MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 3035, 15 May 1912, Page 59

MULTUM IN PARVO.

—ln all countries more marriages take place in June than in any other month. The London Stock Exchange was established in 1801. , There are 16 cables across the JSortn Atlantic Ocean. Great Britain in one year spends nearly £30.000,000 en tobacco. —ln one month the yield of gold in Southern Rhodesia exceeded 50,0000 z, valued at £200,000. —To supply the needs of Canada's mixed races, the Scriptures have to be printed in over 70 languages. The elephant beetle of Venezuela is the largest insect known. One has been found weighing 7oz. A State umbrella which is being sent out to the East Coast of Africa is 44ft in circumference, with a gold dome, and ia composed of red, white, and blue silk Belgian railway authorities are struggling with the locomotive whistle evil. The engines will in future carry whistles producing two tones, one much softer than the other. The former will be used in railway stations or when the train is passing platfoims crowded with passengers. —ln very dry. atmospheres the durability of vvood is almost incredible. Pieces of wood, wooden caskets, and other articles have been taken from Egyptian catacombs of an antiouity said to antedate the Christian era by 2000 or 3000 years. Students of chemistry and physics at Heidelberg are compelled by the laws of the University to insure their lives. Even those students who, simply attending the lectures delivered by the professor, are content to watch his experiments, are not exempt from this rule. The Miau-tsz, a tribe in Asia, will not burv a man until they have first tested the "ground with an egg. The male relatives of the deceased go out to the appointed spot, bearing a large basket of eggs. Stooping down, one of the natives lets an egg drop softly on the ground. Its breaking is considered an ill omen, and another spot is selected In this way the party often wanders about for hours, dropping eggs until one falls without cracking the shell.

Burglar-proof glass is now made in France. Embedded in the glass are light wires running in parallel transverse lines about lin apart. The wires are connected to a battery, and carry a light charge of electricity. If the window is broken the electric current is broken, and a bell is caused to ring. The breaking of the wires releases a magnetic switch, causing the alarm to be given. Unless the glass is completely broken no alarm will be given. Armed with a recording gramophone, M. Ponge, a schoolmaster in Paris, spends his leisure hours lying in wait for street cries in populous quarters He is preparing a museum of speech, which he will leave behind him for the instruction of future ages. When he hears rJie Parisian equivalents of "Milk" or muffin-man, he pounces on them and* compels them to sing or ring bells into his receiver. He has already collected most of the well-known street cries.

A curious banquet is being organised in Paris in honour of the 250 duels Ln which M. Rouzier Dorcieres has had a share, either as principal or as second. M. Rouzier Dorcieres, who is a journalist, has made duelling a specialty, and will be the guest at the banquet of his own opponents and other duellists whom he has assisted, making 250 in aIL No one will be admitted to the banquet who has not crossed swords with M. Rou/.ier Dorcieres, or who has not employed him as a second. The New York Fire Brigade is justly proud of Happy, the Dalmatian dog belonging to one of its members. Happy possesses the rare accomplishment of beinc; able to climb ladders, and this feat and the dog's great sagacity were instrumental in saving three lives. During a serious fire in Third avenue the dog's master and two of his comrades were overcome by smoke and in peril of suffocation, when Happy ran up the fire-ladder and called attention to the danger by barking furiously at the window of the room in which the three (men were.

The Carnegie Museum at Pittsburg, U.S.A., certains the Royal yacht in which Rameses and other ancient kings of Egypt made trips of state up and down the Nile thousands of years ago. The boat was dug out of the sand near the bed of the Nile last year, and shipped to America by Mr Andrew Carnegie, who presented it to the Pittsburg Institute. In size and shape it does nos differ materially from boats to be seen on inland waters today. In its building not a nail or screw was used. Heavy 6!n cedar timbers forming the hull are dovetailed together in unique fashion — a trick in connection _ with boat-building known only to the ancients.

—ln the village of Utznaeh, near St. Gall, a woman has been 'sold." with her consent, to another man by her husband. The buyer, an Italian and friend of the Swiss couple, thought he was "legalising" the sale by procuring two witnesses and having the" contract written on stamped Government paper. The Italian told his Swiss friends that he wanted a wiie, and the Swiss promptly offered to rell him his own at a bargain price, which was then discussed and fixed at 16s. All the persons connected with this curious salo belong to the working claw. Antwerp be followed, not only will there bo a great demand for the discarded Chinese pigtail, but pigtails will have to be grown for commercial purposes. The engineer in question states that no material yet known for ropes has the power of resistance which human hair possesses. There is no doubt that among the ancients hair was used for ships' cables, and the .Antwerp engineer has rediscovered the ancient process. He says that a cord of human hair of overage thickness is capable, without strain, of supporting nearly 14001 b. He suggests that such ropes should be employed in the construction of aeroplane?. The. Japanese have just had manufactured for one of their railways a massive up-to-date machine for testing the weight carried upon each wheel of their largest locomotive. It has a capacity of 360.0001 b. and while the locomotive is passing on or off the machine, the platforms are locked eo that the 12 platforms (one for _ each wheel of the locomotive) shall not be jarred or jammed. While this apparatus is being actuated the whole of the 12 patent aerostat indicating quadrants are simultaneously relieved so that no shock or vibration shall interfere with the accuracy of the weighing mechanism. It will be seen that every precaution is taken to ensure accuracy by non-interference with the weighing median-

ism and at the earn© time to automatically indicate the exact weight superimposed on each wheel.