NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 49, 27 February 1937, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

ITEMS OF INTEREST IN PASSING..

KETTLES OF CLAY. An exhibition on ways of economising metal, recently opened in Moscow, is showing some interesting electrical domestic utensils made of red clay. They include electric kettles, electric fryingpans and electric saucepans. The utensils are said to be more hygienic, lighter and cheaper than metal ones. Thev are being shown by the Leningrad Institute of Ceramics. Among the 3000 exhibits on view are new building materials made of the waste from the open-hearth furnaces with an admixture of clay. NOBLE PIGS. There is an important racial distinction in Germany even between pi?s, which may cost the lives of thousands of swine long before their "noble brethren" will end in the butcher'* shop. Recent research work araon» the Reich'* livestock revealed to race-conscious farm leaders that about 10 per cent were virtually "without a race"' and consequently were no good. Th© blue bloods among Germany's pigs are 3,600,000, belonging to a race which is aristocratically labelled as "German noble white hog." Some seventeen millions carry the name "enobled country bred pig."

TONGUE-TIED. The cat's got Minnie Wall's tongue when it comes to speaking to her father —has had it, in fact, for 45 years (records a New York newspaper, in reference to a College Spring*, lowa, woman). She talks with her brother. Sam, 43 years old. She chats with iier neighbours. She bargains with the butcher and grocer. And she hears what her father, Charles Wall, now 81, says to her. But in all the 45 years of her life, she never has spoken a word to him. Xobodv knows why, but her father has an idea that Minnie was "birthmarked" by something that occurred to her mother just before Minnie was born. "I'm 81," he said, "and we've lived together here ever since she was born without her saying a word to me. And I don't suppose we'll ever know just why she always just sort of chokes up when she tries to. She can't even talk about it to anyone—ju>t l'>-es the power I of speech when she tries."' j

THE BUTTER TASTER. ! i housands. of samples of butter— ' weighing altogether -J3,000,0001b —have 1-een analysed at Winning by Mise J'.clith \ oung. a Dominion Government employee, during the past rear. Miss \oung's ta-k is to test butter from e\ery churning in all the creameries of Manitoba. She also te>ts some from the creameries of Southern Saskatchewan. •Sometimes she makes I'M) complicated tests a day. The butter is tested for , three things—for moisture content, for ; salt and tor starch. The last test is J given only to certain samples. Miss ! V oung does not taste any of ihe butter. j UNLUCKY GOLD. After travelling 1 ">OO miles to prospect 1 tor gold. Pool Field and J. H. Mtilhol- j land, who set otK from Edmonton,! : Aiberta. last July, have been defeated—l i>y superstition. When they arrived in j the wild Xabanni region, 1500 miles 1 lfirth-west of Alberta, they tried to! enlist the services of a tribe of 30 Indians to help them in panning for gold! | known to exist there. But the Indians] refused to join the expedition, declaring that death awaits anyone entering the district where the gold" i& situated. Five prospectors have died mysteriously in the region during the past" 30 years" and the Indians declare that it possesses an evil spirit. DOG AS DETECTIVE. A huge black and tan dog named Dale is one of the most successful detectives in the famous "Mountie" police force ("The Royal Canadian Mounted Police"). His exploits fill a full page of the annual report of the force, now issued bv the Commissioner, Mr. James Macßrieii. He has tracked down the murderers of two Mountie policemen—Sergeant Wallace and Con*table Harrison; traced a demented man who had caused an explo-! *ion in a farmer's house by placin- a petrol-soaked suit of underwear at a <'el!ar door; traced a lost child, after a search party had failed to find her; and most brilliant of all. Dale not onlv arrested ' a thief, but collected evidence to prove his guilt. "BRAIN-WAVES" MEASURED. A machine that measures "brainwaves has been installed in the! psychological laboratories of the University of Rochester, XV. I t amplities l one million times each electrical wave i generated by the normal human brain. I it i> claimed, and records the length on a photographic film. Its electrodes of' pure silver are linked to two specially! constructed electrical units capable of | magnifying electrical currents 1.000,00(1 times. These electrodes are placed' against the head of the person l>eingi •studied and the minute electrical cur~ j rents are stepped up by the amplifiers i to two oscillographs. The latter consist of small mirrors which are turned: by the electrical impulses comin- from! the amplifiers. A beam of light i« : reflected by them to a moving '"photo- : graphic film which shows a regular zig- ; zag tracing when it is developed. Some j of the most fundamental investigations! I of the nervous system's function have | been made by studying these electrical j changes or "action potentials," accord- ! ing to Dr. Leonard Carmicliael, chairman of the Department of Psychology I at the University.