MULTUM IN PARVO

Otago Witness, Volume 14, Issue 2648, 14 December 1904, Page 62

MULTUM IN PARVO

— The largest coil of rope ever used on the Pacific- coast was a towline for a big xaft, towed recently from Portland to San Francisco, The huge coil contained 150 fathoms of cable 4fin in diameter, and ■weighed a little over three tons. — The papers recorded a most curious instance of juxtaposition of names. At Edinburgh, on September 14, Mr William Keekie was married to the daughter of Mr (Jabez Auld ! . , - —In unvaccinated Russia alone of Buroipean countries does smallpox now rage. -Japan banished smallpox from her navy by xe-vaccination; Germany has no 1 had an epidemic since it adopted re-vaccmation ready 30 years ago. . ■ —The longest single span of wire m the world is used for a telegraph line stretched over the Biver Kistuah, between Bezorah nnd Seotanaroum, India. It is over 6000 ft long, and is carried from the top of one Snountain to that of another. ■^-According to a doctor who has been investigating the proper nutriment for a iong-dirtance cycle ride, no meat or other Etrogenous food should be taken while Eg the day's work. The ideal refreshment is fruit and milk. . — There is one stately chamber m Staff ord House the Duke of Sutherland s splendid (London mansion, which they never open Bavc when the. Sovereign visits or when a • (bride departs. . , — A wedding-^et-rather pathetio interest took place at Spurgepn's Tabernacle, Oroydon, recently. The ceremony was conducted by a blind clergyman, while the bridegroom, the organist, and one of the few friends present were also blind. -One reason why the little Japanese •oldier can march 25 miles a day with a burden of 1001b is that his lung-power, and fcence his whole physical system, is developed by habitual "deep breathing . " _ Attributing her long life to the use ot tobacco, Mrs Judith Moyer, of Kutztown, Pennsylvania, declares, at the age of So, that she smokes 24 pipes °f tobacco a day. — It is said that no fewer than 7769 school • gardens exist in Austria, not including the sster kingdom of Hungary. They are connected with both. private and public schools, and are used for purposes of practical instruction in Horticulture and tree-growing. - —Mt A Findlay, Mairsland, the "potato long" has just had. a visit from some of the leading potato experts in Lincolnshire - to examine the new variety of potato, the Mairsland Queen. On being asked to fix a price for a' single tuber, Mr Fmdlay named £20, which was at once given by live of those present. At £20 per tuber, and allowing ihxee shaws per square yard, this works out at considerably over £5,000,000. toer acre! „ .„..,,. — Professor Dexter, of the University of Illinois, has been investigating the effects of weather upon morals, and) finds that the desire to fight rises <"with the jhermometer, - but stops at 85deg, and declines after that as jthe mercury rises. Assault cases are, - therefore, commoner in summer than in .winte*. Drunkenness,"' however, lessens with summer and increases with the coming of cold. Suicides are at a. minimum on bright days with a high Larometer, and increase as the wind rises. — Many high-speed motor boats have ■latterly com© into existence. While the hulls themselves of, these boats ar© note.worthy ■combinations of Tightness and strength, it is the internal combustion engines which drive them that command primary attention. . Ten years ago (says a scientific monthly) there* were comparatively few of them applied) to pleasure boat fier,vice, and their installation waa crude engineering in the light of what has since been accomplished. To-day they are found on the- water everywhere. They have all but driven the small pleasure steam launch out .©f use. — Few would connect the common bathbrick of our kitchens with a caprice of 'Nature, or would credit that there is but one spot on the entire globe where these scouring-blocks can be manufactured. Yet so it is, for all bath-bricfes are made at f ißridgewater, in Somersetshire, and there I Only, because the River Parrett deposits for • * distance of a few hundred yards only the

peculiar compound of sand and slime of jwhich they are composed. jSowhere'else in jjfche world is' a similar compound to be

(found. !. — At Faringdon, Berkshire, farming has

fceen raised to a science. Mr George 'Adams, of the Hoyal Prize Farm, Wadley

House, farms some 4000 acres, of which 'about half is arable and! half pasture. He employs from 200 to 250 labourers, milks 500 cows daily, .keeps about 40 Shire brood mares, a score of breeding sows, and from 3000 to 4000 laying hens, grows about 1000

acres of grain, besides

attending to other

multifarious .items in the ordinary course T>f ' farm practice. About 1000 acres of meadow hay are harvested annually. All the work, cutting, carrying, aricT^ ricking,

is done by piecework. — A writer in an engineering contemporary describes. a simple method of obtain- ' Sng copies of any description of printed engraving, or drawing without injuring the original. He uses the "metallic" paper familiar to engineers in connection .■with steam engine indicators. The print end a sheet of the indicator paper are placed face to face, and the print, or engraving, after being protected 1 by an additional sheet of stout paper or thin cardboard, is rubbed evenly over the back Iprith any smooth, rounded instrument. — A Swiss watchmaker has invented a

[•watch which speaks the time from a tinyphonograph. A very small hard rubber -tolate has the vibrations of the human voice Mnprinted on it, and is actuated by clock]work, so that at a given time the articulation is made, indicating the hour. The Utterance is sufficiently strong to be heard JBOft away. It is possible by means of a 'device of this kind to combine sentiment With utility, as the vibrations can be made hy any clear voice, and a man's watch, may "tell him the time in the tones of wife or jchilctren. • —A noiseless typewriter is something devoutly, to .be wished for.. The clatter of Jfche average machine ought to have been a fruitful stimulus to inventors long ago, but jtypewriter irigenuities (says Caseier's Magazine for October) se&m to hay© followed other lines rather than that of- producing noiseless working, so that the problem is •till an open one. Not only is the constant jdin of the machine nerve-straining to others than the operator, but, from an engineering point of view, it means wear and tear of pieohanisni and misspent energy — imperfect Resign and construction.