BRIEF MENTION.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2951, 24 November 1900, Page 1 (Supplement)

BRIEF MENTION.

A Jielcl battery in line has nearly a hundred yards frontage. In Great Britain the yearly loss in wages through ill-health is £11,000,000. Paderewski’s average income from each concert, after paying all expenses, is over £IOOO.

Less than 50Cf miles of railway exist in China, but concessions are given for 7500 miles, including connections with the Chinese Eastern Railway, and the lines to Shanghai, Hamkow, Canton and Mandalay. An authority on hygiene says that systematic use of salt baths will prevent one from taking cold, and avert chapping and roughness'of the skin. ' A handful of common salt dissolved in a basinful of water as cold as one’s vitality permits is sufficient for a sponge over the entire body. No soap should be used.

If twelve persons were to agree to dine together every 'day, but never sit exactly in •the same order around the table, it would tafke 18,000,000 years, at the rate of one dinner a day, and they would have to eat mere than 470,000,000 dinners, before they could get through ail the possible arrangements i.» which they could place themselves! General Chaffee, who commands the American contingent of the allied forces, has risen from the ranks. He joined the United States cavalry as a trooper nearly forty years ago,. and won ins commission by gallantry in the field. Since then be has been almost ceaselessly engaged on active service, mainly against Indians. He also went all through the Cuban campaign a couple of years ago. A vegetable bed, invented by Sir Isaac Pitman, is mow growing very popular, especially among vegetarians. It consists of moss, ferns, flowers and bay. Physicians with herbal tendencies are warmly recommending its use. It is said to give out a scent like ozone, and is not omiy strengthening and refreshing generally, but, in addition, induces sound and healthy sleep, and thus is a remedy for insomiaia.

The appearance- of all fine gems is improved by gaslight. A perfect emerald, despite its colour, which in anything else would turn to a- dull bluish hue, is- only intensified in brilliancy of colour by artificial light. The blue sapphire, though darkened, remains true to its colour, as by daylight. The alexandrite is the only gem that changes, turning from a dark olivine to a brilliant blood-red by candle or gaslight. There are many simple- tests for fictitious bank-notes. The most difficult- feature to imitate in our somewhat cumbersome papexmnney is the water-mark; but this can be imitated properly by placing the lorged bank-note under a heavy die. Forgeries of this kind are detected by damping the note with a- sponge. If f-be note is a genuine one the water-mark will then stand out plainly; if a “duffer” it will -almost disappear. In the production of common watchglasses the glass is blown into a sphereabout- a metre in diameter, sufficient- material being taken to give the desired thickness, as the case may he. Discs are- then cut. out from this sphere with the aid of a pair of compasses, having a diamond at the extremity of one leg. There is a knack in detaching' the disc after it has been cut. A good workman will, it is said, cut 6000 glasses a dayIn Corea visiting-cards are a foot square. The savages of Dahomey announce their visits to each other by a wooden board or the branch of a tree artistically carved. This is sent on in advance, and the visitor, on taking leave, pockets his card, which probably serves him for many years. The natives of Sumatra also have a visitingcard, consisting of a piece of wood about a foot long, and decorated with a bunch of straw and a knife.

The Rc-v F. W. Macdonald, in responding to f-he Conference vote of thanks to him for Iris work during his year of office as v-resident, threw some light on the arduous duties of a present-day presidency. During bis year of office ho ‘had visited no fewer than’ eighty-six towns, some several times over; had travelled 19,000 miles ; had held 300 services of various kindis ; had addressed some 160.000 people ; and had spent 209 nights out of his own house. Many watches make five beats per second, 300 ea-c-h minute, 18,000 every hour, or 432,000 per day. Thus it- will be seen tha-t a. half-dozen turns of the key once a -day. t-ikkvr up a few seconds of 'time, stores up n. modicum pf power in the spring which G cut up into nearly half a- million of beats. If we multiply -the daily beats by 365-i, the number of da vs in a, year, we fin-d that the watcli ticks 157.788.000 Time's while the earth its making one annual trip round the sun.

Sir Frederick Carrington, who is now comma-rding the Rhodesian Field Force in South Africa, attained his h'fty-sixth year on August- 23. Practically a'K 'Sir Frederick’s active service Iras been at the Cape, where, during its siege of 1880, be commanded the garrison at Ma-fekm-g. In 1877 he had raised the corps, Carrington’s Horse, which be led, armed only with a cane, in much of the fighting with the natives in the following years. The famous Bedh-uanaland 80-rdcx Police were, in 1884, also raised by Sir Frederick.

An announcement of considerable interest to cycle manufacturers is made in a recent consular report. Hitherto aluminium could not be cheaply employed in the construction of bicycles, because the joints had to be screwed together instead of being welded or soldered in the ordinary way. It now appears that a workman at the Brindisi Electric Station has settled part of the problem. He is said to have invented a process by which two pieces of aluminium can be securely banded together, and specimens of his work have already been submitted to the scrutiny of engineering experts.

The name of Bret Harte was undoubtedly made by a single poem, “The Heathen Chinee.” which has been a classic for the last thirty years, and is likely to be considerably quoted during the present trouble with the Celestial Empire. It was written in San Francisco, and it made its way eastward across the American Continent, and thence to Europe, until the name of tlm author became a household word. Bret' Harte has in his time been a miner, a school teacher, a printer, and an editor, as well as a member of the diplomatic service, for he was United States Consul at Glasgow for some years.

It is not generally known that the murdrvecl King Humbert, was a. vegetarian. The doctors forbade hi in to drink coffee, and liis beverage was Bordeaux with plenty of water. It is said ■•that the King never felt so we.ll as when his faro consisted of bread, potatoes and oranges. Beaches were his favourite fruit. The Queen, who was devoted to him, made frequent, attempts to live the same life, but gave it up finally in despair. King Humbert could never sleep except upon a hard’ bed; ho dispensed with the use of pillows, and used sheets of the very coarsest quality. Mandarins in China may be distinguished by the birds which decorate their uniforms, as well as by their buttons. Mandarins of the first, rank have a bird kno'wn as the lung embroidered on their clothes. Mandarins of the second rank have their robes adorned by the figure of a cock. Mandarin* of the third rani/have a peacock-. ’Mandarin,-; of the fourth rank are adorned with a pelican. Those of the fifth rank arc easily distinguished by the silver pluysant. Those of the sixth rank are favoured by a stork ; mandarins of the seventh rank have a partridge; mandarins of the eighth rank quail, and mandarins of the ninth rank the humble sparrow.

The success of smokeless powder in modern warfare has been such as to prompt a man of an inventive- turn of mind to manufacture a powder which is said to be also noiseless. It is the invention of a German workman, who has studied tlie chemistry of explosives in the Stales. He has already given a private exhibition of the practicability of his discovery with considerable success. A shell loaded with his powder was tired at a target fifty yards away, and the only sound indicating the explosion was the tailing of the plunger of the shell. Bohnengal, which is the name of the inventor, has not, it is said, yet sold the secret of iho process, but is still in treaty with different Governments for its purchase.