MULTUM IN PARVO

Otago Witness, Issue 3594, 30 January 1923, Page 51

MULTUM IN PARVO

The average age of a Treasury note is from 250 to 300 days. Mahogany trees do not reach their full height until they are 200 years old. Flowering plants known in the British Isles include more than 250,000 varieties. —Of the cost of milk production, 72 per cent, goes in feeding the cows. • London fogs are stated to be, in many cases, practically nothing but smoke. Soot falls on London at the rate of 369 tons per square mile annually. There is to be a new bridge over the Forth at Alloa. It will cost £171,000. ~ The Paris municipal tax on servants has raised £140,000 in six months. The worker bee lives six months, the drone four months, and the female bee four years. " Extremes of temperature are always bad for the mainsprings of clocks, watches, and clockwork motors generally. . Fourteen collisions occurred on railways in the United Kingdom during 1921. No fewer than 181 persons were killed while trespassing on railway lines during the same period. ' Resembling an ordinary flashlamp, a new invention is really an effective automatic pistol, which will shoot six shots at a target illuminated by the lamp’s rays. British war tvidows to the number cf 74.000 had remarried up to the end of last June. They form nearly one-third of the total of widow's awarded pensions. —The rickshaw is said to be slowly disappearing in Japan. In five years the number in Tokio has fallen by SOCO. There are still 147,000 in use. London was originally built on five hills. These are now known as Nothing Hill, Marble Arch, Piccadilly Circus, Cheapside, and Cornhill. —Four original verses written by Robert' Burns were discovered in an old volume recently offered for sale in London. Inscribed in pencil, they have been inked carefully over by the first owner of the book, a friend of the national Scoti.jh poet. —The Greek sponge divers often Work at a depth of thirty fathoms, and sometimes more. As a rule, however, iesce.vts beyond a deptli of thirty fathoms are impossible, because of the immense pressure of water, and because air cannot be pumped much farther. —The present-day football, which is so light that a breath of wind will turn it in its course, is much kinder to the players’ feet than were some cf its predecessors. In the eighteenth century footballs were made of straw, which was braided into a long rope, then wound and coiled into the shape desired. As a final touch the ball was turned round in water until it became hard and unyielding. The first leather ball that replaced the old straw model was filled with horsehair until it was made hard and solid. These who advocated the leather ball were jeered at by the oldtimers, and termed weaklings who were afraid of injuring their feet. Probably i f a landlubber was asked what was the most dangerous cargo a ship can carry he would answer: “Dynamite ” But sailors themselves will tell you differently. Sugar, for example, is feared by the sailor, whose ship has to convey hundea’r. of tons of cane sugar in casks in the hold of the vessel. Should the ship sail through a hot area, the odour from the sugar is sickening. The sweet taste gets into their mouths, and they crave lemon-juice, vinegar, or anything sour. They lose their appetites, and are heartily glad when the voyage is over. Coffee is as unpleasant, and almost as dangerous as sugar. Cotton is another really dangerous cargo. One little drop of oil on raw cotton would result in spontaneous combustion. Acids and other chemicals must also come into the list of dangerous cargoes. Carbide of calcium is far more dangerous than dynamite. It is from this chemical than acetylene gas is made, and the product has only to be exposed to the air for the gas to be given off in a constant stream. —A curious custom prevails in the New Britain group of islands in compelling a man who lias neglected his wife and children to run the gauntlet. Two rows of women extend for a distance of several hundred feet, each woman being armed with a stick. Down the avenue thus formed the culprit, in a state of nudity, has to make his way; and as he darts past the women belabour him savagely. By the time he reaches the end of the row- he is exhausted and covered with blood. This punishment is greatly dreaded, not so much on account of the physical suffering it entails as the disgrace that follows for the man is an outcast afterwards for several weeks. —An attempt has been made to get over the old difficulties of broken strings and warping frames in tennis racquets by making both frame and strings of steel, which gives greatly added strength and durability, without interfering with weight, accuracy, or balance. The frame is of steel tubing, no heavier than the wooden frame, a welded cross member fixing the spread of the throat, while the ends of the frame are deeply and firmly fixed in the wooden handle, which is of the ordinary pattern and made to standard sizes. The steel strings are of smooth, twisted wire, which, whilfe preserving the tension and resiliency of gut, are practically unbreakable. Gut strings, however, can be fitted if preferred the holes in the steel frame being made with rounded edges to prevent cutting. No press is required, as the frame cannot warp nor is the racquet affected by weather conditions This racquet is the invention of Mr William A. Larned, who for many years was United States champion. The racquet represents extensive experimenting —A traveller describes the wonders of the Victoria Falls in Rhodesia. “They are not only the grandest waterfalls,” he says, “but also the most sublime spectacle in the world. To say that the river Zambesi measures more than a mile in breadth where it rushes over the precipice in a roaring, snow-white torrent—to drop 400 ft, and to throw up columns of spray to some 2000 ft visible fifty miles distant—this is to say nothing. Nothing, at least, that conveys any idea of the magnitude and beauty of the Falls. Only by comparisons can any idea be given of the grandeur of Zambesi’s • fall. Anyone who has seen Niagara may gain some little notion of its unknown, untamed, unspoiled rival by imagining _ something nearly twice and ahalf as high and twice as wide. And, as this is a practical age, a comparison of the amount of horse power running away in each case is interesting. Niagara’s horse power is 7,000,000, the Victoria Falls allow 30,000,000 horse power to run to picturesque