GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15557, 14 March 1914, Page 5 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

MECHANICAL CALCULATOR. A Swedish inventer has designed an apparatus for counting money and sorting the pieces into specified .quantities. In the first place, money of various denominations is put into the machine and separated according to value, these being sent into various tubes. When in the tubes the coins can be taken out in lots of 10, 20, 50. or 100 pieces,. at the will 1 of the operator. The apparatus is capable of separating, counting, and dividing in the lots meniohed above ; 72,000 pieces in, an uour. One machine under one operator is able to accomplish in one day as much counting as could be done by 50 most experienced bank . cashiers. ' LEGACY IN A PETTICOAT. Before she died in the Chicago Hospital Mrs. Annette Blodgett, a widow, who had earned a living by doing odd domestic jobs, willed to her daughter and a daughter-in-law a pair of petticoats. One of the garments proved to be a . veritable cloth of magic, for when a patch which protruded oddly inside the lining was ripped off 143 dollars was found concealed beneath it. This money is being used to transport the remains to her former home, and give them interment there. After her death a letter penned on her death-bed was found.. It set forth the • disposition of her possessions. Little thought was given to the petticoat for several days until the peculiar patch aroused curiosity. PETS TATTOOED ON WOMEN. The latest craze amongst women is to have their animals tattooed on-their arms, ankles, shoulders, chests. A tattooist, told an interviewer recently how he first makes a drawing of the favourite, which he then transfers to the body of its owner, and afterwards tattooes, with the aid of electricity, into the skin. "There.is quite a • craze for women to . have their pets tattooed on their arms," he" said. '"I have done this in. the case of horses, dogs, cats, birds, and even wild animals, such as lions and tigers. I recently tattooed on a woman shoulder-a photograph of her little pet rabbit. It is no uncommon idea to have a ' lucky' pig tattooed on the arm. Both men and women come to me" to have lucky pigs designed for them." FORGED FOR LOVE. The first bank-note forgery was committed for love's sake. Richard William \aughan. a solicitor's clerk, wished t<> many his employer's daughter. Une of the conditions imposed was that he should produce £1000 and settle half of it upon his wife to be. He took a month's leave of absence, presumably to obtain the required money irom his mother, but instead, spent ~f £>n n makin g, an engraved impression" of a £20 Bank ol England note. With 50 of these sham notes, he presented himself at the appointed time, and the marriage arrangements were proceeded with. Unfortunately, he required some ready money and put two of the false notes into circulation. They were promptly challenged and Vaughan. arrested. What was to have been his wedding day he spent in the condemned cell, and he suffered the extreme penalty at Tyburn in April, 1758. GIGANTIC FISH. The year 1913 will long be remembered among salmon anglers as that in which the biggest salmon caught in a Scottish river tor 2o years was landed. The fish, which was caught in the Tweed towards the end ot the year, sealed 551b'four hours after being landed, and is the heaviest taken from that river since 1886, when one of 57ilb was caught by Mr. Pryor from the Duke of Roxburghe's water. If the re-cently-landed fish had been weighed immediately after capture, it is estimated that the fish would have attained close upon 571b, for the longer such fish remains out of the water the lighter it becomes. At all events, the Scottish 55-pounder was the largest rod-killed salmon of the Tweed since 1086, although it should be pointed out that a salmon weighing 581b was also taken in the' Alton River, Norway, last year. Anglers tell many thrilling stories of the struggles they have to land a 401b or 501b salmon, but it must be tame sport compared with tuna-fishing in, America, in Mr. F. G. AflaJo's " Book of Fishing Stories" there is a story of 30 boats being towed by a fighting, tuna, 9001b in weight. Dr. C. F. Holder, who relates this incident, says he has seen a tuna when struck take out 600 ft of line "in a vertical plunge that made it smoke." He has even seen line ignite, and has'known a tuna tow a'boat all night 20 or 30 miles*