THE WISDOM OF THE "TIMES" ORACLE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7979, 9 December 1911, Page 19

THE WISDOM OF THE "TIMES" ORACLE.

writes: How long l have stamped, or printed illustrations been known? Wood engravings were the earliest form of printing or stamping illustration to be used, and no mention lias been found of them down to the end of the fourteenth, century. Boccaccio and Petrarch, and .Britain's own Chaucer, are silent about ’them. Even Richard d© Bury, Bishop of Durham in the reign of Edward 111., in his curious essay on "The Bov & of Books," says not a syllable about any other illustrations but painted by hand. No wood engraving exists that can bo attributed to any earlier date than the beginning of the fifteenth century. "■Sam" sends a laconic, query: Who was Mr John Chick? • The only John Chick we know of is a character in Dickens' "Dombey and Son/' ,a brother-in-law of Afr Dombey. "Pent-up" inquires: Docs fouled air descend to. the floor or riso to the ceiling? It depends on the sort of air. The carbon dioxide sinks, while vitiated heated air rises.

“Flora" wants to know; Can yon toll mo where the camellia (flower) got its name? It was named after Georg Josef Canielli, a German botanist. “J>" asks: Is not gold tho heaviest known metal? No. Platina is almost one-third heavier. ' "Home Student" asks*. Was it Shakespeare who said, "ho! when tho stage, tho poor degraded stage, holds Us warixxl mirror to a gaping age"? It was not. It was Charles Sprague. Tho same querist writes: When were the lost tribes of Israel lost? In 720 B. C., when .Shalmaneser, King of Assyria, carried them, into captivity and they were absorbed by their captors. "Historicus" asks: Where and when did tho Turks first settle Europe? At Gallipoli, in 135 C. when Orkban, smi and successor of Othmnn (founder of the Ottoman Empire), dax>tured the city, ■ . ,