MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 3671, 22 July 1924, Page 57

MULTUM IN PARVO.

—lt is a little known fact tliat the earth receives heat from the stars. So small, however, is the amount of warmth imparted to our world from the nearest star that it would take LOCO,COO,(XX),000 years for it to boil a pint of water. The heat felt is about equal to that of a candle burning 53 miles away. The heat of the stars is measured with an instrument called a thermocouple, which consists of two pieces of wire soldered together to make a circle. These pieces of wire are of different metals, one piece being of bismuth and the other a mixture of bismuth and another metal. The light coming from the star is allowed to fall, through the lens of a large telescope, on to one of the joints of the thermocouple, and the heat is just sufficient to set up a current which can be detected by a very delicate galvanometer. The richest bed of magnetic iron ore ever found has been discovered in Kursk, Southern Russia, according to a report to the Academy of Sciences. Paris, by L. Gentil. Deviations of the magnetic compass were noticed in that vicinity as far back as 1875, M. Gentil said. The German physicist, Leyst, made investigations there in 1918, the results of which he took to Germany, but he died soon aft or. In 1919 the Academy of Sciences at Petrograd sent P. L. Asareff to the Kursk district to make soundings. It was he who recently located, at a depth of 500 ft, a bed of quartzite and striated magnetic iron ore, the thickness of which is estimated at 374 ft. A traveller and hunter of big game has written a book in which we find a very human story about an elephant which was shot without being killed. Two companions of the herd came out from the bust), and, approaching the one lying on the ground, stroked it with their trunks. The poor wounded elephant rolled about, and presently stood up, very shakily, while its companions stood by it, shoulder to shoulder. Then, as the hunter watched, at last the wounded elephant began to stumble off, rolling about a good deal, with his friends lending him their moral support. lhey stuck by him, never letting him' get beyond a walk, till out of sight. _ Several microbes newh discovered are mentioned in the annual statement of the British .Medical Research Council. A kind of microbe which has been occupying the attention of the investigators might be popularly termed the “toothache. bug. In searching for this elusive organism. Dr JK. Clarke and Dr L. Colebrook isolated from various teeth a microbe of a type hitherto unci escribed. Its shape is like <l spherical cell .and the name “Streptococcus mutans” is proposed for it. Many more microbes have been added this year to tne national collection at the Lister Institute. There are 250 fresh types, and 3000 cultures have been distributed. _ Included m these types are bacteria which are phosphorescent and some which make colouring lives. . ’ — Ordinary black lead pencils are made in more than 50 varieties, hard and soft. The variety of Dencils made with different coloured leads is also very considerable. But apart from these the pencil manufacturer issues a variety of pencils made for quite special purposes. Since they are used for trade purposes, these are rarely seen by the general public. ! he- furniture dealer usually marks the price- on a mirror with soap, but he can purchase a pencil which will write legibly on glass. There are pencils made for marking prices on polished metals, porcelain, oilcloth, and even patent leather. In each case the lead is made so that the mark can be easily rubbed out, Among the most interesting pencils made is one used only by surgeons. For marking out lines or divisions on the surface of a patient’s body before performing an operation the use of a pencil is sometimes necessary. and a-s the ordinary oencil is useless, a special one is made, which marks the skill as clearly as an ordinary lead pencil will mark a sheet of paper.

-It is claimed that the first public road tramway ran from A 3 andsworth to Uroydon, with an extension to Marstham. It passed through Mitcham, where it is recalled by names like Tramway path and Tramway terrace, while parts of a main street are st ; ll referred to by old inhabitants as the Iron road. The tramway sleepers were of stone, some ,of which are now set up m gardens, while in the Star Inn, at Hoo.qy, is a fender made of a section of the wheel of one of the trucks. This primitive railway cost £60,000 to construct, and was used for the transport of coal, lime, building stone. Fuller’s earth, hearthstone, sand, and the like. It had a very narrow gauge, and the trucks were drawn along by a team of horses, sometimes associated, as on old canals, with mules and donkeys. The modern railway from Croydon to A\ imbiedon runs on part of the old tramway, which was built in 1801. The company that owned it was not dissolved until 1846. Professor Gordon, the geologist of London University, has been talking about pearls and the strange part they have played in legend and history. In the days of Pliny for instance, it was believed that the pearl was made by the oyster coming to the surface, opening its shell, and receiving ft dewdrop, " hicli, on fine days, turned into a lustrous jewel. This quamt idea persisted even into the sixteenth century. The most famous pearls m history, said the professor, were the two pearls Cleopatra wore in her earrings, one of which she is said to have clissor* ed m vinegar and drunk at a banquet she gave to Mark Antony. The other pearl had a strange career. It came into the possession of a Roman emperor, who tried to sell it, but apparently there was no one among his subjects rich enough to buy it. He therefore had the pearl sliced into halves, which were used to make earrings for the statue of Venus in the Temple of A’enus in Rome. Where do summer birds go in the winter time? The answer to a problem which has never previously been satisfactorily answered is given in a film issued by the Swedish Biograph Company. The film tells the whole story of bird-migration. The birds are seen setting out m single file or ill great wedge-shaped formation from Scotland, Holland, Lapland, and the Arctic Circle They drive down the autumn sky to winter in the tropics. Hundreds of different species are content with the White, and Upper Nile. There, amid crumbling temoles and ruined cities, even in Thebes itself, we find wagtails, lapwings, sandpipors snipe, plover, moorfowl, heions, storks,’ kingfishers, swallows clucks, and waterfowl of all kinds on the friendliest terms. One day the call of the north is heard again, and off they fly in great armies, with the storks leading. Many birds carved on Egyptian monuments are •een to be our ordinary feathered friends.