WORLD'S LARGEST THERMOMETER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19133, 26 September 1925, Page 3 (Supplement)

WORLD'S LARGEST THERMOMETER.

More than 80 tons of steel have been used in the construction of a new electric advertising sign which has just been erected on'the Thames embankment. A feature of the sign is the colossal 50ft. 'hermometer, the largest in the wor d, which will accurately record the shade temperature by day and night. The sign faces the stretch of the Victoria embautcnient between Westminster and Charing Cross Bridges. NOT BORN TO SHOOT. No one nowadays inquires too closely into the lineage of those who handle a gun on the English moors, but a century ago it was illegal for any man to kill game unless he was "the son oi' an esquize or person of higher degree." So rigidly was the law enforced that the learned Dr. Smart, of St. Andrews, was charged with shooting game without due qualifications, and fined because, though himself a person of higher degree than esquire, his father had not been of that standing! FUNERAL OF A CROWN. The Crown of Hungary, which the Hungarian Government is claiming from Austrian keeping, was once within an ace of going to London. When Kossuth struck his famous blow for Hungarian independence in 1849 he obtained possession of the crown, and when compelled to fly the country buried it at Orsova. Four years later a flood made Kossuth fear tor the safety of the precious diadem, and he gave orders for it to be disinterred and sent to him in London. One of his messengers proving indiscreet, the Austrian Government were first on the scene and uneartheu the crown in September 1853. HISTORY OF GIBRALTAR. Just 221 years ago Sir George Rooke added Gibraltar to Great Britain's possessions. The. Spaniards did not realise its worth until they had lost it. On the other hand, the English did not realise the worth of their prize until they had got it. The hero of the exploit had been sent to the Mediterranean to assist the Archduke oi Austria, but, returning without having been able to do anything of importance, he decided, to help himself to Gibraltar! Thus this immensely important possession may be said to have become British by accident rather than bydesign. THE ROYAL BARGE. A relic of bygone pageantry iia England now seldom used is the Royal barge, which has just been undergoing renovation in a boatbuilder's yard near Windsor. Probably it is the oldest bont in the country, for it was built just after the Revolution, and a brass plate on the stern bears the inscription: "Barge built for Queen Mary by King William 111., 1689." Forty feet long, with canopied seats in the centre, and benches for eight watermen, the barge remains thoroughly watertight and serviceable—a striking tribute to the boatbuilders of the 17th centurv. It is enamelled white, with red and gold relief, and the water-men wear a picturesnne costume of red lavishly embroidered in gold. HISTORY OF BILLINGSGATE. As early as the year 976, when King Etholred was on the English throne, .Billingsgate, or Blvnesgate, as men then «et it down in writing, was mentioned as . thp only wharf in London, and was already a famous fr"h market. Even in those iar-off days the origin of the name appears to have been lost in the mists of antiquity. There is a legend that about. 400 years before tho beginning of the Christian era a king of the Britons named Belin built a gate there, and that when he was dead his body was burnt and the ashes set over the gate in a metal urn. That, at any rate, is more likely than the suggestion that the name comes from one Billing, who once owned the wharf, for the name was there before the earliest wharf. DUKE OF CONNAUGHT'S BRIGADE. Few. soldiers can claim a longer association with one particular regiment than that of the Duke of Connaught with the Rifle Brigade. Although the Green Jackets were not his first army " love," he joined them in his second year as a soldier, and has been connected with them in one rank or another for 56 years. For 45 years the Duke has been the Rifle Brigade's colonel-in-chief, and tho family association with the unit was increased when his daughter. Lady Patricia Ramsay, became the colonel-in-chief of the allied regiment of the Canadian Permanent- Force. The Duke's keen interest in the Rifles is proved by the fact that, whenever possible, he lends them past the saluting base at a review. STONE FROM ST. PAUL'S. A stone from St. Paul's Cathedral, displaced owing to the repairs which have been in progress this year, has been sent to America to be placed on the campus of the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri. The stone "is a three-foot cube, and formed part of one of the statues on the south pediment of the cathedral. It was quarried in the Vale of Portland two centuries ago, and carved by Francis Bird. . , The cube will bear a meridian plate { showing the distances and directions to the principal cities of the world, with the motto " I have set thee a watchman. The gift is the outcome of a suggestion bv a London journalist, Mr. Aaron Watson. MR. W. J. BRYAN'S SALARY. For many years Mr. W. J. Bryan, who died recently, was the most popular of all figures on the American lecture platform,'and he accepted numerous engagements even when Secretary of State under i President Wood row W T iison. This was I the cause of many jests at his expense, | but Mr. Br van had his answer, j The Secretary of State's salary of | 10.000 dollars, Mr. Bryan stated, was not I sufficient to meet the exnenses of the posij t jon—he needed about 8000 dollars a vear I more. That was why he felt obliged to I accent lecture engagements. I When this defence appeared in the ' papers the New York World made a public offer to the Secretary. It undertook to give him an annual grant of the sum reouired to make up his income proj vided that he undertook to devote bim- ! self exclusively to the duties of his office. THE NELSON PENSION. An oddity about the fact that the Ne'son pension is now the onlv permanent pension borne on the British Estimates lies in the remembrance that it was not granted to the hero of Trafal- — .tvitb ;>n was given to Nelson's brother, who had never deserved the gratitude of the country. Nor flops the odditv end there. This v.,,.] Vr.h-.on had an only «on. who prepensed him, and the tit'e and larre n»-ion then went to hi« nephew, the only of his sifter. The present Earl Ne'son, the, four'h holder of the title, is a emndson of the second enrl. He is I iiTimnrried, and the heir to the title is ■ hi* Ivnther. j V«'son'f l'"eal descendants are the ! T; r ; r lnort division of the fnry'lv, his 1 and c>n'v child marrvin<r the second Radnor* and her con helnf? j nrpntofl p. vi'i-onnt. All the m*.Je TTonds descended from her have Nelson as on« lof fheir Ch":stinn name 1 * to d'ctinrrnich I them from the elder branch of the Hoods.