BRIEF MENTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6936, 27 October 1900, Page 3

BRIEF MENTION.

. . . in m • Brussels is the nearest capital in a direct Kne to London. Seven miles is the greatest recorded height ever reached by a balloon. The pins manufactured in the United Kingdom annually require about 1500 tons of iron and brass wire. The new forts at Dover, England, are to have six 9- inch wire-wound guns, having an effective range of eleven, miles. They are nearly forty feet long. In the month of March, upon, the railroads of the United States, there occurred 82 collisions, and 116 derailments and 6 other accidents, killing 37 passengers and injuring 168. At a recent fur sale, a Parisian purchased in the open market a black Siberian foxskin, 48in by Bin» paying for it the sum of £600. When dressed, it will cost its wearer £1100. The latest bit of newspaper enterprise in a scientific Hoe is a London journal's expedition to Patagonia' in search of the Mylodon, the giant sloth lately supposed to ba extinct. Tuberculosis caused 12,314 of the 46,788 deaths in Paris in 1899, or more than onefourth, and three-fifths of all the deaths between the ages of twenty and forty were due to this cause. Li Hung Chang's chief physician tig a Chinese lady who rejoices in the names of Hu King Eng. She graduated in the Woman's Medical College in Philadelphia, and has since achieved an enviable reputation. The Celestial has to regulate the size of his house according to bis rank. The architecture is liable to the strictest supervision to the most minute details, nor is any deviation from certain established rules allowed. A train travelling at the rate of sixty miles an hour can be brought to a standstill in. 400 yards, at fifty -five miles an hour in 340 yards, fifty miles in 275, forty-five in 220, forty in 180, thirty-five in 135, and thirty in 100 yards. A London firm, of electricians has brought out a new system, combining decoration with the. lighting of rooms. The main idea is the insertion of transparent panels faced . with photographic positives of well-known pictures, through which filters subdued electric light. " Phototherapy, or treatment of lupus and other skin diseases by the chemical rays of sunlight, or the electric arc, is now given a special department at the London Hospital. Expensive apparatus has been presented by the Princess of Wales, and nurses have been specially trained. Street widening in London is a highly expensive operation. Thfe Widening of Ludgate Hill 15ft resulted in an expenditure at the rate of £2,000,000 per mile; the Fleet Street widening, 10:t, £3,Q00,000 per mile; and- the Strand widening, £6,000,000 per mile. . It is hot generally known that it is unlawful in Ohio to keep any native songbird in confinement. During a month twenty-eight people were arrested in ,Cincinnati for this offence, and it is estimated that over 25,000 birds have been given their freedom within the past year. Count Zeppelin entertained his work- j men at dinner at Berlin- In replying to the j toast of his health 'h« expressed a hope thai he would be able to show the whole world his successful solution of the problem of a navigable balloon next autumn. The Comr . it is said, intends to make another experimental ascent within a month or so. The ceremonies at the creation of a knight have been various : the principal were a box on the ear and a stroke with a sword on the shoUiuer. The blow with the naked fist was in use among the ancient Normans. It was afterwards changed into a blow with the flat of the sword on the shoulder of the knight, and this ceremony is still in use. ■ Three thousand bronze tablets, containing the records of Borne from the foundation of the city to the time of Vespasian, are knowii to be buried . in the' marshes near Ostia. They were 'saved from the fire which destroyed the Capitol in the year A. D. 69. The Italian archaeologist, Signor Macs, wishes the Italian Government to drain the marshes and hunt for the tablets. A telescope was recently being tested at the Bausch and Lomb Optical Works, at Rochester, New York, and it was turned on a bridge, alrid the observer saw a young thief take a tub of butter from a waggon and conceal it. The police were telephoned to, and the thief was captured as he was attempting to carry away his prize a few hours later. "Ibis is an interesting use of the telescope. . A couple of months back a remarkable dinner took place at Birmingham, at which all the dishes were coloured the , patriotic red, white and blue. The dish of the evenjng was a large potato salad, made in the form of a fort, beetroot supplying the red, creamy potatoes the white, while the blue was composed of the same tubers coloured that tint. • The guns of the fort were represented by truffles. In the early nineties a bachelor dinner was given at New York by a patriotic Hibernian, at which green was the prevailing colour. The room itself in which the repast was held was hutig with, green drapery, green baize did duty for a tablecloth; the glass and china were of the same hue, while the i guests themselves wore coats of the national colour. During the evening the host presented each of his guests with a small emerald pin in the form of a shamrock as a memento of the gathering. One aspect of the food problem has assuredly been solved by a company in New .Haven,, Connecticut, which undertakes to seryehot meals to. all and sundry within a radius of seventy -miies from its head-quar-ters, and that from .25 per cent, to 50 per cent cheaper than they can be obtained elsewhere. These. meals are sent out in waggons. wi(h compartiments for , each article; the meals are placed in' the different compartments smoking foot, and are kept at a high temperature until placed on the purchaser's table. Among the varied treasures of the Shah perhaps the Peacock Throne ought to be accorded premier place. The frame is entirely of silver, and above it the gleams of silver melt into molten gold. It is encrusted from end to end and from to" to bottom with diamonds. The rug on which me Shah reposes is edged with amethysts, and the pillow on which he reclines his Imperial head is fringed with pearls. Some travellers, Burton amongst them, have estimated the value of the Peacock Throne at £5,000,000. A big Berlin manufacturer received. in, one shipment four truck-loads of chicken feathers . from Russia. Turkey feathers come from America in great quantities. Chicken plumage brings from 6s to 16s a pound. Turkey is worth about the same. Fine wing and tail feathers bring a ' little more. Peacock plumage sells for from 16s to 30s a pound. The most expensive of all is the soft egret plumage, which brines from £5 to £10 an ounce. Paradise birds are also costly. They sell always by the whole bird, and cost from £1 to £2. In the parish of Runwell, Essex, an appa» ratus has been lately invented by the rector for ringing, the church bells by electricity. The origin of the invention is rather curious. The rector, finding a difficulty in obtaining bell-ringers, rung the bells for three I months himself. In order to save the la- ! bour involved in performing this task, he invented the "Automatic Ringer," and erected the apparatus in the church tower. By connecting the macMne witL the electric current already in use for lighting the church and rectory, the bells are now rung with perfect order and precision. The width of a flash of lightning has been measured by Mr George Roimker, of the Hamburg Observatory. A photograph was secured last August as lightning struck a tower, a third of a anile away, and from the distance of the tower and the focal distance of the camera objective it was possible to calculate the breadth of the discharge shown in the picture. It has been determined that the flash was one-fifth of an inch Avide. Ramifications shown in the photograph on each side of the main discharge are attributed to the strong gale that was 'blowing, the phenomenon appearing like a sijk. ribbon \rtth afcjwU flofttijig in. the mud*