MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2260, 24 June 1897, Page 40

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— When it is considered thai 18,000 vibrations an hour occur in a watch, and it must not vary a second a week, it is ea«y to see why no watch has ever been perfecb. — A woman has been the keeper of the Santa Barbara' (Cal.) lighthouse for 31 years. During that period she has climbed the tower and attended to the light herself every night, with the exception of three weeks 20 years ago. — To the ingenuity of a Frenchman, Paul Gffard, is attributed a " miracle gun," a repeating rifle which requires no gunpowder. The projecting force is liquefied air, obtained under pressure at a temperature of hundreds of degrees below zero, thus representing an enormous expansive power. There is no smoke, no fla'h, and only a sharp and low report. — A battalion of infantry carries 150 picks, 150 shovels, 10 spades, 25 axes, 50 bill books, i and 4 crowbars. An engineer company has j 130 picks, 130 shovels, 6 spades, 81 axes, 13 hand saws, 4 cross-cut saws, 40 bill hooks, 13 crowbars, and 2 heavy hammers. — To prevent shortsightedness it is well to use the eyes as much as possible evary day in looking at things far away. The clouds, the sky, and distant trees may be often very profitable objects of observation. Sailing on the water is especially useful to strengthen the eyes and prevent shortsightedness ; sailors are usually longsighted. One of the best remedies for weak eyes is plenty of sleep. — All the railway stations in Sweden at Which meals ara served are known by a sign bearing the suggestive emblem of a crossed knife and fork. — During the week about 80,000 letters on -■which the postage has sot been paid, or inuofnciently so, are discovered in London, and Obey ara taxed to the amount of about £-700. , — A patient in an English lunatic asylum ( iroo believes himself shut up in the old Flest I Prison for the National Debt has invented a dimple automatic contrivance for the head of a lawn tennis racket, to pick up the balls and abolish stooping. It acts perfectly well, and the asylum authorities have advised his friends to secure a patent for him in case he becomes cured. His other invention is a really efficacious preventive for seasickness. — A statistician says that of every 10,000 chimneys, three are struck by lightning ; while of the same number of church steeples end windmills, 60 and 80 respectively are struck. — Anybody who doubts the genuineness of an article of food that he has purchased from a Parisian tradesman may take it to the municipal laboratory for analysis. It will cost him nothing to have it analysed and the fact determined whether it is unadulterated or adulterated ; and if the latter, the law deals with the offender without further action on the part of the purchaser. — Probably more cyclists pass through Jfingston-on-Thames on a bank holiday than any other place in England. Last Easter nearly 30,000 cyclists rode through the High ■treet. — A novel advertising device for use on asphalt pavements and sidewalks is made of a little cart on wheels, carrying a brush to clean the pavement, an ink roller and ink fountain and a type wheel -to print on the surface of the walk, the whole machine working automatically BB it is drawn along. — The new naval barracks which the Government is about to erect at Portsmouth will bs the biggest thing of the kind in Europe. The building alone is to cost £600,000. — The ivory market ab Antwerp, organised scarcely five years ago, has become the largest In the world — larger than the two other great markets at London and Liverpool. — It ia estimated that 1,000,000 coloured children are to-day growing up in the United ;Statei who never saw the inside of a schoolhouse, and there are 2,500,000 coloured women 'and children who can neither read nor write. " — Isopolity is not a very familiar word in ithe present day except to students of Greek .'history, and it will not be found in some of the ■modern popular dictionaries. In "The Century Dictionary," after the definition " Equal tights of citizenship in different comnmnitißS," $his example of its use by Clough is given j "Between America and EDgland . . . one would be glad if there could exist some isopoiity." 1 — The Japanese have carried their common school system into force in the Liv Chiu Islands, but as yet little or no attention is paid to the education of girls. — It is said that in Scotland there are 146 parishes enjoying the comfort of no paupers, or jpoor rates, or publichouses. — The president of the Incorporated Law Society of England calculates that £3,000,000 find their way into the pockets of solicitors every year. — A good locomotive will travel about 1,000,000 miles before it wears out. However, Its life depends upon the treatment it receives. With ordinary care it ought to last 12 years. — Lord Wolseley proposes to begin reform in the army by abolishing the cocked hats and leathers worn by staff officers- — A statistician has calculated that the human eye travels over 2000 yards in reading an ordinary-sized novel. The average human being is supposed to get through 2500 miles of if ea ding in a lifetime. — It is proposed at the British War Office to xaise a regiment of gentlemen. There would be plenty of recruits from the young men whe fail to pass the examination admitting to the sohools.

— The United States and Germany are the only two Great Powers of the world that have no postal savings banks. — There is a clock at Brussels which comes about as near being a perpetual-motion machine as can be invented. A shaft exposed to the aolar rays causes an up dranghfc of air which sets the fan in motion. The fan actuates mechanism which raises the weight of the clock until it reaches the top, and then puts a brake on the fan till the weight has gone down a little, when the fan is again liberated, and proceeds to aob as before. — Humau beiDgs have sir muscles to each eye, that they may move it on either side, but horses, cows, sheep, and other quadrupeds which h&bi'ually incline their heads to the earth in search of food have a muscle by which their eyelids are suspended and supported, and which wa do nob need. This is a wonderful adaptation to circumstances. The eyes of amphibious animals partly agree with those of fish and quadrupeds. The cat and tiger, which prowl by night, have a peculiar power of expatidicg the pupil. — A raan-of-war is built upon paper before a single plate of. sfceel is forged. Not; only are the length and breadth of a ship decided upon in advance, but the naval constructor will tell you to an ounce how much water she will displace when her armour and guns are placed upon her, how many times her propellers will revolve in a minute with a given pressure of steam, ai d how many tons of coal an hour must be consumed to drive her at a certain rate of speed. — There is a very ourious stone about which little is ever heard. It is called the Alexandrite, in honour of Alexander of Russia, who was very fond of them. In th« daytime they re- • semble an emerald, except that they are somewhat darker ; but at night they are a deep purplish red. They are found in India, and, like all rare atones, vary much in their qualities. — The brewers of Great Britain use annually about 70,000 tons of sugar in the manufacture of beer and malt liquors. — Women are said to be longer-lived than men, and married peopla than single. Hob climates are prejudicial to longevity, for there children raatura earlier. Gold climates, on feho other hand, are unfavourable to general health. — A Spanish diver has succeeded in bringing £4000 worth of silver bars from a depth of 168ffc off Cspe Finislerre. The ateamar Skyro, which' sunk nine miles south of the Cape five years ago, had on board 88 bars of silvar, worth £9000. The diver has gone down 27 times, and brought up 37 of the bars. — There are now, it is computed, more than 250,000 words in the English language, or about 70,000 more than in the German, French, Spanish, and Italian languages combined. — A penny-in-the-slob bicycle is in use in Glasgow for hiring purposes. The cost is Id for every five miles travelled, and if you neglect to drop in a penny at the end of each five miles the wheels refuse to turn. — The total wealth of Great Britain with all her possessions is estimated at £8,000,000,000. France comes next with £7,500,000,000. The wealth of fcbe cix Isrgest nations in the world aggregates £33,000,000,000. — The people of America consume, it is said, 20,000,000 bottles of pickles annually. — Every year Germ&Dy sends no fewer than 130,000 canaries to America, 3000 to England, and about 2000 to Russia. The great nursery for the breeding of canaries is the Hartz Mountains. Many canaries- come alao from theBlack Forest ; but they do not fetch such high prices as the Hartz birds, not being considered such«ood songsters. ■ — Englishmen have never been accused by foreiguers of any lack of national pride. It is the invariable complaint of us abroad that we loss no opportunity of making it plain that we are children of a superior race. The Englishman never carries his flag about with him ; h.e has none of that ready eloquence with which the sentiment of la patrie iaspires the Frenchman ; yet he contrives to impress his nationality upon all beholder?, very often to their entire discontent. — S peaker. — There will ere loDg be an alternative route for troops through Bgypt, if only we are in occupation. Another year will see the completion of the Nile railway, the trunk line of Egypt, as far as Keneh, whence there is a good desert track, often utilised already, to the port of Kosseir on the Red Sea. The extension of the railway from Keneh to Kosneir, which is to follow at no remote date, will make tie masters of Egypt independent of the Canal, at liberty to use it or not, close it or keep it open just as they please. — Fortnightly. — The finest private library in England is said to be that of Lord Acton, at AldeDham. It contains 60,000 volumes, and its owner ' claims to have read or examined the whoie of them. — A continental steamship company celebrated a year or two ago the completiou of 400 trips by one of its captains. Barely, even in these days of safety at sea, can a sailor boast of suoh a record ; but a British line had in its employ until recently a gentleman who has to his credit a total more than twice as large. Mr George Paynter, who was so well known to thousands of Transatlantic voyagers as the •' butler " of the Etruria, has crossed the Western Ocean 804 times, and has covered altogether in his sea travels no fewer than 2,932,712 statute miles. — There are two items of food which the United States deals with on an immense scale — namely, pigs and honey. Chicago has recently built the largest piggery in the world, which covers 49 acres of land, and cost 600,000 dollars (£120,000). It has taken two years to build, and is capable of holding 220,000 pigs. Seven railway companies haye sidiags from which pigs will be delivered into the gigantic piggery, which has been provided with all the latest improvements. — The honey trade of the United States has in recent years grown to very great proportions, and honey, which has ceased in that country to be a luxury, is found on every breakfast table, and forms part of the grocer's stock in the smallest hamlet, while bakers, candymakers, and patent medicine men use it by the hogshead. Over three million pounds' worth of honey was produced last year in the United States, and nearly one million's worth of beeswax, or more than the production of the whole of Europe. — One of the most remarkable hotels in the world is one which is situated in a place called White Plains, in the State of New York. This hotel ia managed entirely by dwarfs. The proprietor is Admiral Dot, who was at one time well known in circus and theatrical circles. He is 32 years of age, and only 2ffe 6in in height. The barman is a little taller than the proprietor, and has also been on exhibition in museums and similar places. The proprietor is assisted in his duties by his wife, who is 31in high, and is said to be the prettiest dwarf in the whole world. Tha finy couple have a two-year-old daughter, who is only 20in high, and I promises to be as small as her parents when | she matures. Still another little fellow is the I head waiter in the dining room, who is 29iin

— Lying on liis chest along the boat's deck, the sponge fisher, with his water glass — a pane set in a box fitted with handles — looks down 40ft into the dear depths. With oue hand he grasps and sinke a slender pole, sometimes 50t't iv length, fitted at fche end with a double hook. The sponge once discovered, the hook is deftly inserted at the rock base, and by a sudden jerk is detached. — A motor car recently figured in a novel procesiion. It goes without sajicg that "cabby" is not p%rticularly fond of this now mode of locomotion, and if he can have a little fun ab the expense of the motor car he will not lose his opportunity. A few weeks ago, in London, one of these cars had the misfortune to break down, something having gone wrong with the works. It was a gorgeous affair, used for advertising purposes, and graced by two attendants wearing gold-laced uniforms. When the breakdown occurred these individuals had to dismount and push the car along from be- ; hind. Here was a chance for the cabmen, and 1 as there were several in the neighbourhood they immediately formed into procession, oae of their number perfo:m ; .Dg an imitation of the " Dead march" on an old trumpet. As there was a cemetery near at hand, the numerous spectators found much amuscmeut in the cabmen's novel procession.