RECORDS IN THINNESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18457, 21 July 1923, Page 4 (Supplement)

RECORDS IN THINNESS.

PLATINUM WIRE MARVELS.

Platinum wire has been drawn so fine that 30,000 pieces of it placed side by side would not cover more than an inch, while 150 pieces bound together would be necessary to form a thread as thick as a filament of raw silk -

A mile of this wire would not weigh more than a grain, while seven ounces of it would extend from London to New York.

Fine as is the filament produced by the silkworm, that produced bv the spider is even more : *ntuated. If. for instance. a thread of a spider's web measured four miles, it would weigh little more than a grain. " As a soap bubble floats in the light of the sun it reflects to the eye an c-ndlfss variety of gorgeous tints. Newton showed that to each of these tints corresponds a certain thickness of the substance forming the bubble ; in fact he showed that all transparent substances. who;. reduced to a certain decree of thinner, would reflect these colour*.

Near the highest p«" wit of the bubble, just, before it burst., cm be .-ecu a ■-}■ which rc-Uects no colour and appears b'--.-.k According to Newton, the iliickr.e.-.s of the bubble at this black point is the 2,50Q,0Q0tb part of as meal

Ho is the merriest of companions, but he is hardened with a deep-rooted disgust. He is tired, too, and worn. This weariness is of the spirit. To the quick melancholy of the Latinshe is Anglo-French and was born at Fontainebleauis added that unrest which men miscall the artistic temperament. The world hjis given him great abilities, fame fortune, applause. Ho is hungry for affection and friendship, yet he cannot hold them. With the very charm that draws friends goes a perverse trick of repulsing them. He desires friendship, yet has not the capacity for it. "I am egocentric," he confessed. To children everywhere his name brings gurgles 6i delight, and children embarrass him. He hates "Charlie." The world has discovered him, but perhaps ho has not yet found himself. But he has discovered the weariness of repeated emotion, s-nd ho is a man who lives on and by his emotion.

A RUSSIAN JEWESS EST FALENSTTNE

The Sorovs bad joy in serving the Zionist cause in Palenstine —they had never wavered in their faith in the Jewish people, in its inherently noblo qualities, and its power of developing newer and finer forms of existence when freed. Their lives were essentially harmonious; their marriage was perfect in its happy comradeship, and they possessed a Ivr nity and culture which made itself felt _ in everything that they did. Another Jewish wife" wonders frankly at a certain household disorder. "I don't understand why you don't trouble more about your house," she said frankly one evening, when, over tea round the 'samovar, Chey were comparing homo lite in England and Russia. "We should bo watched if our homes were so bare. If you so into an English house you feel tho a tnfort of it at once—just the personal odds and ends, and the pictures and flowers."

■Madame Sorav agreed thoughtfully. "Yon have a higher standard of beauty in England than we have. But perhaps one rea-son why we Russian Jews care so little for our things is because we have been unsafe for so long. You in England can make treasures of what belongs to you. You can always allow yourselves to tike care of them. We who have been brought up to know that at any moment we. may have to fly for our lives, could never dare to love what we lost so often." -Max Adler.

THE PATRIARCH. John Trovena describes old Barnby Deard.cn who flogged his grandaughtor for stealing away from lessons to catapult birds and rabbits, "Monarch of the household, he no'': only ■ appointed himself instructor t<~. these tempestuous damsels. but had forbidden their mother to interfere in any way whatsoever in his methods >>f education. IT'; - time, ho exoccupied by duties c<-n!i'oled why dairy, .kitchen, arid still-room. Be-.id-v the v.is ignorant. A mother ought not to attempt the framing of her children. I'arlwa tried to rebel, but her husband, who thought highly of his father's wisdom. ov.ini; t-r. tfio mjiatei'fti! nvw.'.nT in whi ii ins -h-.n career hat! been shaped, uphold this decision. bo i'iiy old mat. .bonded Ftar'hs awkwardly the spe'diii?r"X>k and admit ed her f -t?'-r!s In copy a lev,- maxims, such as "moti.-y is the rc-ct NothW "i hen \emamcd but'i"; finish her guinea."

road had to bo strengthened for such heavy weights to run, and the river bridge had to be widened.

All this being accomplished, however, the first houses were carried over with great success, all their goods and chattels and people being safely removed. It is reported that not a single window pane was broken, and that the motors took only about four hours to cover tho 40 miles from Jennings to Cadillac. The slow parts of the work are, of course, tho loading and unloading of the houses on and off the tractor, and much time is taken also by tho removal of telegraph and telephone wires, which often prevent tho passing of a house. It is interesting to know that tho sizes of the houses vary from 22 feet by 27 feet to 22 feet by 36 feet that they weigh from 30 to 40 tons each, and that there are one hundred. At the rate of fonr houses a week, it is expected that the whole village will soon bo settled and working at Cadillac.