NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19418, 28 August 1926, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The ordinarv person's lungs contain 76,000,000 air cells. The population of the earth doubles itself in 250 years. Goggles have been devised to protect the eyes when peeling onions. Ono pound of good coal has sufficient energy to lift a man 14 miles high. During the last 108 years the British Parliament has had only 10 Speakers. One-sixth of the people in Great Britain live within 15 miles of Charing Cross. Cases of twins occur, according to na English calculation, once in every 68 births. Holland has a river called Y. In China there is a city called U, and in Sweden a town called A. Soap was made by the Gauls over 2000 years ago. They made it of goat's fat and the ashes of beech trees. Loudon originally stood in Hie centre of marshes, part of which extended over the area of Southwark and Battersea. Arranged in a straight line, tho railways of the world would reach to the moon and back again—477,636 miles. Tho bell of Big Ben, at Westminster, weighs 14 tons; the bell of St. Paul's Cathedral clock has a weight of fivo tons. Miss Mary Maskelync, grand-daughter of the founder of tho famous house of magic of that name, has decided to bo a conjurer. A new mechanical pencil has appeared. It has leads of fivo colours, any oue of which can be used by turning an indicator cn the handle. There are 52 canals in the United States, having a total length of '1468 ihilcs. China alone excels that country in its canal mileage. In West Molesey, Surrey, lives Mr. Alfred Lock, aged 91. One hundred and ten of his descendants live and work in the same village. The Amir of Afghanistan has sent £l5O for the Memorial Theatre to Shakespeare, "whoso rich literature is read and loved throughout tho world." The largest piece of mica ever discovered was taken cut of a Carolina mine recently. It weighed 33001b. and was valued at about £IOOO, A 16-foot wooden pipe, made of staves and metal hoops, has been constructed in California for bringing water down a hillside to a power-house. An oak tree, three centuries old, foiled on tho Wingerworth Hall estate, near Chesterfield, weighed 15 tons, and measured 18ft. round tho base. Civilisation does not tend to tho horse's longevity. In a wild state ho lives t-o bo 36 or 40 years old, while tho domestic horse is old at 25 years. Racehorses worth a total of £IOO,OOO were recently transferred in ono train from Devizes to Newmarket, owing to the moving of a famous racing stable. > Among the 130 unsuccessful candidates for tho final examination of tho Society of Incorporated Accountants in England recently, there were four women. When their boat capsized during a fishing expedition, the Prime Minister of Japan and his secretary saved two police bodyguards who were with them but could not swim. Tinned foods worth £10,000,000 were imported into Great Britain last year. Many foods, such as lobsters and prawns., cost mora when tinned than when, fresh. . > - A patriotic man from Sussex, who wishes to bo anonymous, has made a present to tho nation of Government bonds to the val'ue of £IB,OOO, which have been duly cancelled. - Over a million and a-half motor licenses are in use in Britain. The revenue from this source in tho first six monthfe of this year amounted to more than £15,000,000. In the Japanese match factories the boxes and labels are made by little girls, who are wonderfully dexterous 1 in the work. These littlo experts got from l£d to 2£d for 12 hours' work. A team of Sealyham terriers go to the gate of Lord Dewar's Sussex estate every Friday and lie down till their master .arrives on his week-end visit. Thoy never go on other days of the week. For eighteen months Miss Meitzner, 1? years old, of Riverton, New Jersey, has been doing diving work on tho Delaware River. She is the youngest woman engaged in this unusual business. The steward on a French liner accidentally threw 45 passports overboard on a recent voyage. Ilia passengers had a great deal of difficulty in clearing immigration authorities at New York. The Christian namo of Isabel is a corruption of Elizabeth. It was first corrupted as a compliment to Queen Elizabeth, who was called Elizabeila. Afterwards the first syllable was dropped. Girl triplets, born to Mr, and Mrs. William Purcell, of Birmingham, are so much alike, and so equal in weight, that it has been necessary to ticket them ono, two and three, in order to tell " which is which."

Amusing statistics have been issued by two Chicago investigators, who state that after two yeap old girls cry more frequently than bbys, while the five youngest children under watch to use words were all female. A record in mine-shaft sinking was made recently at the Randfontein Gold Mine in South Africa, when 332 ft. of shaft was sunk in 31 days. An average : of 420 tons of rock was hoisted out of the shaft each day. "Hearth Money" was an unpopular tax of two shillings on every hearth imposed by Parliament in 1663 and abolished in 1689. Under the name "Chimney Money" it dates, as a tax paid by custom, from the Norman Conquest. A schoolboy at bldbury, Worcestershire, has all his internal organs on the opposite side from the normal. His case, known as " transposition of the internal viscera," was discovered by a school medical officer, who confirmed it by an X-ray examination. Mr. T. Bellington, an official of the London, Midland, and Scottish Railway at Derby, who has retired after 60 years" service, during that period covered over 500,000 miles in daily journeys to his home at Matlock, and spent in that way three years in trains. When it was reported at a meeting of the Council at Bed was, Monmouthshire, that the township of Trcthomas was overrun with black-beetles, the medical officer of health said that a good way of trapping the beetles was to place a bowl of beer in the kitchen at night. When, during the war, Percy Stamwitz, of Sunbury-on-Tliames, was serving as an officer in the Holy Land, he resolved that Borne day he would build a house modelled after a Mohammedan mosque. About two and a-half years ago lie started work on it, and now it is nearly finished. The largest electric locomotive in the world has been constructed by a Geneva firm. It weighs 126 tons, is more than 60ft. in length, and is driven by six motors, generating 4500 h.p. The engine, which can be driven by one 'man, cost ' £24,000 to build and can easily exceed 100 miles ail hour. Motors small enough to run roller skates are the remarkable achievement of a German engineer. This newest model uses acetylene gas for fuel. The motor is oiled automatically, is water cooled, and lias a unique ventilating system. Powir' for six hours, with a speed of from to 22 miles an hour, costs only about it j penny. 1