DO YOU KNOW

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 82, 7 April 1928, Page 15

DO YOU KNOW

Tlie discovery of America, it seems, cost £503 all tol>cL Christopher Columbus himself got only £42 13s. At the time he was receiving £G1 a year as Admiral of the Fleet, aud hia expedition lasted froih 3rd August, 1492, to March, 1493. The captains of his ships drew £41 a y<>ar, and his sailors from £4 15s to fid. The largest map in the world is in San Francisco. It cost £20,000, ana took eighteen,; months to complete. It is 200 yards, long, and 6 yards wide, and shows' the whole of California, in relief. Tlio value of property insured in London against iiro exceeds £2,000,----000,000. .Portland cement must be so fine that more than three-fourths of it will pass through a sieve of 40,000 holes per square in th—a sieve so fine that it holds water. ■ The fuijp.st fabrics are. waterproofed by the Chinese by immersing them in a' mixture of ioz of whito wax and onu pint of spirits of turpentine.. The articles fire hung in the open air to dry. Kgeous have been known to attain ii speed of over a mile a minute. On one occtasion a pigeon accomplished a journey of 477 miles at an average speed erf 1531 yards a minute. Bhibtier is now believed to bo the . equipntent that enables whales to withstand the pressure of great sea depths! Obser cations record Greenland specimens that took 700 to 800 fathoms of line .'straight down. Scott's ship Discovery, on arriving back from its last Antarctic voyage, reported passing an iceberg near the Orlraeys that was thirty-five miles long and averaged 150 feet in height. Eingland has more than half a milliorl dogs in excess of the number four yeflirs ago. The revenue from licenses no'p amounts to £1,074,479 a year.