MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2323, 8 September 1898, Page 48

MULTUM IN PARVO.

—Thß most widely separated points between which a telegram can be sent are British Columbia and New Zealand. A telegram sent from one to the other would make nearly a circuit of the globe, and would travel se over 20.000 miles in doing so. . j ■ — A good test for gold or silver is a piece of ; lunar caustic fixed into a wood point like a pencil. Slightly wet the metal to be tested, and rub it gently with the caustic. If gold or silver, the mark will be faint; but it an inferior metal, it will be quite black. The s-pecialty of American threatening is 'that, loud and boastful as- it may be, it is iisually followed by quiet but decided action, i iWhen an American swaggers with a revolver ■ somebody is apt to get killed.— Spectator. ] The original Indian name of Cuba is ■ Cubanacan, ancl signifies a place " where gold , is found." . .. , . — A yellow light has been obtained wita inCandescent gas burners by a German inyoiitor at Krefeld. He alters the burners «o t.-a« the gas is supplied at a pressure of t -re? iv.Kl 'a-half atmospheres. A single jet of ordniary size then omits a light of more than 1000 candle-power, by which fine print may be read at a distance of 150 ft from the light. . . "What have we lost in China which we could have obtained without a long and costly war? We have a position in the North which Russia envies, we have earmarked the grand Delta of the centre rfo that wo can fight for it , if we choose, when we choose, and we have ; made of Hongkong a nearly impregnable en- j trepot. — Spectator. ! — Every good Sihk is obliged to die upon the bare ground. No matter what his rank or ■ age, no rug nvust intervene between him and mother earth when he breathes his last. ' — The mandibles of an American beetle— I zopherud mekcanus— are r-trnjig enough to <ut ■ metal. Specimens of the insect, placed in a glass jar with a pewter top, in less than 48 hours had cut holes in the metal large enougn to protrude their heads. • —The land occupied by olive orchards in Italy is estimated at 1,600,000 acres, and the quantity of olive oil annually produced at from 70,000,000 to 75,000,000 gallons. - — l n the number of tramps Americans rich. The estimate varies between 40,000 and 60,000. To walk through all the streets, avenues, lanes, and alleys of London, never traversing the sama one twice, would require a- 10-mile valk every day fcr nine 1 years. In Nicaragua no private person may retain more than 21b of powder, 51b of lead, 500 caps, and 200 cartridges, no matter in how many places they may be deposited, under penalty of being considered and being dealt with as a smuggler. There is a church in America with several "babies' corners"— little rooms divided off by curtains, where infants can sleep while their 'mothers attend oho service. ' —Whales from 300 to 400 years old are sometimes met with. The age is ascertained by the size and number of layers of the whalebone, which increases yearly. __ 1 - — .An inscription, dating frcm the fcurta century 8.C., has lately been unearthed in Greece. It gives the. price of work for building operations at that period ; and from it we learn that an architect was .paid less than £60 per annum. — Sepia comes from the cuttle fish, being 'the yellow inky fluid which the fish when , attacked discharges. _ _ i — In the cocoanut palms of the Philippine Islands pearls are occasionally found. •ILike those of the ocean, they are composed of carbonate of lime. The bamboo also yields another precious product, in the shape of true opals, which are found in its joints. * . i i —In 30 years Germany, from being little j more than self-sustaining, has become the largest sugar-exporting country. — The suggestion has been made that magnets should be used for raising sunken vessels. One huge magnet can be made to lift 1001b, and a sufficient number, it is thought, could be attached to a big ship to lift her clear of the bottom. It would probably cost as much as £100,000 to raise the ill-fated Victoria. — It is said that no fewer than 200,000 books j for the blind are' borrowed annually from the ; free-lending libraries in different parts of the j country. — Home paper. i — Thousands of Egyptians at the present j day live in tombs, eating, sleeping, wooing, j loving, laughing, dancing, and singing ; doing | all their household work among the mummies and sarcophagi. — A cube of cast iron one inch each way will be crushed under a pressure of 90 tons. — Papyrus leaves over 3000 years old have been found at Thebes describing the runaway slaves, and offering a reward for their capture ; and at Pompeii ancient advertisements have been deciphered on the walls. — From cork chippings, once thrown away, j thousands of yards of linoleum are now made at Demienhorst, Germany, where the industry is quite an important one. — All the military authorities are now paying great attention to singing on the march. The French army has of late permitted its soldiers to thus amuse themselves. Lord WolFtley is of opinion that men march better and arrive fresher when they sing than when they don't. — Paperhangings for use on walls were introduced into Europe from the East 'in 1675. — The armour of a first-class battleship represents about one-third of the cost of the ship, not including armament, ammunition, and stores. That is, a little over .£260,000._ — There are four sovereigns and nine heirsapparent among the 57 living descendants of the Queen. — The awkward camel has become a comjetitor of the coach horse. Englishmen have taught him his new role, and in India he can now been seen in front of a regulation mail ccach. Four are usually harnessed together. The first experiment was tried some months ago in Calcutta, and it proved a complete success. — Each letter carrier of India has a run of six miles, and at the end of it is relieved by another carrier, who at once begins his run. Thus the mail is conveyed over unpopulous sections in comparatively quick time. — The Royal crown of JPersia, which dates back to remote ages, is ir> the form of a pot of flowers, surmounted by an uncut ruby the size of a hen's egg. — The number of Chinese in San Francisco is about 20,000, including 2500 women. — The first-class cruiser Niobe, which has just gone through her trials with so much success, cost nearly £20,000 more than her original estimate, which was £571,450. — The amount of ash given by tea leaves when burned is said to be a, measure of the quality of the tea. The difference is small amongst good samples, but the quantity of ash increases amongst the inferior and adulterated samples. __ *— To a certain ext ent all animals that live in the sea, such as whales, dolphins, and porpoises, have the power to store up air, as they breathe only at intervals, when they come to Wia surface for that purpoae.

! — A new system, of illuminating lighthouses by incandescent gas has just been tested at Yarmouth. The now lights were found to be a great improvement on the old, increasing the illuminating power from 3000 to 10,000 candle-power. The experiment at Yarmouth having proved so satisfactory the example, it is anticipated, will be followed around tho coast. — So far as is knewn, pews were first, placed in English churches by the Norman nobles, but it is certain that for many generations these private boxes for worshippers were neither numerous nor allowed to any but persons of the 1 ighest rank. Formerly the people bat on rude three-legged stools placed round the church; and the next step was to wooden benches without any back. ! — The so-called carriages" are among the most wonderful of new inveni lions for war purposes, rendering it practicable 1 to conceal a battery behind an embankment [ Etnd to exposo the guns to the enemy's lire for only a brief moment while they are beingdischarged ; then immediately they are lowered out of sight. — Two thousand two hundred acres of cedars are cut down every year in order to make wood cases for lead pencils. There are 26 pencil works in Bavaria, of which 23 are in Nuremberg, the great centre of the lead pencil trade. These factories employ from 8000 to 10,000 workers, and produce 4,300,000 lead and coloured chalk pencils every week. — Tho first envelope ever made is in the possession of the British Museum. i — The shooting fish is a native of the East i Indies. It has a hollow, cylindrical beak. When it spies a fly sitting on the plants that grow in shallow water, with remarkable dpxtcrity it ejects out of a tubular mouth a single drop of water, which seldom misses its aim, and, striking the fly into the water, the fidh I makes it its prey. j — Tho semi-official organisation of the Chinese army by British officers means the first step in the direction of war with Russia, and if we are successful, the virtual annexation or control of all China. Frankly, we do not like the prospect. Portugal in the sixteenth century was ruined by the withdrawal of all her best men in order to conquer and develop her great empire. The ■same tLing may happen^ to us if we try to hold all India, all China, and half Africa as dependencies. — Spectator. — A well-known scientist furnishes some information in regard to tho ages of trees. He assigns to the pine tree 500 to 700 years as the maximum, 425 to the silver fir, and 170 to tho asi>. — France employs ever 5000 women iv her civil service, telephone, and telegraph offices. The municipality of Paris alone gives work to 900 women, while the Bank of France pays salaries to 400 more. Two hundred women have pei'manent positions in the " Credit Foncier," with earnings varying from £35 to £70 and £75 a year. — It is computed that about 200,000 pedestrians and 20,000 vehicles cross London Bridge every day. The mo;t surprising fact, however, is that the incessant traffic across the bridge reduces to powder about 25 cubic feet of granite every year. — The greatest number of miles covered in one day by the United States battleship Oregon on her long- voyage from San" Francisco to Key West was 375. She took 1600 tons of coal on board at Rio de Janeiro, which would have been sufficient to keep her at sea for 21 days at 11 knots an hour, as at this speed she consumes 75 tons of coal every 24 hours. — The most expensive thermometer in use | belongs to an American university, and is ' valued at £2000. It is an absolutely perfect , instrument, and the graduations on the glass are so fine that it is necessary to use a micro- ! scope to read them.