HERE AND THERE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3313, 12 September 1917, Page 54

HERE AND THERE.

■ — Commercial Aeronautics.— At a recent meeting in the Central Hall, Westminster, Mr G. Holt-Thomas delivered a lecture on commercial aeronautics. Ho .said that in his opinion aeronautics would revolutionise the world not only from a commercial point of view, but from a humanitarian point, much more than it had revolutionised warfare. Ho was not one of those who thought that commercial aeronautics were going to beat out of existance railways and other forms of transport, but rather that flying would act as an adjunct to the present modes of transport. Aviation having suffered in the past from mere discouragement, the people of this country must see to it that in the future it was fully encouraged. From the business point of view speed was everything. A special aeroplane, in the sense of a special train, would enable a business man to leave London in the morning, do his business in Paris, and be homo again to dinner. It would take him to Bagdad in a day and a-half, or to New York in two days. Ceylon would become 2-|- days from London,. Tokio 4i days, Sydney 5 days, Cape Town days, Sydney 3 days. Many business men would smile at the idea of using this mode of conveyance, but the only thing was to remind them that they also smiled in the early days of motor cars, and yet half the business to-day would take double the time to do if the motor car was not in existence. As for the question of cost, it would be possible to run a profitable air service between London and Paris at £5 per passenger, per ounce for mails, and 2s each for parcels of 31b. Constantinople or Moscow, a journey of 24 hours, might involve a cost of £25 per ticket. Fortunes in Bibles. — It has happened not infrequently that eccentric wealthy people have concealed sums of money in the family Bible, where it has been discovered by chance long after their decease. Such an incident recently occurred in Paris. A young French poilu returned home from the front to find that his father had just died. He had left him nothing in his will, only the family Bible. Closer inspection revealed between its pages securities to the value of £15,000 ! A few years ago a young nobleman who was in financial difficulties had occasion to refer to the family Bible for a date there recorded. In so doing he came across a number of Bank of England Holes, amounting collectively to a considerable sum, which more than met his liabilities. Then he recalled his mother's dying words that "help might be found in the Bible when all other sources failed." But he had paid small heed to the injunction, and certainly never dreamed of so practical a fulfilment of her words. A student purchased an interesting- old Bible at a second-hand bookseller's some years ago for a few shillings. On taking it home he was delighted to discover bank notes to the value of £IOOO folded between the sacred pages. Another ancient Bible was found to contain notes to the extent of £7OO. This was owned by a prodigal son, who lived many years unconscious of the wealth in his possessing - India's War Flower.— The munitions output of India has in two years been increased a .thousandfold, mainly through the discovery that one of India's commonest blossoms, the flower of the mahua or mhowra tree, contains acetone in quantity. This tree is well known to all travellers in Britain's Asiatic empire, but its use as a base for explosives is at least one thing new under the sun. When the war broke out acetone, which forms the chief ingredient of cordite, was extracted mainly from wood, maize, and starch, and the British Admiralty erected is by all odds the best source for acetone recovery from starch. But, fortunately, two English scientists in Hj'dei'abad discovered that the mahua flowers contained acetone in larger proportions than is found in any other vegetable substance—that this inoffensive bloom was 10 times richer in the material in question than any known wood. In fact, the Director-general of Ordnance for India reports that the mahua is by all odds the best course for acetone known-. Manufacture on a large scale is now under way, and it is whispered that the abundance of munitions with which the British forces in Mesopotamia appear to be blessed is to be attributed to the new discovery. Razors Made From Horseshoes.—

All interesting feature of Chinese industry is the making of knives and razors from old horseshoes. The local blacksmiths in the cities and towns of the interior supply the great population of the empire with knives, razors, and scissors of an inferior quality at a very small cost. Tin's cutlery is chiefly made from old horseshoes imported from England and the Continent. A discarded steel shoe offers the best material for blades, but the blacksmiths prefer the old shoes of soft iron that come from Glasgow and Hamburg. One British firm at Tien-tsin brought over a cargo of old horseshoes from Australia some years ago, but could not dispose of them, as the native smiths aaid that the iron was too hard. Thev like the soft iron, because it can be more easily worked by their primitive methods. A razor commonly used by the poorer class, having a cutting edge of less than 2in, costs about 4id in English currency. Sharpened upon a strop, the blade takes a fair cutting edgs, but is too soft to hold it. A great number of strappings are necessary before the act of shaving can be completed. After the blades are forged they are merely casehardened. Unexplored Canada.— In the north of the province of Quebec there are still 259,000 square miles of unexplored country, making, with the 642.000 3quaro miles in Western Canada, a total of 901,000 square milrs. In other words. it can be stated that 28 per cent, of Canada is still unexplored. In the basin of the River Mackenzie are to be found, it Is believed, the greatest petroleum wells in the world. Savages have feen some lakes at tho Yukon, from 60 to 70 miles long,

that have not been seen by white men. The Mackenzie mountains no one, not even the Indians, knows anything of. It must be many years before the mystery of the north of Canada, is cleared for cartography. Fortunes await the enterprising explorer. Old Armour. — The old armour collected by the second Marquis of Breadalbane (1796-1862). which he left to his sister, Lady Elizabeth Pringle, and which had been for over naif a century at Langton House, Berwickshire, was sold recently at Christie's, and realised over £25,000. A German suit (1540-50), purchased at the Genial sale in 1855 for £lO3, now fetched £2205. Four superb Louis XV commodes, from a country house in Worcestershire, realised £12,390. _ A suite of Chippendalo mahogany furniture (two settees and eight chairs), with beautiful Ensliah petit point needlework, went for £5775.