FACTS AND FANCIES

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 30 June 1915, Page 7

FACTS AND FANCIES

Specific Gravity of MifK.

An imperial gallon of water weig-hs 101b., and one gallon of milk of. average quality weighs 16.321b; thus the milk has a specific gravity of 1.032. The specific gravity of milk varies to some extent, according- to its quality. The richer the milk is, the less it weighs, as the fat is lig-hter than .the other milk constituents.

"To the Bitter End."

It is generally assumed that this expression is of nautical origin. When there is no windlass on board a;ship the <;able is fastened to pieces of wood 'jailed bitts, so-that when the whole of the rope is paid out the seaman has reached the bitter end, or, in other words, he has done all that is possible. The phrase should be to the "better end," arid arose from the fact that when the cable of a ship had been paid out to its fullest extent it had been run out to the end which was little used, and therefdre to the better end. The latter is probably the correct term, as it is used by Defoe in /'Robinson Crusoe, >! when he describes the storm off Yarmouth. He says: "We rode with two anchors ahead, and two anchors veered out to the better end."

An Enormous B:bie.

In the Royal Library at Stockholm, among other curiosities, is a manuscript work known as the Giant Bible, on account of its_ extraordinary dimensions. It measures 90 centimetres in length, and is 50 centimetres in breadth—that is, about 35in. by 19in. It requires three men to lift it. There are 309 pag-es, but seven have been lost. The parchment of which the book is composed required the skins of 160 asses. There are two columns on each page, and the book contains the Old and New Testaments, with extracts from "Josephus." The initial letters are illuminated. The binding" is of oak 4J centimetres in thickness. The book narrowly escaped in the fire in the Royal Palace of Stockholm in 1697. It was saved, but somewhat damaged by being thrown out of a window.

Ancient "Taxi's."

The Chinese, some half-dozen centuries ag-o, had a cart with an attachment that measured the long- miles the panting- coolies covered, and it may have been a common thing- for a Roman youth to spring- into a "taxi," direct "To the baths!" and then pay at so much a mile for the ride. It is recorded that Emperor Pertinax, in order to procure money for a donation to the Pretorian Guard, sold, at a gTeat auction lastingnine days, the mag-nificent g-arments, furniture, jewels, curiosities, and works of art with which Commodus had filled the palace. In an inventory of the things sold during- the auction there is the following item: "Carriages which had contrivances to measure the distance over which they were driven, and to count the hours spent in the journey." Whatever the device was, it passed out of the knowledge of man with the downfalj of Rome; for the credit of the invention of the "chariot way-wiser" is given in modern history to some member of the Royal Society, and the date fixed at 1662.

Queer Titles of Kings.

Some of the king-s of the world have a great many titles. KingAlfonso of Spain is the proud possessor of forty-two independent and separate titles. His list of suffixes would form the major part of almost any letter which he might write. Whatever his predecessors might have been, whatever claims they made in their dignities, he has .preserved them as trailers to his individual name of "Alfonso, and he holds claim to territories which have longsince passed from under the Spanish domination. For instance, he is, along towards the last of his titles, "Kingof- the East* Indies," "King- of the West Indies," "King of Gibraltar," "King of India," and "King of Oceania." Also "King of Castile," "King of Arragron," "King of Navarre," and "King of Galicia." The Emperor of Austria boasts sixty-one extra titles, and the Sultan of Turkey eightytwo. .;

The Sultan starts by being- Hig-h Prince and Lord of Lords. Then he specifies in great detail practically all of the States and cities and even districts of the Orient, and explainingafter each of the various names that he is ruler of "all the forts, citadels, purlieus, and neighbourhood thereof." Nothing- is presumed to belong to anyone else. A land may have never belong-ed to Turkey except in some transient raid or invasion, but that matters not to the Sultan; he adds it no his string1, calm and indifferent td~ the progress of other nations. He loves to proclaim his religious promin-. ence. "Head of the Faithful," "Supreme Lord of All the Followers of the Prophet," "Direct and only Lieutenant on Earth of Mohammed" are some of his most extravagant phrases. His title of "King of Jerusalem" is also claimed by the Emperor of Austria, and the Kings of Spain and Portug-al. The Kaiser has seventy-two. Most of the States of Germany are included in the list of the Prussian King, and >nave been ever since the Union of the

States