MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 1891, 1 May 1890, Page 37

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— A method of purifyirg water by a special application of electricity has been discovered at?d practically tested bobh id America and in Surope-. It is said that any drinking water, however impure, may be rendered perfectly usable in a very short time without rearranging existing reservoirs or pumping machinery. —Machines for packing matches have recently been tried with encouraging results. One machine, the invention of two young Norwegian engineers, has a packing capacity yfc iO0O ( boxes p£r pljnute.. Ingenious majchjneS s;cr the various operations in the «v>atoh manufacture have been in use in Scandinavia for some time, and more are expected. —The evidence upon whioh the French j Chamber of Deputies reoently unseated M. ( Bischoffiheim, a banker elected from Nice, showed that 1620 electors had Combined to pell their votes to the highest bidder, that Coins Varying from If to 2df in value had been thrown from a balcbny at, a public Iheetitag, and that 2io electors had received from 20f to2sf per he4d for their v.oters. —■the largest boulder ,stontt in fch'e v world is the one situated in .the English lake district in Cumberland county, England. It b&\ the shape of a ship's keel, and weighs nearly 2000 tons. The stone measures 62ft in length, 36ft in height, and is ascended by a balustraded staircase of 80 steps. Like all other curious geological attractions, no one knows its origin or history. It stands in such a position that a person on top of it can sway the stone perceptibly. • — Stanley says that daring hiß expedition he came across a new and interesting race of blacks, the Wahoumas, who were absolutely European in type and very intelligent. They Appeared to be descendants of the ancient Ethiopians, who settled, in some way not known to him, in Equatorial Africa. — The estimated number of pebple who 'enter dnd leave the city of London daily is three-quarters of a million, and the estimated number of vehicles 72,000. The number of vehicles that pass through Oheapside alone during the 12 busy hours of the day is reckoned at about 11,500, or as nearly as possible 16 a minute. — A London confectionery store gives to every purchaser of a shilling's worth a ticket entitling the purchaser to have one photograph of herself taken at an establishment upstairs. — Twenty-six centenarians who have been publicly authenticated died during the past year. — At Cyme, in Eubcea, was found the other day a prehistoric tomb presenting novel features. Some peasants ia making lime came, at great depth of soil, upon an empty tomb, two metres long and seventy centimetres wide. The bottom was formed of a double series of lire-baked bricks, and the four walls of bricks laid thin end upwards. Inside were found two lecythi with traces of black colouring. —The London Post Office Directory for 1890 contains no fewer than 16^ columns of Smiths, and each column contains about 100 names. There are only two Smithes, but about a score of Smyths. There are also a few Smythes, Smithers, Smithies, Smithsons, Schmids, Schmidts, Schmitts, Schmitzes, Smeeds, and Smeethes. — A new semi-religious order, called the Brothers of the Cross will begin active operations in Paris on the Ist of May. It will be in sympathy with the various labour demonstrations and stand on a platform of freedom in politics, but its main object will be to propagate religious socialism by a purely practical method, and will aim at securing the well-being of humanity by a labour organization, reciprocal, fraternal, and universal in its character. — Indiarubber for street paying is now talked of in London. Granite, asphalt, wood, and othei materials have been tried and found wanting. Rubber has been laid down on the approaches to Euston Bailway Station and seems to be serviceable. It is, also, on trial in Berlin. — A list has been published in New York of the American industrial enterprises which have been transferred to English companies during the last 18 months. It appears that within that period more than £40,000,000 of British capital has in this manner been invested in the United States. — There were 2308 suicides in England last year, which is the largest number ever recorded. Males largely outnumber the females. --Cabs are now running in Paris which automatically register the distance traversed, and indicate the fare which the rider has to pay. — The marvels of modern building in America seem to be without end. The contractors take hold of a five or six story structure of brick, stone, and mortar, push it up, lower it, change its entire character, and remodel it without apparently disturbing the lines of safety or utility. Apparently nothing baffles the modern builder. — In the United Kingdom 28 criminals were sentenced to death during 1889 — i.e., 19 in England, four in Ireland, and five in Scotland. — The long-predicted fuel famine in the British Isles is again postponed by the discovery of coal deposites at the foot of Shakespeare Cliff, at Dover. — It is reported that one Irish banker in Boston in a single week of December prepared 4240 drafts, representing £10,760 for Christmas remittances to Ireland. This doubtless is but a drop of the vast stream flowing to that country from the United States. — Excellent singing is a feature of Presbyterian churches in London. The days are past when only psalms* were sung in Pi esbyterian churches, and almost every church with the exception of Regent square possesses a good organ. — It has been calculated that from first to last not fewer than 9,000,000 persons have been burned for witchcraft under the Christian regime. — The Order of the Knights of Pythias is 26 years old. The society, has reached a membership of 250,000 men throughout the United States. — In Siam it is death to mention the King's name. As the name is generally a mile long and the people are lazy, not many incur the penalty.

— Naphtha dregs are becoming increasingly popular as a fuel in Russia. It is about 35 per cent, oheaper than wood of Coal} .and. it occupies less spade in (Storage, tt is kept ! underground in large cisterns. — The humble cottage where Mary Washington, mother of George Washington, lived and died is still standing, and a movement has been set on foot to buy and preserve it, so that future generations may see the home of the first president of the United States, and learn from what small beginnings great results may spring. An American, pdjJer Stated jbhat tlie site of .An'tlerSonvilie Prison is now part of a large farm belonging to a negro, and the plantation of Jefferson Davis is now owned by one of his former slaves. —The Government of St. Domingo, which claims to have the only original boned of Columbus, is desirous of forwarding them ■ to the United States fofc Use in ISS^, prdvided there .be giVen in return for therh 20,d00'dol cash dowil, and 20 per cent, of the receipts on. public exhibitioh of the same., — A birthday cake, the cirust ornamented with £60 in gold, coins, Was presented \o Dr jßehrend by his Brooklyn congregation on his completing his 50th year. — One of the largest forests in the world stands on ice. It is situated between the Ural and the Okhotsk Sea. A well was recently dug in this region, when it was found that at a depth of 116 meters the ground was still frozen. — Mr Giffen recently estimated that the aggregate growth of British investments abroad in the 10 years ended in 1885 Was £320,000,000, or at the rette of £32}000,000 per anniim. — Throughout the past winter the Presbyterian Church at Kentish-town made an effort to alleviate some of the distress which abonnds in the neighbourhood by providing between 450 and 500 poor children with dinners twice a weeli. , — The average price, of a railway engine is about 3^d per lb all round. Considering that a locomotive consists of upwards of 5000 pieces, which, in Robert Stephenson's phrase, "must be put together as carefully as a watch," it cannot be denied that the price is strictly reasonable. — A Michigan mathematician-calculates that 17,500,000 people in the United States have had the grip. — One of the most remarkable and alarming social symptoms in Austria of late years has been the increase in the number of suicides. During last year Vienna alone reckoned 366 cases. — English manufacturers are said to bo making good headway in the attempt to compete with the Germans in toy manufacturing. The business amounts to £2,000,000 a year. — A strange geological freak is the rolling stones of Nevada. They are globular in shape, and about the size of Barcelona nuts, while their mineral composition is ferruginous and magnetic. When disturbed over a table at distances not exceeding 6ft apart they will roll together, and form a congeries of balls. — Peron, the Paris lion-tamer, has been badly injured by Coralie, a savage beast into whose cage he entered at Brussels, after she had already attacked three other persons who had attempted to master her. — The Paradise of railroad travelling must j be Lower Hungary, where the companies are planting hedges of Provence roses to protect the cuttings from drifting snow. — The briquette making industry i 3 gaining ground rapidly in Europe. In and about Halle, in 1875, there were only 28 presses in operation, turning out the produce of 250 tons of small coal. Now, in 1890, there are 65 works, with 186 presses, which will use up 2,500,000 tons Twenty-two additional presses have just been put in operation, making a total of 208. — The Rev. John Carter (says an American paper), speaking of the proposed revision of the Presbyterian Confession cf Faith, said : " I look upon the revision as disloyalty, equal to the rebellion in the Southern States. These ministers who advocate revision, who continue in the church and draw 10,000dol salaries, are obtaining money under false pretences." —As many as 36,000 people have been accommodated in St. Paul's Cathedral, but that has been with temporary galleries, &c, erected. On festivals, only between 6000 and 7000 people find seats. At an ordinary service, about 4000 people will make the cathedral look quite full. —The interests of the study of entomology were considered to justify the establishment of a caterpillar farm in the Bombay Presidency. — The present Mikado is a member of the ancient dynasty of Japan, claimed by the Japanese to have been founded as far back as 660 B.c.,but which had lain dormant for seven centuries until 1868, when the power of the Tycoon was overthrown and the old dynasty restored. — The Bishop of Salford wishes to insist on three things in every school in his diocese —drawing, cookery, and a penny bank. He says he has not as yet been quite so successful as he could wish, but he does not depair of having all his schools — and they comprise 30,000 children — within a reasonable time taking part in the savings bank movement. — Bread can now be cut and buttered by machinery. The machine has been invented for use in prisons, workhouses, and reformatories. A cylindrical- shaped brush lays a thin layer of butter on the bread as it comes from the cutter. — The new cantilever bridge across the Colorado river 13 miles belov. Needles, Cal., will require 3,200,0001b of iron to complete it. It rests upon two massive stone piers that are 65ft below the bed of the river, and the centre span is the longest unsupported one in the world — 660 ft between the cantilevers. The contractors expected to have the bridge finished by May 1.