MISCELLANEOUS.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXIX, Issue 56, 25 February 1913, Page 8

MISCELLANEOUS.

"PETftOL" FROM FLINTS. The. possibility of making a cheap fuel for motor-vehicles from flints is discussed in the Paris 'Excelsior.' Flints are composed chiefly of silica, and a scientist is now engaged in researches on the compounds of hydrogen and silicon, which explodes When mixed with air and igniteci, and which could readily bo obtained in. quantity from flints. These compounds, it is suggested, might be usea as a source of energy in place of petrol, which consists of compounds of carbon and hy- | dregen.

MORE LEAP YEAR MARRIAGES. Last year, Leap Year, the marriage rate showed a decided increase. In New Vork there were 2162 more marriages -than in 1911 and in Chicago 3374. Statisticians attribute the increase solely to the fact that it was Leap Year, and. pointing out that in other Ijeap Years there have been similar increases, state that worsen must have availed themselves of their privilege of proposing. A BLACK CAT. A black cat jumped out of. a cupboard wliich had been opened by an nine-vear-old boy named Eric Harvey at Dinnington, a mining village near llotherham, frightening him so much that) he raji upstairs to tell his mother and died from excitement. DISILLUSIONED LEGATEE. Thinking that he was to receive £IOOO legacy left ,by an uncle in Holland, a Peterborough .resident went to Oostburg, Holland. When he'arrived there lie found that 54 other relatives were interested in the will and that his share was only £8 9s 6d.

SHOWER OF GOLD COINS. While workmen were demolishing a 14th-century house in Rome a shower of wold coins tall from a wall. The workmen tried to sell the spoil to an antiquary but the police have confiscated the coins, which are of various dates back to the 15th century and Dear the names of various Popes and European Sovereigns.

£1666 FROM £8 Bs. , RECORD WHEAT YIELD. From the produce of a quarter of seed, for which he gave £8 3s in 1910, Mr W. R. Elgar, a member of the Canterbury (England) Farmers® Club, has raised a crop- of wheat which he has sold for £1666 without the value of the straw. The first year he had a crop of 43 quarters 5 bushels. He replanted the whole of it, and last year produced 770 bushels, which he has sold for the pa-ice named. The wheat is the new variety of the Cambridge University School of Agriculture.

REMOVAL OF A TOWN. The work of moving the mining town of Frank, in Alberta,, to a new site is now being carried out. The town is threatened with destruction by the fall of overhanging peaks of Turtle Mountain, at the base of which it is. A Government commission of experts decided that the town had to be removed farther west, as a laudslide might occur at any time, huge cracks having been discovered on the side of the mountain. CONFESSION TO A JOKER. According to a telegram to the 'Tagblatt' from Grosswardein, Hungary, proceedings have been instituted against a farmer, lying seriously ill in the hospital. following a practical ioke played, on him bv an actor, a fellow-patient in the hospital. The actor, who was convalescent, dressed up as a Driest and heard the sick farmer's confession. To his astonishment thp man confessed to having murdered one of his farm hands some years ago and to have set fire to the man's house. CARELESS CAREFULNESS. M. V erhee. a cashier employed by a Parisian motor-car company, lost a pocket book containing £22<X) in notes and gold, part of the workmen's pay, between the bank and his firm's works at Puteaux. near Paris.

When lie left the car for a drink at a cafe (says the 'Mat-in') he sat on his pocket-book for greater safety. A fewminutes after lie had driven away he realised that he had forgotten it after all. He returned immediately to the cafe, but there was no sign of the money. M. V erhec stated remorsefully afterwards that he wished he had left the money in the cab.

GERMAN AIR VOLUNTEERS. The German Imperial Aero Club has decided to organise a volunteer flying f «rps as an auxiliary to the Army flying corps in time of war only. As an inducement to volunteer airmen to purchase and maintain suitable aeroplanes the War Office will grant an annual subsidy of £l5O in addition to £2 for every day's practice service and £lO towards the cost of transacting the machine. The dependents of any volunteer airmen killed in war are guaranteed ai pension of £365 a year.

POLICEMAN AS BOOKMAKER. Suspecting that a bookmaker's business was bein<j carried out at a house in the Rue St. Andre des Arts, Paris, M. Cossin, a police officer, went to the house and explained to the valet that his master was ill and that he had come to take his place. He reassured the valet by giving him a "tip" for a race. Then the police officer took his place behind the desk in the private office, received the clients with a welcome smile, entered ud their names and bets, ;ui'i pocketed their money. The reiil bookmaker arrived during the morning and was indignant to find a stranger in his place. He was still more astonished when he was arrested for illegal betting.

AN ALUMINIUM FACE. A man whose face was partly blown away by a shell in a battle of the Franco-Prussian War, in 1871, has just been supplied with an ingenious mask, which effectively conceals the disfigurement. In place of the man's nose and cheekbones (says 'Excelsior') were unsightly hollows. Dr Jean Monod and M. Henri Y alette, a sculptor, have fashioned for liini an aluminimum mask, which is held in place by an invisible piece of mechanism. To give the mask a natural appearance it was painted by a special process and moulded to. stow wrinkles as in real life. It extends from just above the eyebrows to the lower part of the cheeks.