MULIUM IN PARVO

Otago Witness, Issue 3513, 12 July 1921, Page 45

MULIUM IN PARVO

There are now over 24.0,000 lepers in India. but, tne tendency may be inherited. Une lauyuird has men ooserved to dis pose oi 4b green mes in an hour. —hi Lie lids Jtieuieiits has Dten in use in schools ana colleges tor more than hveeJ years. iiie opal shows off its colours best when warm lronx contact with the linger. All tierman citizens over ZD yeais oi age, tiotn women ana men, have votes. lne mst passenger steamer, the Comet, was launenea ot» the Cijde m lbih. oein-cuuing nas tieen one oi Amsterdam s „eauing luaustnes for nearly ot/U years. ‘White’' silk is usually graded as “oyster,’ ‘ivory, and 'cream,' none oi wmen is pure unite. Women in aatuigary have to be 24 years or age and ao.e to read and write belore tney may vote. Uteen mes, tne pest of tile gardener, reproduce very ramu.y, lb geuerauons being possih.e in rb weens. u,u maternies, cuugnt in Peru, and described as cue “rarest ut all iVXoiplios," were recently smu m ixuiuon tor mm. Pile Cinistiau custom ot toning chtircn beds lor tne dead nail a lieatncii origin. Pells were rung at ounais long ago to flagmen away me evu s£jirns. Spiders neos are used as fishing-nets by tne natives oi a liiuo V ll. age ounea \vuley, in i\ew thinned. lne spider is acout tne size oi a surah iiaze.-nut, out its Oils ana nairy orovvn tegs spread to about 2m. lne web it spins is about oit m diameter, and its mesa is very strong, lno natives set up mug bamboos cent over into a loop at tne end, a.,u in a very short time tne s,j.uer weaves a won on t-m.se names so kmmy lelt ior him, and tne Papuan has his net made "whne he waits.'' me mesh at tne outside ot the web is about lm square, and gets smaller and simmer until near the centre it is omy, perhaps, 1-Sin. —On April 11, 1606, observes the Morning Post, tne white cross oi fit. Andrew was added to tne red cross oi St. George to mark tne union oi tne crowns ot i-mg-land ana Scotland. It is strange that no eatisiactory explanation ot wliy St. Andrew is the patron cimt ot Scotland has ever been given. But a torrner Arcndeacon ol Calcutta once dec-aired at a at. Andrew’s Pay dinner that 1 have come to the conclusion mat St. Andrew was chosen to be the patron saint of Scotland because, he discovered the lad who had the loaves and ft sues!” Pew people even in London know that the' savoy motel burns no coal. It is tne hist hotei in the - kingdom to take advantage ot tuel oil. ine test has passed tne experimental period, with tile result that otner hotels are expected to cancel their coat contracts very soon. In the old days the Savoy burnt zb,wo tons of c-oai a year. Loaf carts were at the door ait day long. The storing capacity was one day’s reserve ot coal; now tne Savoy keeps id days’ reserve ot xuei oil. Piie power bemud the heating and electric light is tuel oil. Water is pinniped out of tne earth by the new power. in an emergency the manager could (ire his boilers without soiling ms hands. Phe dust and the daily trouble of coaling is as much a tiling oi the past at the savoy as it is with an oil-fed battleship. Pile poultry-farmer who has to be content with rhe annual production of a couple of hundred eggs irom each hen wou.d like to learn the as.i s secret ot producing eggs £q proiilicaJy. Pile cod tops the list with nine muiion annually, then comes tlie sturgeon with seven and a-lialf million. An other great producer is the flounder, which just touches the million. The mackerel deposits hail a million eggs, the perch 4tAi,uvX), while the nanxble herring is content with a paltry 10,IKK), Lggs are generally deposited in sand or gravel, though fisn winch live oil the bed of the ocean attaen their eggs to seaweed. Pish are almost entirely carnivorous, and have no compunction whatever m swallowing their own young. It is by smell rather than by sight that they obtain their food. One of the most interesting ot recent discoveries hi connection with astronomy is that the older a star grows the taster does it move A star, like an express train, takes time to get up speed. In the case of the train, however, it is a matter of a few minutes only; with a star it is millions of years. Phe speed of the fastest star is about 300 miles per second. Phis ceiestial racer is invisible with the naked eye, hut has a number of other means of identification for the convenience of astronomers. it lias been found that the average velocity of faint stars is much greater than that, of brighter ones. Twcm-y----cigiit faint ones have been found to have an average velocity of 138 miles per second, whilst the speed cf nine very bright, or.es averaged only 80 miles per second. Judged from the standard of speed, our own sun —- which would appear as a star if it was far enough away from ns —is a comparative infant. Its speed is only about 12 miles per second. —An interesting history attaches to a small packet about 21 in square which recently arrived in London. It weighed 21.1 b and was eagerly bought by an American firm for £I2OO The packet contained osiniridium (osmium and its alloy iridium), used for the tipping of fountain-pen points and for delicate bearings of fine machinery. The discovery of osmiridium, which is a member of the platinum group of metals, constitutes an interesting romance. Towards the end of last year a small group of prospectors were washing for gold in one of the river beds in Papua, British New Guinea. In their eagerness to find the precious metal they threw away from their pans a bluish-grey flaky substance as worthless. This was ersniridium, but the men did not know it, and it is eight times more valuable than gold, and worth at the present time about £4O an ounce. When the men got back to the settlement they mentioned the occurrence to a mining engineer, who immediately asked them what they did with the substance. They replied that they left it on the river bank, and the -engineer exclaimed, “It must be osmiridium. ’ P lie next morning the whole party started for tile spot, only to find on their arrival that the tropical rains and the swollen river had wdashed away most of the precious stuff. What remained was carefully raked together, refined, and dispatched to London, where it arrived safely a short while ago, having been heavily insured for the voyage. Osmiridium is one of the hardest metals known, and prospectors are eagerly searching for it in Papua.