MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 3830, 9 August 1927, Page 35

MULTUM IN PARVO.

—ln the last six years America has expended more than 4,00(),000.000dol on its War and Navy Departments. —So acute is the human eve that in total darkness it can see the 'light of a candle 16 miles away.

— Hailstones weighing over Jib are among the largest recorded. — Little golden bells, hanging from gold bracelets, are one of fashion's latest fancies.

— Blood passes through the heart at the rate of seven miles an hour. — I' l Peru a private company operates the postal system under contract with the Government.

-- lhe railways in Great Britain altogether give employment to roughly, 650,000 people. — Granite is the lowest rock in the earth's crust. It is the bed rock of the world.

7 —Albania has no currency of its own, using coins of neighbouring countries. — Snow for use in motion pictures has been made successfully from pine shavings.

— London’s birth-rate has fallen from 35.4 per thousand in IS7O to 17.6 last year—just about half.

—Application of electrical currents to growing crops has increased the yield by 21 per cent.

r —An Australian parrot in the London Zoo has gnawed his way out of 18 cages in three years. — Many of the 10,000.000 inhabitants of the Philippines are being converted to the wearing of hosiery. — Finger-prints as a means of identification were used by the Chinese as early as 400 B.c.

. — Germans have experimented successfully with electric fertilisation bv drawing electrically-charged wires 'through the ground.

lhe wheel is considered bv many as the greatest invention. Without it modern transportation and motive power would be impossible.

— Ilkeston (England), the Midlands mining town, has an art club with 120 members, including the local tradesmen, miners, metal workers, etc. Ihere is at present a world shortage or tin, caused by the demand for its use in the manufacture of widely varied articles, including loud speakers ‘and silk hosiery.

UU tarthing is really a “ fourthing.” or a fourth part. Saxon pennies had gicores cut in them in the form of a cross, so that they could be bioken at will into tour forthings. lhe Chinese can tell the time fairly accurately by looking at a cat's eyes, the pupils becoming more perpendicular as noon approaches, and dilating gradually as afternoon wears on.

. "Night-caps” of many sorts, including meat extract and hot milk, and others with alcohol, are recommended bv one famous doctor for elderly people and others, who find them helpful in wooing sleep.

. ’Fog is a costly nuisance. A recent six-day visitation resulted in an extra expenditure of about £4.000.000 in London alone.

— According to the Air Minister. England will soon be only two days’ journey from Canada, five from India, six from booth Africa, and 11 from Australia. — With a record of over 5.000.(5'00 miles flown in six years. British aviators have had only four accidents causing the death of passengers during that period. — What is claimed to be the largest organ in the world has been constructed at 1 assail Cathedral. Germany. It has ii\e manuals, 200 stops, and 16.000 pipes. --Ostrich leathers, once the costly tavourites of fashion, arc now principally used for making feather dusters, with a result that the number of birds is rapidly decreasing.

Pupils at the various educational establishments of the .Loudon Countv Council range from a babv of two at a nursery school to a num of 76 who is attending a night class. — Fitted with a bath and shower to rm r ' V a , ncw - aol opened at Jersey m'l" rfiS-A- las crealn walls, bronze and Mold lighting fixtures, and cell doors on roller bearings to eliminate noise. — Henry Ford is the richest man the world has ever known. His motor maunfactoring company, which started with a capital of £lBO, is now worth £50.000.000, practica. y all of which belongs to Henry lord and bis son.

Pointed toes have al wavs been favoured by women. Leather ‘soles of shoes worn by the Roman ladies of the -London of 1800 years ago. and recently discovered during excavations near the Bank of England, prove this. Englands most powerful express passenger engine is the Lord Nelson, which runs on the south-western section of the Southern Railway.

— Greyhounds are perhaps the oldest known type of dog. Stone carvings dating back to about 4000 b.c. show fi—ures of these graceful animals. — Eton’s school song. “ Florcat F.tona ” has been sung into the gramophone by the whole school for old Etonians holding administrative posts in the Empire. — Sweet-eating is greatly on the increase. especially among men. This is said to coincide with the decrease in drinking. People who cat sweets lose their taste for liquor. . —Hartlepool is the safest large town in England, judging from street accident statistics. Last year there were only 10 accidents recorded, and none, of these' hadl fatal results.

— Two sisters who had not scon each other for 52 years recognised each other bj- each wearing a blue and white silk scarf when one arrived from New Zealand and met the other at Plymouth. — Honey has been stored bv bees insida the rcof of a fifteenth centurv farn*. house near Dorking. Surrey. England for over a century. The weight is now so great that the ceiling is showing signs of collapse.

. -Among the animals bred and reared in the Ijondon Zoo in 1926 were eightl ibex, ten Barbary sheep, seven moufflon a hippopotamus, ten gazelles and antelopes, tour deer, two wild dogs, and four wolves.

—a recent report states that in a survey or 94 cities ami towns in 31 counties in England, with a combined population of 7.161.180, it was shown that tlfere is an average of one public iflaygiound for every 12,000 people.