful by the new light; they did not darken it. Mary's gray Cornish mind kept sentiment out of sight. She lived with clear eyes always focusing reality as it appeared to her. Heaven was indeed a pleasanter eternal fact than hell; yet the place of torment existed on Bible authority; and it was idle to suppose it existed for nothing. Grasping eternity as a truth, she occupied herself in strenuous preparation; ...
— Lying Prophets • Eden Phillpotts
... Potensi, walking for once with her husband, passed through the adjoining room just as Nina had finally succeeded in focusing her attention upon Allegro's sprightly chatter. As they passed, the contessa stopped a moment to say to Nina, "I am so glad to see that you have recovered from your sudden indisposition of this afternoon." But her tone was neither solicitous nor sincere, and she hid her hands in ...
— The Title Market • Emily Post
... were here and over!" she said fervently. "I'm scared stiff when I think of my poor little study with all those artists focusing their eagle eyes ...
— Miss Pat at School • Pemberton Ginther
... continuing access in the digital environment rather than focusing on the permanence of the medium and long-term archival standards ...
— LOC WORKSHOP ON ELECTRONIC TEXTS • James Daly
... sound of her nightingale self, must have stood thus, trembling with melody. Opposite her, above the crowded mantelpiece and surmounted by a raffia wreath, the enlarged-crayon gaze of her deceased maternal grandfather, abetted by a horrible device of photography, followed her, his eyes focusing the entire room at a glance. Impervious to that scrutiny, Miss Coblenz moved a tiptoe step or two farther into the room, lifting off her hat, staring and smiling through a three-shelved cabinet of knickknacks at what she saw ...
— Gaslight Sonatas • Fannie Hurst
... time when he played the greatest game of all, when all his energies were fiercely centered upon preservation for himself and certain destruction for other men. Perhaps because he had come back clean, having never wasted himself in complaisant liaisons overseas, the inevitable focusing of passion stirred him more profoundly. He was neither a varietist nor a male prude. He was aware of sex. He knew desire. But the flame Betty Gower had kindled in him made him look at women out of different eyes. Desire had been revealed to him not as something casual, but as an imperative. ...
— Poor Man's Rock • Bertrand W. Sinclair
... was moving, to center its lens on target. As Pete watched, the lens barrel swung till he could see the glint of light on the outer focusing circles. As the rack with its charges started to face him, he moved back, preparing to roll into the narrow slit ...
— The Best Made Plans • Everett B. Cole
... sewers of a city, picking up a name here, a number there, by eavesdropping on street conversations. He had found that every city contained certain uniformed individuals whose duty it was to direct strangers, and by focusing a directional microphone on such men and listening, it was possible to glean little bits of knowledge that could eventually be co-ordinated into a whole understanding of the city's layout. It was a time-consuming process, but it was the only ...
— Anything You Can Do ... • Gordon Randall Garrett
... This focusing of attention upon individuals worthy of imitation has been carried much farther by various companies. Through their "house organs''—weekly or monthly papers published primarily for circulation within the organization—they make record of every incident ...
— Increasing Efficiency In Business • Walter Dill Scott
... Things were certainly focusing around Fordham spur, there was no doubt of it. That point of the road was a decided point of interest to Ralph every time the Overland Express neared the spur on succeeding trips. He could only conjecture that Zeph and the Canaries and others in whom Zeph was interested, were located somewhere in ...
— Ralph on the Overland Express - The Trials and Triumphs of a Young Engineer • Allen Chapman
... called Blake, in a tone he tried to make pleasant. Then he motioned to Joe and Charlie to seem to be busy over the midget camera, which was kept ready for instant use. At the same moment Blake threw a black focusing cloth over the mirror, for he thought the Frenchman might notice that it was in a position to reflect whatever took place in ...
— The Moving Picture Boys on the War Front - Or, The Hunt for the Stolen Army Films • Victor Appleton
... tail, they do say," replied Jim thoughtfully. For already the light of suspicion was focusing its red glare. ...
— Bob, Son of Battle • Alfred Ollivant
... sense of being alone with this rocky coast, with its salty-sweet wind, its blue water, its limitless sky, from which poured a flood of clear, pale golden sunlight. And then, as if out of the heart of them all, came a figure immensely alive, the light focusing upon her as if she were the true meaning of the picture in which she appeared; as if this background were not accidental, but had been chosen and arranged for her with ...
— The Purple Heights • Marie Conway Oemler |
