MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 3672, 29 July 1924, Page 57

MULTUM IN PARVO.

•—Although Eskimos never bathe, they are a very cletn people. —A turquoise, regarded by collectors as the largest and most perfect in the world, has been presented to the Field Museum in Chicago by Ilohannes Topakyan, Grand Vizier of Persia and former Consul-general to the United States. The stone, which weighs about 400 carats, was an heirloom in the family of the Grand Vizier. Its history crosses the lives of shahs and beys for generations. During a rehearsal of the film “Quo Vadis” in Rome recently an actor was killed by a lioness which ran amok. This is by no means the first time that screen tragedies have been turned into real ones. Only last year, for instance, Howard Young, known as the “human fly,” fell to his death from the top of an eight-storey hotel while performing for a film. Some years ago, when a film was being taken of a Spanish bullfight, one of the toreadors was suddenly attacked by an enraged bull, whose horns proved fatal to the man. During the filming of a drowning scene in the Seine, the man in the water, a clever film actor, was attacked by cramp. He was believed to be acting very realistically, and the operator continued to turn the camera handle until he sank to his doom. One hundred miles an hour is nothing to some birds! They can keep it up all day! Indeed, the vulture can, and does, do this speed. So do some kinds of ducks and greenwings. These are all large birds, but the delicate swallow makes 90 miles an hour when migrating, and can keep it up for long stretches.. The eagle, exceedingly powerful but rather a ponderous flier, does about 50. Carrier pigeons can coyer long distances at an average of 60 miles an hour, and the common crow, who seems to lounge across the sky at a lazy pace, really does about 25 miles an houi*. An ordinary pigeon will do about the same. The wild goose does 100 for hours on end, and our friend the tiny sparrow does about 20 miles an hour, although it can only fly at this rate for very short periods. The day of the wrong number, that bane of the telephone subscriber’s life, is pass’ng. According to a French scientist, Professor Turpain, this desirable end is to be attained by a simple expedient—that of abolishing all telephone exchanges and telephonists. Wireless telephony, savs the professor, has norv been developed to such an extent that intercommunications of all kinds can be secured with absolute certainty merely by utilising various modifications of wave-lengths, ranging from one metre and a-half to three or four metres. If the suggestion were carried out, each subscriber would have a transmitting apparatus which would enable him to communicate with every other subscriber on his system. His receiver, on the other hand, would be capable of receiving wireless sent on one wave-length cxniy. “This particular wave-length,” says Professor Turpain, “would really be his telephone number.” Spain has recently made America a present of a model of the- Santa Maria, the ship in which Columbus sailed to America, and the gift- recalls others gi\en at various times by one country to another. Everybody has heard of the famous Liberty Statue in New York. This was presented to America bv France in 1884. Some years awo the French Government presented a. Sevres vase to the British Museum. It is a magnificent specimen, and very valuable. Ancient weapons, such as guns, swords, and so on, are fairly common gifts from one country to another. _ That which is known as “Queen Elizabeth s pocket pistol was a gift to Great Britain from the Netherlands. It was cast as long ago as 1544. How did the Bonder Stone, in Borowdale, get to its present*position? How did the many “perched boulders” and rocking stones,” hundreds of tons in weight yet poised so light that a human hand can move them, get into these peculiar positions? They were gently deposited by melting ice, as gently as ever mother laid her baby to rest m its cradle. Tor ice is the king of dumpers, and the foiniei presence of the glaciers accounts for all the erratic boulders in the world. Some of these curious rocks are of tremendous size. The biggest in England is the Bowdei Stone, but there is one in Switzerland, far away from any present-day glacier which weighs 3000 tons and contains 40,000 cubic feet of rock. And visitors to the Alps can see the same processes at work to-day, as huge rocks, which no traction engine could haul are borne along very slowly but nevertheless very surely on the surface of the glaciers. . \ house, consisting cf one room, which stands in two States, three counties, and four towns at one and the same time the proud possession of a dance-hall proprietor in the U.S.A. This un.que building stands on a tiny island on the bordeis of Vermont and New Hampshire. Although the building was once used as a dwellinghouse, it Is now given up entirely to dancing'. Standing in the middle of the dance floor, the visitor finds himself m nine different places at once. Beneath his Y ,1„ m~-r>oint of the boundaries of the two States, of the counties of I aieooi la, and Orange, and of four towns-Ryegate. Newbury, Bath, and Haverhill. Locally the place is known as “No Man’s Island,” and is very popular as a* summer dancing pavilion. Tlutthoriver is si owl v eating its way into the centre of the little island, and it seems likely that before long it will bore a way right through both islet and house Meantime, the proprietor thanks his lucky stars that only one of the towns, Haverhill, sends along the rate coltectoi. Which British town possesses the largest number of cyclists in proportion to its population? It would seem from recent ctitisties that Southampton enjoys this distinction! for no fewer than 40,C00 cycles are used in this busy town of 160 000 people The employees of the large slnnBing firms own a large proportion of this vaft bicycle fleet, and at Messrs Maraud and Wolff’s works there is a special tZ storey building where over 400 machines are stored during the day. At the famous works of Messrs Tliornycroft there are 500 workers who use bicycles, and 14 or 15 cyclists can often be seen entering the dock gates abreast, every few minutes during the morning rush period. At the university college no fewer than 150 students ride cycles, whilst several aldermen and the rural ’ dean are also enthusiastic cyclists. After this who will dare say that the day of the good old push-bicycle is over? Statistics rather tend to prove that, throughout the country the number of cyclists is on the increase.