INTERESTING ITEMS.

Lake County Press, Issue 2114, 19 April 1906, Page 7

INTERESTING ITEMS.

A locomotive going at express speed gives 1,056 puffs a mile. England makes £4,000,000 a year profit out of its post-offices. Every shilling turned out at the Mint shows a profit of threepence. Telegraph posts along a railway I are arranged thirty to the mile. .T. The Paris sewers are the largest | and most complete in the world. Five htunlred trading vessels leave the Thames daily for all parts of the world. Four pounds of. fresh leaves are required to make, one pound of dried tea. In proportion to its size, Sheffield consumes about eight times as much coal as London. A lamp burns as much paraffin when the wick is screwed down as when up. * A cow's hide gives 's.">lb. of leather, while thai of a horse yields only about 201b. Uninhabited islands to the number of 10,000 lin between Madagascar and the coast of India. The kangaroo, which is noted for it;; enormous appetite, is said to bo able to eat as 'much as six sheep. : Denmark, which produces an lmj rnense quantity of butter, has an | average of one cow for every two inj habitants. Tin' KmjxM-or of Austria has so | many titles that they are ntmos* I past numeration. For instance he is j nine t i mes K ing. There are no f.nver than 1 1 .000 I rooms in the Papal Palace at Home, 'and many of thorn never receive a ! ray of sun] ighl . Wages are very low in Spain. Farm labourers ffet about fi/ a wwk. The women who work in vineyards do not get more than 7sd. for ten hours' work. Steel needles were invented by the. Spanish Moors. Before their intro'duction. thomes and fish-bones, the I latter with an hole pierced for an ! eve, were in use. ! ' —i—- ' The largest coal train engine in | England has been constructed at the Great Northern Railway Company's | locomotive works at Dorchester. It i is an eight-wheel coupled engine dei signed to draw 800 tons. At the opening of a new cathedral i in Uganda by the Bishop and some fifty European and native clergy, a remarkable offertory was presented. This included I,oin rupees. 90.000 shells, :•>(> bnlh.rks and cows, 3 goats, :U fowls, and l.'M eggs. One of the treasures of the Winter" Palace at St. Peters-burg; is a collection of china which comprises all Ihe sets used by Russian Royalties since the time of Catherine 11. In summer the lower strata of air are warmer than in winter, and therefore clouds a.re formed at a greater height. The raindrops falling from these clouds, therefore, are larger than the winter drops. a. The Lady Mayoress of London can appoint maids of honour and a trainbearer, and she has her own private state carriage and four. At the Lord Mayor's procession, if she comes direct from her country residence, a guard of honour is sent to meet her and to escort her to join in the pagenl. When a ship enters water considerably colder than that through which it hns been going, its propeller runs faster, and as such water surrounds ihe vicinity of icebergs for many miles, the engineers know that when the propeller's action is greatly accelerated without any increase of the steam power, icebergs may be expected. _ Visitors to any of the Mg seaports, like London or Liverpool, may often have seen a vessel flying a flag with a knot tied in one corner of it. It is not generally known that this sign is used to attract the Customs officer, who knows when he sees it that the vessel wishes to ship or consume a quantity of bonded stores, i.e., tobacco, spirits, etc.. his. presence being necessary to break the seal before such stores may be utilised. 991.