GRAINS OF KNOWLEDGE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 21 February 1931, Page 11

GRAINS OF KNOWLEDGE

In Norway there are more reindeer than horses.

Bees fly about .‘IOO,OOO miles in collecting lib of honey. As a rule grey horses live longer than those of any other colour. The muscles of a bird’s wings arc twenty times morn powerful than those of a man’s arm.

Jii less than 40 years of hist century nearly 800 earthquakes were recorded in California. The difference in time between Australia and England amounts to 10 hours 0 minutes at Sydney. Can von imagine 250,000.000,000,000,000 miles? Such, in round figures, is the size of the observed heavens. According to Pittite inscriptions found in Mesopotamia, horsd-raeing .was a popular sport more than 3300 years ago. The first census in Croat Britain was taken in 1801, when the population was 8.803,000. 11l 1021 the total was 37,887,000. Bees are said to find their way back to the hive by means of a special “di-rection-finding” apparatus which casts off a scent.

We are growing taller. In 1704 the average height of the Gordon Highlanders was only a quarter of an inch over live feet.

The temperature of the moon is said to vary from 210 degrees Fahrenheit, when the sun is shining upon it, to 24,3 degrees below zero when away from the sun. The hour was divided into 00 minutes because no other small number has so many divisions as sixty. It can be evenly divided by 2,3, 4,5, 0, 10, 12, 15, 20 and 30.

Among the stricter Egyptians women are not allowed to attend cinemas. Tho film audiences in Cairo are composed of men, with occasionally a few European women.

As the limbs of tadpoles begin to appear they are cannibals. A number kept in a glass globe of water ate one another till only one, which had fed on its brothers, was left. The first drilled-cyc needles were made in 182(i. It was not until 1870 that needles were made entirely by mechanical process, and not until 1885 that they were finished by machine. Twelve days missed from the calendar in England when the Gregorian Calendar was adopted in 1752. .September 3 was reckoned as September 14, rather more than 11 days being dropped. As far back as 1207 8.0. eclipses are recorded at Oxford University Observatory. In the same huge book are predictions concerning future eclipses as far ahead as the year A.D. 2103;

Sark, one of the Channel Inlands, is ono of the few parts of the British Isles where men outnumber the women. Compulsory education was in vogue there before tlie reign of Queen Victoria.

Over a large area of Central Russia the magnetic needle does not point north and south. It is in one part deflected to the west, at another part to the east, and at one [dace it, [mints due cast and west. The horse is not a shortened version of the giraffe, and Inis not descended from that animal. It lias been traced back to an ancestor no larger Ilian the fox, with four toes on each of the front feet and three behind. Some of the items in the London Zoo’s annual food bill are: Six tons of nuts for the monkeys; fifty tons of herrings and whitebait for the seals and polar bears; one ton of canary seed; 25,000 eggs, and 20,0001 b of condensed milk.

Straight, smooth hair is believed to indicate the possession of a calm, even temperament. Crisp, .curly hair indicates a more impetuous nature, while a “mop” of' red hair, is supposed to he the outward sign of a strong, iake-it-or-leavc-it character. The Victoria Cross was instituted to reward the individual gallant services of the Royal Navy and Marines and the Army. The Cross was first won by a naval officer in the Crimea, when serving as a 'mate on board the Hccla. Ilis act of braverv was on 2lst June, 1854. The Red Sea has beep so called from ancient times by reason of the red marine organisms which live in its surface water and streak it with a red colour. The Black Sea received its name because the skies there are black and stormy, compared with the clear blue Mediterranean skies.

The earliest example of the phrase “The Skin of his Teeth” quoted in the Large Oxford Dictionary is from the Geneva Bible (1500, in the. Book of Job xix. 20): “I have escaped with the skinne of my tetlic.” The* phrase appears in the Authorised Version in the form “I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.” It was in Birmingham, in the reign of Charles 11., that firearms were first made on a serious scale. During the Civil War Birmingham made 15,000 swords for the rebels, but refused to make any for the Royalists, however much they might be willing to pay. Prince Rupert, -therefore, sacked the town, and took what he wanted.

The humble bloater owes its name to Norway. Before the bloater is smoked it is soaked, and an old Norwegian word descended into the English language as “Blowt,” or “Blote.” Thus, a bloater is a fish which has been blowted, or, in modern spelling, bloated. Strictly, it would seem that the person who bloats the fish ought to be called the bloater; but he escaped! The letters 5.0.5., used as a distress signal, do not mean “Save Our Souls,” as is generally supposed. They were selected by the International Radiotelegraph Conference at London in 1012, because their combination in morse code (. . . —— simple that even the most inexperienced wireless operator could detect or send it. Previously the distress signal was “C.Q.D.” The system of “naming” the streets in New York by calling them “Fifth Avenue,” “Sixth Avenue,” and so on, in order to simplify their location, is not of American origin, though it lias been developed more over there than in Great Britain. In many large cities in Britain there are avenues named “First,” “Second,” “Third,” and in Paddington, London, there was at one time an “A” street, a “B” street, and a “C” street, and so on, up to “I’” street. The streets, though, are now known by names, still retain the initial letter by .which they were formerly designated. The Schneider Trophy is modelled in gold, silver and bronze. Worth 1000 giiieas, jt was presented by M. .Jacques Schneider, an enthusiastic French sportsman and a pioneer of aviation. Tt becomes the property of the nation which wins it three times successively, and Britain has now won twice in succession. It was first won by a Frenchman in 11)13, (lying at a speed of 44.7 miles per hour. The two British tri-

nmpliH were Flt.-TJ. Webster in 1027, flying at 28).4!t miles per hour, and F'.-O. Wagliorn in 1!)29, flying at 828.08 miles per hour. ’Flic* race was discontinued during the Great War, blit since ]!)!!) it lias been held eight times.