GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10265, 17 October 1896, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

A JOUBSALISTIO CURIOSITY. llebs is a funny editorial note from the Nagasaki Shipping List:—lt may inferos the readers of our to-day 'a ' pig ' a (' N.S.L'), to learn that the present ie; ue j, a Second Edition, the First having rove , a complete failure, through falling out with this month's Calendar, an English Diction ary, a simple book on English Gram mar and a similar small Treatise on Punctuation' For further information apply to the Editor —Sunday, sth July, 1890 TEMI'EKAXCK BULLS. Mr. Joseph Mating, the Gran] Ttfiiplap tells some good 'bull' stone* in ,|,' Woman's Signal. One temperance speaker alarmed an audience by saying, ' I Plan prostrate with astonishment j' another declared that it was 'The utterance o! I;,-. silent word that did the uio.-t good.' Than there was the picturesque orator, who ij«ked 'Suppose a modern balloon dropped uuoi on uninhabited island, what w UJ id i,J. natives say!' A bmider deciareJ li.at ho was more fitted for the scaffold than the platform. A MCII O!ISERVATOi:Y. There is to be another observatory on B-n Jiovis, though it may bs only of a tempj, , rv character. The site selected is nLuut„. yards above the hut, and will ! ie »;i altitude of rather more than WoOft aoo'v'. the sea level. The object of this i,c. v observatory is to ascertain with create precision than has hitherto been pos>ibl« the extent to which anticyclones de«( eu:| on the mountain, and more particularly th-> relations of pressure, temperature, and humidity at this new station as compared with similar elements at Fort W ii Ua[U au j the summit of Ben .Nevis. ENGLISH ARTISTS IS GERMANY. A. list of the E.nists to wlura, by the Emperor's command, prizes have been awarded for their works exhibited at the International Art Exhibition in Berlin m celebration of the Bicentenary of the Berlin Academy ol Art*, was published recently. Mr. E. Onslow Ford, R.A., receive t»« large gold medal; while Air. Gotch, Mr. U. W. Joy, Mr. E. A. Waterlow, and .Mi,' Laura Alina-Tariema each obtain the final] (fold medals. First prizes wore awarded to painters of almost all other nations, iticiu J tag France, Bolgiiirn, Italy, Austria, Sn eiien, Spain, and, of course, Germany. Perhaps it cannot be said that English artists .-cut their best, but the same may be said ui other foreign artists with equal truth. Une Belgian, one Spanish, one Austrian, an 1 two German sculptors received the sauiu distinction as Mr. Onslow Ford. MILKING BY MACHINERY. Dr. Laval, a Swedish scientist, has invented ' a remarkably ingenious milking machine. By this process the milking is offected by mere mechanical working oUI I9 teat, and not, as in the case of nearly all previous inventions, by combining squeezing and sucking. The milking is done by a pair of cylindrical rubber rollers, that catch tho teat where it joins the udder, thus shutting off the milk from above. Thev then move downwards to the lower part of the teat, whence the milk i* squeezed by two plates moving parallel tvit.li each oilier. The function of the rollers is ten lercj possible by a hold above to what is called the roof that is regularly moved against the udder, and by which a slight thrun is given to the udder, something like the trusts that a calf gives when sucking, and which helps the milk to descend. Every miikim' machine has four different arms, one for each teat, and these work independently of each other, and even alternate in their movements, although worked from the same axle. HOW TUB TREADMILL WAS INVESTED. The treadwheel, or treadmill, as it is usually termed, its purpose generally having been for grinding corn or turning machinery" is said to have been invented by Mr. Cubit: an engineer of Lowestoft, the notion of eucu a piece of mechanism owing its conception to an accident, in 1837 the interior of the Suffolk county gaol at Bury St. Edmund's presented a sorry spectacle, the inmates, repulsive in the extreme, hanging about listlessly or lounging in groups, und the whole aspect denoting a demoralising waste of strength and time to the visitors who passed along a passage between iron fences which contained the prisoners. On one occasion Mr. Cubitt was met by one of the magistrates, who addressed him thus : ' I would to Heaven you could suggest some mode of employing these fellows. Could anything like a wheel become available?' Mr. Cubitt, after reflection, thought of an elongated wheel. The mechanical requirements were put in practical form, and the treadwheel soon became the generallyadopted type of labour in tho county gaol's. OCCUPATIONS IV PRUSSIA. The returns for the ' occupation' census of Prussia, taken in June, 1895, are now issued. The last census of the bind was taken in 188*2, when the total number of persons in Prussia possessing fixed dwelling places was 27,287,860. The number according to the new census is 31,490,315, an increase of 4,202,455 in thirteen years. The proportion of persons employed in industry and commerce has increase I from 5055 per cent, to 5811, while the proportion engaged in agriculture has decreased from 49*45 to 41-89. AN AUISTOCKAT AS A FIREMAN. The death'is announced from Brighton of Mr. Augustus George Perceval, heir-pre-sumptive to the Earldom of Egmont. Mr. Perceval, who was sixty-seven years of a<'e, was the son of the late Rev. the Hon. A. A. P. Perceval, fifth son of second Baron Arden, Chaplain-in-Ordinary to the Queen, and author of a comprehensive work on Apostolic Succession. His mother was a granddaughter of the second Karl of Dartmouth. Mr. Porceval, who was twice married, was first cousin to the present Earl of Kgmont. Ho had a chequered career, but mainly in very humblo walks of life. After being educated as a naval cadet on board the Worcester, he somehow, according to a Lloyd's correspondent, found his way on board ship without the rating of an officer, and afterwards ho joined the Metropolitan Fire Brigade as a fourth-class fireman. Next he went abroad, and met with many adventures. THE INEVITABLE MICROBE. There is no telling where the investigations of the microbe searcher will end. Now he has discovered that an especially harmful worm or microbe finds a retreat in the very heart of the American Beauty lose. It is fatal to the splendid (lower, but a greater danger threatens. In order to protect the rose, florists, so 'tis said, syringe it with a liquid that is poisonous, and woo to the enthusiast who buries her nose in the (lower. It is one of the picturesque foibles of the summer maiden to toy with a longstemmed, brilliant-coloured rose. Now even that innocent sport seems fraught with danger. Were wo not happier before the microbe searcher began his investigations ? THE LATEST SERPENT STORY. At various times during the last few years a strange looking object has been seen by various persons in Marble Lake, Michigan, While out fishing a short distance frcm shore, between Cedar Point and Lukespoit, the other day, a Mr, and Mrs, Barnes got a good view of a strange looking object like a monstrous serpent. They got within about 50ft of it and could plainly see six or seven feet of its length, and thought it might be ten or twelve feet long, It, had an ugly looking head, about as large as a common sized dog's head which, was plainly seen above water. Mr. Barnes proposed to get close enough to tho object to hit it with the paddle, but his wife, being a little timid, objected, and they retired to a safe distance. A VICE-PRESIDENT WHO NEVER SERVED. It is the usual fate of Vice-Presidents of the United States to sink into obscurity after their terra of ofiico, but there has been only one who has never served in his official capacity. That was William Uufus King, who died in 1853. Ho was an invalid, hut his friends urged him to take second place on the ticket with Pierce in 185'.' Both were elected, but Mr. King's health failed SO rapidly that he was forced to go to Cuba early in 1853, some two and n-half months before inauguration day. Not having returned to the United States by March 4, Congress passed a special Act authorising the United States Consul at Matanzas, Cuba, to swear him in as Vice-President at tie hour when Pierce was taking the oath ol office at Washington. This arrangement was carried out. Vice-President King returned to his home at Cahawka (Alabama), arriving at that place April 17, 1863, and died the following day. His retcwia nerfl laid to rest on his plantation, knwro M Pine Bills. " ••:' • • '