NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10836, 20 August 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The eggs of the silkworm are about • the " size of mustard' seeds. The latest method of purifying water is ' / : 0 by means of electricity. French lace manufacturers give employ- •• ":■■■/■ ment to 200,000 women. The first envelope ever made is in the ; ,-:•- possession of the British Museum.. . A patent authority says that not more .-/..-j than one invention in 110 is of any practical _~;, use. ' ;,';'_;' ■ . -.' ...\. m ' There are four sovereigns and nine heirsapparent among the 57 living descendants of -'. -;-l the Queen. '.!:■'.■ In Japan every workman wears on his ■■, cap an inscription stating his business and '. ■•\.\, his employer's name. ' : -_.~' : In thirty years Germany, from being little more than "self-sustaining, has become the ,';■>■ largest sugar-exporting country. p Statistics show that in our largest towns ..-.,; [ there is a steady and tolerably uniform de- '-'; ._•"<; crease in the average siie of families. , •'•."•-'■•„ An expert observer says that ground play ,: V seems to have superseded volleying to a . : ; great extent in the great lawn tennis \.;:.::; : struggles. ,:•"■' ,: It is said that no fewer than 200.00J books ;....;- for the blind are borrowed annually from the ■ free lending libraries iu different parts of '"'•-. ;' England. i ( I •. All American possesses a unique collection J--y t of pieces of blotting paper, each of which \.s.\ bears reversed the signature of a President ..V-:'' of the Republic. >' ', •/, §1 Servia is said to have more centenarians -.'-,' than any other country in the world, 575 of '■;,•. : : her 1,500,000 inhabitants having lived for ' ('■'■■<'• over a hundred years. -.',., '~; -.--.'■ With an apparatus called the myophouo \'; a French scientist claims to have proved /-••-. that the nerves may live hours after tho death of the body. > : . • ' ,;' ; By the end of the present year Britain '■':;.";. will have under construction or newly . v completed 13 battlesh.ps, 36 cruisers, and - : 68 torpedo-boat destroyers. ,' -;.f; There is a church in America with several "'.' ? " babies' corners"—little rooms divided off by : ;.-j,v curtains, where infants can sleep while their mothers attend the sen-ice. . . •• To walk through all the streets, avenues, ~.: lanes, and alleys of London, never traversing the same one twice, would require a ten-mile , ,;"' walk every day for nine years.' ;,":' In the stone quarries at St. Triphon, in the Rhone Valley, the stone is sawn by /V: means of continuously-running steel wire ".-'-;. cables, kept moist with wet sand. . m At the Scottish National Rifle Meeting ..■'.?•-' Sergeant Smith, of the Ist Ayrshire Volun- > teers, won the Scottish Championship and - : £100 with a score of 287 points. A gold-weighing machine in the Bank of-;'.-'■■■■. England is so sensitive that a. postage stamp . v dropped on the scale will turn the index on . -v; the dial a distance of two inches. . From cork chippings, once, thrown away, ; . v.f; thousands of yards of linoleum are now made, ■;' -W at Delmenhorst, Germany, where'the in- ''.-,. dustry is quite an important one. : : .'•';• The land occupied by olive orchards in ;•...: Italy is estimated at 1,300,000 acres, and the ''•,';; quantity of olive oil annually produced at --.- from 70,000,000 to 75,000,000 gallons. , ifg Every good Sikh is obliged to die upon the . •; bare ground. No matter what his rank or age, no rug must intervene between him and ,:; r, mother earth when lie breathes his last. ' '■'■') The flying frog of Borneo has long toes, '■ : '..'y which are webbed at the tips. Its feet' "•;-,' thus act as little parachutes, and enable the - • ':i frog to leap from lofty trees and descend r* \'■■'. gradually. ' . ..-. ' , --, A torpedo-boat was successfully trans- ... _•-.•: ferred by rail from St. ; Petersburg to Se-'>./.'y; vastopol a,'little while ago,' and a number .:•.';. of others will now be sent in the same way' •.,:.. to the Black Sea fleet. "'• ,•" * ','• ,-- •/' The new French coinage is nearly ready. -. It is' described as very eifectve and bold. ; ■/-:■- On the franc is the figure of the Republic ■';,., sowing corn, and on. the ten centime the / ; figure of the Republic spinning. -. . ."' -': .' An important experiment dealing with;. .. locusts is reported from South Africa. An ■• • experimenter there succeeded in destroying • -. ' : millions of the insects by inoculating a few, V;}'•.'; of them and turning them loose. ' »• Jt Coal mines are now being worked at a •./• '■#; depth of over 2000 ft, the coal lying in hori-" '"; zontal veins from 2ft to 3ft thick, where'.;;. the work must be done at a' temperature ;', ''•■ exceeding lOOdeg. Fahrenheit. ' '';■} The Corporation of Accountants are formu- .: ■".■; lating a memorial for presentation to the ;; : Board of Trade advocating the prohibition of ; ■'■■'; stockbrokers being eligible for appointment .;' ; , : as auditor of the accounts of public coin-.:. panies. ' , ' ■ '-"■'■ '"■ ■'.'.'£ One hundred and nineteen persons who .' >• risked their lives in the heroic efforts to save ;."-;•'- the entombed miners in the recent colliery V; I disaster at Whitwick have been publicly pre- : : ;,';!■ sented with medals and certificates "for,.-. ■ bravery." . ■"'- ■ ; -. ; - ' ' ■'■'-.? ■.£ No comet, so far as is known, has ever >- : ; come in contact with the earth; or mingled its substance with our atmosphere." The ..,-"., nearest approach ever observed was the comet '.'■ of 1770, which approached to within ,-';'-. : 1,100,000 miles of our planet. The longest wave hitherto observed is said . •'■■•_;, to have had a length of half a mile, and to '-■'.': j. have spent itself in twenty-three' seconds. •;•■; During storms in the North' Atlantic waves ti sometimes extend to a length of 500 and ;.; 600 ft, and last from ten to eleven seconds, ':''■•- London is just now healthier than' many : ; ;.■;>. seaside resorts. The death-rate in the metro- -. ; •'.'■> polis one week lately was only. 13.8, a point '.-■?•:•'■•; lower than it has touched for a very long ;.■ ;. time. Brighton's was 12.4. Among all the //J. capitals in the world London is by far the v ;,.v healthiest.' ■' ..' ' :''-\ Mr. Caltello, a Shoebiiryness gentleman, .;.;•"•, has just died in the Victoria Hospital, South- . ■■:<:< end. He was going home from Southend on .'• a bicycle, when he collided with a vehicle '-'■', near Watering. A piece of iron protruding ■'". from the cart entered his eye and penetrated ; ■ ■;• three inches into the skull. .. • < r . One of the curiosities of the Bank of Eng>.," ;:';'< land, is to be seen in the printing-room. : A man sits at a desk, and every three .;.;•; seconds a machine delivers to him two- ; complete £5 notes. If he sits there six • ;: hours he receives over £70,000, and in 300'-'"■.":;>. days over £20,000,000. '• The timber rafts of the Rhine are a curious" .. / sight. A single raft has often eight or ten ' '""i small houses on it, and from 400 to 500 work- , men, rowers, and pilots. The vast pile is •;-.,': steered by means of immense oars, and is so : , constructed as to twist like a huge snake in,:.;; the narrow channels. There have never been more than three •■'■.> contemporary European queens ; in fact, .'K;. the number who have occupied the throne V\. in mediffival and modern times is compara- '•'; tively small. England neads the list with '. five. Russia can boast of four, but the \./ total comer to considerably under 30 at .■;.'•:' gether. . '; /' In one of the States of America farmers V.; derive a profitable income from a lake each v winter by harvesting- hay on the ice. The shallowness of the water in the lake bed •■'' causes' the grass growing on the bottom to V/' project considerably above the surface, and •:: when the ice forms the hay can be cut with ' great ease. ■ ' '', . : . ■; . •i--^P : : Forty persons in Antwerp were poisoned ••'-..■,'•* by eating ice-creams sold by an itinerant Italian vendor. • The victims, almost all of. ''.''<: whom were children, were taken to the ; Stuivenberg Hospital. Their symptoms were' •;>• peculiar. They suffered from swollen lips ',': and most acute pain in the mouth, while the''?-; •: face had a greenish hue. Two children, agea jsßj about 16 years, have died, and twelve others : ■' are still in hospital. ~ It is love which chiefly differentiates & humorist from a wit.'.; A wit sees bu f one . ,' point, and sees that with indifference, or .;■::/' with contempt, Oi with malice; ? humorist ■~'• sees all points and sees all with love. And pH these two differences, perhaps, resolve them- ';":: selves into one—the difference in width of range and view. "To know all is to for- .;.'.;•* give all," says the divine French aphorism; /.-:}r and with humour, to see all is to love all.— jj - Speaker,, .'. ■■■:,>'--' : >;'"-':-:'..- '■■:...-.);;■■"•■•':;^?^t^