MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2524, 30 July 1902, Page 55

MULTUM IN PARVO.

—In Vienna- telephone booths are furnished With napkins bearing the inscription, "X\ ipe, if you please." The napkins are changed frequently, and this undoubtedly serves to keep the mouthpiece* of the transmitters in good sanita>ry condition.

— Transcontinental trains in America are to be fitted with telephone?. When great stations are reached the train will be connected with the local telephone office, and will not be cut off until half a minute before startincr.

— Aj'oung man at St. Mer.de was driven mad by a legacy of £+000. From ihe moment tht money came into hi= posses-icn he was- oppressed by the fear of losing it, and always carried it about with him. He finally made a bonfire of it in the form of notes and then attempted, to blow out his brains.

— Scotland's fir-t motor-car wedding has just been celebrated at Dalkeith. near Edinburgh. The bridegroom was a local cycle engineer. —It costs £2000 a year to ventilate tlie House of Commons.

—An important discovery of silver co'iia is reported from Travancore, India. Ihe coins, 306 in number, were found 111 an urn 111 a cutting, and were furw <n<-*.e<.! by the Government of India to Dr Thun-ton, of the Madras Museum, who has identified most of the pi«ws a<s beina; rcr'ainly current in the time of Buddha— that is, in the sixth cenHiry before the Christian era, and probahly as far back ao 1000 B.a

— A thought weighing machine has been invented by Professor Mosso, an Italian phyaiologi--t| the ru>-h of blood to the hei-.d turning the boale. T.he machine is co delicate that it can measure the difference m the exertion needed to read Greek from thai required for Latin. — Experiments are bein; made in 'England with one in-vention, and in Franco with another, for the purpose of preventing tbievw extracting letters Jrom pillar-boxos. The British invention is that of Mr W. C'ro-s-h»y, a, Scot »m an, and consi-.ts of .1 v.ire arrangement in-,ide tlio pillar-box. The weight of tho lotters carries thorn throi'ijh the cage, but they cannot be pulled up by a piece of string and something sticky, the usual means adopted by the letter thief In the French invention steel teeth are placed close by the mouth of the box.

— Russian railway* are tbo most d.ir.^r-rous 111 the world, 'llnrty persons 111 o\*-ry mJllion pass-fngTs are either killed or hurt. — Tue erui=er Tprrible, belonging to the China Squadron, has made a now world's re-cord for the coaling of war-hips The operations lasted 111110 hours and a half, and m that time no fewer than 2500 tuns of (oal wer» got into her bunkers. — Belgium has a place where alcoholic drinks are sold for every 36 por=orif= : Pi v via, on© for 180: Austria, one for 220: Russia, one for 991 ; Norway, only one for 52.000. — A vi ry furious fart concerning tobacco 9moke 13 the re-rnarkable change in colour which it undergoes after e-nte-ring tho month. From the burning end of a ci?ar the smoke issues in d^Pp blue thread's, while that which is expelled from the mouth ii of a decidedly brownish tint.

— In NVw York 50 p«"reon« were- charged at tho end of March v. ith spitting m public. Of these 32 wore fined sdol apiece, and 18 were disoharßcd her au*o thov had been in cu=tody for at least six hour* before being brought befuie tlip' justice. Maryland is to have a law which empowers railway officials to arrest pcopl/3 who expectorate anywhere in the Jinn of that State. Tho penalty is to be 3dol nnrl co-ts. with thp- alternative of spending a period not exceeding five days in durance vile

— An experiment, with a view to ascertain the relathe rp«iFtancf\ under pressure, of tho hardest sff»<?l and the- hardest stone, was recently made at Vienna. Small cuhe», measur111? lcm. of corundum and th<* finest, pteel were subjected to the test The corundum broke under the weight of six tons, but the •lAivi jraajaied UD to 42 tons.

' —The acetylene wireless telep. i:e h a means of transmitting speech or music by varying the intensity of a beam of fight which, after passing to a distance, falls on a selenium cell placed in the focus of a reflector, and in circuit with a telephone and a battery. The intensity of the light i y ai\t'd according to the vibration of sound. This is done by exposing the flame of acetylene gas to the sound-wa\es impinging on ie by means of a s-peaking tube and manometer. The flame, va lying in brightness with the waves, is concentrated by a condensing lens, and the beam thus varied in strength varies the resistance of tho se-lcmum cell to the current of the battery, and reproduces the. sounds in the telephone. — Long engagements are rather expensive affairs in Russ'a. The bridegroom-elect is expected to send his fiancee a present every 1 day. I^,-e — In only two cases aave baronetcies been conferred on women. Once was in 168&, on the mother of General Cornelius SpeeLaian. The other was Dame Maria. Bolles, made so by Charles I.

— Fishermen are very free from consumption. Among 1000 deaths of fishermen only 108 are from this disease, whereas the rate arrong drapers is 301 per 1000, and among printers 461 per 1000. — Lamp-black, which for hundreds and hundreds of years has been the chief in-

gretlieiit in dark pigments, may perhaps bo eventually displaced by aodtylene-black. The chiel merit of the new substance lies in its frc-edom from grease-, and, therefore, in its more ready manipulation. It is said that acetylene-black is admirably adapted foi the uses of the manufacture of printing inks." 1 Tho high cost of acetylene-black is the only obstacle that bars its general introduction. A field is, therefore, opeaed to inventors in* demising a method of piodiicing the substance cheaply in largo quantities. At prosent the Wacl; pigment 13 obtained by decomposing acetylene through the medium of an electric spark. \ — The effect of music on animals was re- ' cently tried by Hcrr Baker, a \iolinist, at the German Zoological Gardens. The puma I was most sensitive- to the instrument, and sometimes became very nervous and excited. Leopards were unconcerned, lions appeared afraid, but their cubs wanted to dance when the tune becamo lively; the hyenas were terrified, the monkeys curious and interested. j Wolves were the most appreciative, and I '"seemed to beg for an encore." ' — A remaikable surgical triumph has been won by a Philadelphia doctor, who has fucceeded in grafting a new set of upper and lower eyelids on the eyes of a man who lost his original set in a fire. The accident had . left both eyeballs entirely unprotected, and 1 there was danger of tho victim losing hisr sight entirely. When the case was brought to the attention of the doctor he resolved to gnift four new eyelids, if possible, takang the skin from tho hip of the patient. It was necessary to proeeoJ slowly, but the experiment was successful from the start. Today the patient has four new eyelids, which, perform the normal functions naturally. — There is a curious legacy in connection with Woodchuroh Parish, in Wirral. It. scorns that a certain fund was left to the parish to provide the loan of a cow to any puiisliioner who might cave for it, at the nominal interest of 2s 8d per annum The c"iw was to ho branded with the parish brand,, and at the end of the year the borrower was to return it. The charity thus provides a means of industry without actual pauperisation, and the parish cow becomes absolutely the property of the borrower for the year, on'y the feeding being necessary in addition to the nominal rent. — An invention which is likely to revolutionise tho watch-making industry has been perfected by a Swiss watchmaker n.i.ned David Ferret, of Marin. near Neuchalel. Ie is a watch which goes by electricity. It was severely tested by experts, and it was found; that it gamed only seven-tenths of a second in five weeks. The expert at the observatory at Neuohatel declares the watch to be equal in precision to an cxpenshe chronometer. The watch resembles an ordinary gentleman's lever, and goes for 15 years without being rewound. — Air in pastilles is the latent no\oKy. Tho invention is tho work of M. George-3 Jaubert, of tho Ecole PolytPchnique, Paris, who has discovereti a combination which, when dissolved in water, g'.ves off oxygen. Two pounds of air pnatil'os made of this combination will produce 250 litres of oxygen, and the benefit of the invention in theatres, hospitals, mines, and submarines is evident at a q!..! nee- It means, in fact, that a trip to the sr-aside is to be bousrht from the nearest chemist and enjoyed in on*'s own room. — The smallest raflwßy has been built to tlip. ordrr of Mr Percy H. Leigh in an annex of his residence at Brentwood, Wovsley, near Manchester. The little lin" is really a toy, but one of the iiiOst marvellous toys ever made. In all re-meets except size it is an ("Xctc t replica of the tract 1 , locomotives, roll-i!";--tcck. and station equipment of the London and "North- western Railway. It has been placed in a room 90ft long -md 50ft wide, and is raised. on trestles 3ft high. — Whenever an inn in the vicinity of tho Xaworth e»tate lows its license there is an intore^ring ob<=e<juv. Tlie inn si^n is solemnly ir moved and in tho ile-u\ of night is committed to the grave, in the prp=ence of tho f/d (lolom"-"! of the inn. As a rule, ie is wnl'rpd with trnr- in the- fhapo of a bottle of whi-^y. accompanied by an anr-ropriata burial w-rvito. Moorcock Inn. Lancrcost. was the la^t to bo mourned. Tho P.ramptnnfiiitiie* took away its licence, and the den«ion vo^ upheld by quarter =e=aion=. The usual I;i3t ritr« wc-re performed. Tlir Xorthrrp of Frinm "R.iilww niaiiOa n«o of si eyiiom of audible iicj.ialri to indicate vhen tno d'~fant signal id at caution Betycon the rails i= nlacod an itiß'da'-od brass plank nKont fift f>in lonpf. This is so arrnnprnd tint when rho distint is afc caution a wirp. brush fitted to tho enc ; ne passes in contact with the r»lnnk. and operates a whittle* in th^ cab. This rennires the fitting <-f e.ipfh d.stant signal with the n<H:essary bfitterie-s md their up-kpe-ri. as we-11 as the rnor'nes tl>p-m«elvps : but Hipv do not p<m»w to find thi« very much, and are quite satisfiec with the sy = fcem.