A major corporate scandal broke out in London in 1916. It was over German control of monazite sands in the princely state of Tiruvitamkur, anglicized as Travancore, in British India. Travancore was home to one of the world’s largest monazite deposits. Monazite was a major source of thorium nitrate used in incandescent gas mantles for street lighting— a cheap alternative to electric ligh…
Cake is a form of sweet dessert that is typically baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of breads, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate, and that share features with other desserts such as pastries, meringues, custards, and pies. Typical cake ingredients are flour, sugar, eggs, butter or oil or margarine, a liquid, and leavening agen…