NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19780, 29 October 1927, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The blanket was first made and used by Thomas Blanket, a Flemish merchant, in 1340.

The loss to the world each year by the rusting of iron and steel is said to amount to £500,000,000. '

Lighthouses on the Atlantic coast have been painted with large arrows pointing north, to help guide, aviators.

It is estimated that the total consumption of tobacco averages 2|lb. per year for every inhabitant in the world.

An inch of rainfall is equivalent to 101 tons per acre, or approximately millions of gallons for each square mile.

The most ancient writing of which there is any knowledge is that by the first inhabitants of Babylonia, six thousand years ago.

In China there is only one qualified doctor to every 740,000 inhabitants. In Great Britain the proportion is one to 1400.

Of the 170,257 articles found in public carriages and deposited with the police m Britain last year, 68,765 were restored to the losers.

A toy balloon released at a hospital f«te at Canterbury England, on August 10 \ as ■picked up at a point 20 miles east of Posen, Poland

In the City of York, there is more mediaeval church glass than anywhere else in Britain, and as much as in any Continental town.

The cleaning up of the 1800 tons of waste paper and confetti thrown npon the streets of New York during the welcome of Lindbergh cost €3500. The lawyer's fee of six shiHings and eightpence originated from the fact that it was the value of the smallest gold coin, which was called a noble.

An '* electric cow " is used to provide passengers of ocean liners with niilk. The machine produces milk from milk powder, nnsalted butter and water.

The Bermuda Islands are composed oi coral rock which constitutes the only local building material. It can be cut and sawed easily with steel tools.

A company at Watford turns out about 60,000 books a day. Twenty tons of paper enters one end of the building daily and emerges at the other end in the form of books.

At a recent exhibition of the Worshipful Company of Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers, a sample of gold wire drawn so fine that 3500 yards weigh only 1 ounce was exhibited.

Every Sunday, a groap of golfers near Fort Stockton, Texas, assemble on the course and listen to the Sunday school lesson broadcast by the pastor of the Presbyterian Church. The usual height at which swallows, wild ducks, geese and other birds fly when travelling long distances is from 1000 ft. to 2500 ft. Cranes have been known to fly five miles above the earth.

More fruit is being eaten in Britain than ever before. Each one of the population consumes on an average ninety-three apples, sixty-seven oranges, fifty-two bananas, and fifteen lemons a year. One of the longest prison sentences ever imposed was given to a mayor of Alba, Spain, in 1893, when he was convicted en 217 counts of forging public documents. He was sentenced to 3083 years in prison.

When a fisherman of Westbourne Street, Hull, was fined 10s 6d at Hull for being drunk in charge*of a child, he said he had received 33s a week from the labour exchange, and spent 13s a Week on drink.

In all the churches in the diocese of tbe Bishop of Gerona, Spain, the bishop has ordered a letter to be read enjoining those of the faithful who frequent the beaches not to indulge in mixed bathing. A savings bank in the form of a closed urn of baked clay with a slit in the top, has been found in the ruins of Utica, an ancient Phoenician city on the African coast. It is believed to be 2500 years old.

There is no grape in grapefruit; no bread in breadfruit; a pineapple is neither pine nor apple; a prickly pear is not a pear; an alligator pear is neither a pear nor an alligator, and a sugar glum is not a plum. An hotel in the town of Charlotte, North Carolina, has ordered fcwenty special beds, 6in. longer than the average, in the hope that tall guests will stop com.plaining of having to sleep with their legs drawn up.

Calling at a cottage in Seal, Kent, where an aged woman of ninety-two resides, two met, gently introduced themselves as her sons who had gone to America thirty-four years ago. It was their first visit to the Homeland.

Mr. E. F. Gaylor, of Clift-onvilie, MaSsachusette {U.S.A.); has just beaten the record by holding his breath for 14 minntes 2 seconds. The; previous record was made in 1916. whin a man held bis breath for 10 minutes 20 seconds. Where an American toots once at a blind corner, and an Englishman three times, a Frenchman toots five times. The latter not only defies authority to make his toot less but has invented the most ear-shattering horn in the world.

A quaint old-world ceremony was observed at Guiseley, Yorkshire, lately, known as Clipping the Church. The origin of the curious ritual is lost in antiquity. Children joined hands around the old parish church and chanted hymns. A young man in Constantinople has been sentenced to one week's Imprisonment for wearing Oxford trousers In Turkey it is a criminal offence to wear these garments. In England they have gone even further and made it unfashionable.

Mine workers endure the heat in the shafts more easily when salt is added to their drinking water. Excessive prespi ration cause® a loss of Salt from the body, and replacing this loss prevents much of the exhaustion that would otherwise result.

In Detroit, during the last year, the fares collected on the 'bus lines of the municipally-owned system increased more than 100 per cent. In addition, thousands of passengers were carried on privately operated lines and other carriers using petrol-driven motors.

On the occasion of a severe thunderstorm over the week-end in South Carnarvonshire, a few weeks ago, two dairy cows were killed by lightning in a field on Penybryn farm, at Dolbenmaen. Another cow was killed on Penarlggaid farm, Rhoston, two miles away. Half as big as a brick, pitch black but shot through with green and pea-cock-blue fire, the largest opal in the world is now in the United States National Museum. It was found in a bed of ash in Virgin Valley, Nevada, and weighs over 18oz. Tourist traffic to and from the Isle of Man on a recent Saturday was exceedingly heavy, 27,C00 visitors arriving and more than 29,000 departing. The first steamers arrived soon after 4 a.m., and tourists rested and slept on the promenade seats until the lodging-houses opened. Roman houses were heated by a kind oi hot-air farnace system of pipes that conducted heated air through the rooms from a subterranean furnace. Daring the supremacy of Rome, also, olive oil formed the basis of one of the greatest developments in the history of illumination.

The provision for illuminated batons for the Paris police to regulate traffic at night is being considered by the authorities. The baton, while being painted white, is illuminated with red and white lights, which are operated by a battery which the policeman wears tached to belt.