BRIEF MENTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9214, 18 April 1908, Page 3

BRIEF MENTION.

The first iron steamship was built in 1830. Modern needles first came into use in 1545. Birmingham produces 220,000,000 pen-nibs weekly. Kerosene was first used for lighting purposes in 1826. Twelve million tons of 'sand were dredged from the Mersey Channel during 1907. Hawks have been known to follow & train to prey on the small birds startled by the sudden noise. Whales and serpents are voiceless. So, also, are the porcupine, the armadillo and the giraffe. The population of Bombay Presidency has increased by no fewer than 15,000,000 in the past twenty years. Th 6 water in the Norwegian fjords is wonderfully clear, quite small objects being visible at a depth of twenty fathoms. A little sugar taken with water, not too cold, in case food is not obtainable, will relieve any feeling- of exhaustion md sharp hunger. In Vienna there is a highly efficient voluntary street ambulance society. Their services were required last year no fewer than 30,000 times. Perfume manufacturers every year consume 1860 tons of orange-blossom. 930 tons of roses, 150 tons each of jasmine and violets, and 15 tons of jonquils. '.-.l'"-. A Glasgow engineer has astounded Clyde shipbuilders by producing a small rotary turbine engine, little more than .a foot in diameter, capable of i developing 40 horse-power. The Senate of the new American State of Oklahoma has passed a> Bill debarring any black man from using the public telephones. A few Bpeoial telephones are provided for the use of negroes. Fashions in nails vary in different countries. In the United States and in France a pointed shape is often given to the nail, whilst in England the oval is generally preferred. The safest rule is to trim the nail to correspond with the curve of the finger-tip. Children in Italy are not allowed to rub their eyes. When an infant bursts into tears no effort is made to repress the emotion, but the youngster is allowed to have its cry out. It is asserted that this beautifies the eyes and makes them clear, while rubbing the eyos injures them in many ways. The most remarkable gold .beetles in the world are found in Central America. The head and wing oases are brilliantly polished with a lustre as of gold itself. To sight and touch they have all the appearance of that metal. Oddly enough, another species from the same region looks like solid silver, freshly burnished. A donation of £25,000 was Teeentry made to the Columbia University (U.S.) in memory of Mr Hugh Bergh, the anonymous donor expressing his wish to inaugurate a special branch of study directed towards the devising of methods whereby cruelty to animals mieht be prevented to the greatest possible extent. Dr Sven Hedin, the Swedish explorer, states that he has discovered the true Rourcps of the Brahmapntra and In^ns. The Brahmaoutra, he says, is the Kubitsampo, which rises from an enormous glacier on the northern side of the Himalayas. The Marinmchu, which has hitherto been reearded as the source, is merely a small tributary flowin ss in from the west. j It is not generally known that on board British ships in any part of the world letters nrnv be franked with British stamps. They ar« not. however, posted in the usual way. They must be handed to' an officer of the vessel, and he, on arrival «t a, port, hands them in to a post office in a bundle labelled, "Posted on board the British ship on the high seae." Ships oan now go to seai with frozen ammunition, a method of utilising liquefied air on warships having been dvwovered which will render the explnsion of a magazine, even when the ship is in action, almost impossible. The metrtorl is to so place the liquid air that it will freeze the ammunition to several hundred degrees below zero. In that condition it conld not explode, even if . a shell should burst- in the magaeine. | The Victoria Cross was instituted fifty-two years ago. The honour has been conferred upon 522 officers, noncommissioned, petty officers, and men of both services. The first feat for which the Cross was granted was performed at Bomarsund on June 21, 1854, by the present Admiral 0. D. Lucas, I and the latest in Tibet, by Captain J. D. Grant, Bth Gurkha Rifles. There are 183 wearers of the V.C. living. There is in the Geological Museum of New York a specimen of an overgrown lobster. It was caught alive by some fishermen on the New Jersey coast, and they had some difficulty in keeping ft in the net until they could get it safely into a tank of water. It measures a yard in length and weighs 341 b. Naturalists assertf that it is not a member of out-of-the-way species, but simply an overgrown member of the ordinary lobcter family. The aged Emperor of Austria, who is now seventy-seven years old. has entered upon the sixtieth year of his reign. Following the precedent of Queen Victoria, he will not celebrate his diamond jubilee until December 2, 1908. Should he survive, the celebrations will be General throughout the world, for the Emperor has prepared a great scheme of general amnesty for all persons liable to arrest in Austria for the evasion of the law of conscription. This amnesty will affect no fewer than 16,000 Austrians in London alone. Investigation of the qualities of the woods of Western Australia has reeulted in the revelation of the remarkable qualities of yate, which is believed to : be the strongest of all known woods. ' Its average tensile strength is 24,0001 b to the square inch, equalling that of good cast iron. But many specimens are much stronger, and one was tested up to 17$ tons to the square inch, which is equal to the tensile strength of wrought iron. The sawn timber of yate is probably the strongest in the world. The tree grows to a maximum height of lOOYt, and has sometimes a diameter of 2£ft, or even 3ft.

To enable Messrs Harland and Wolff, of Belfast, to proceed with the construction of tho fi+panv?hips Europa and Gigantic, of 45,000 and 48 WO tons groas register, there has just been constructed in Belfast Harbour a floating crane capable of raising weights exceeding 200 tons, mounted on an immense pontoon. A special feature of interest is that the whole of the crane will revolve on the pontoon, "making a complete circle. It is intended to moor the crane alongside the big ships for lifting heavy boilers, engines and other big pieces of machinery on board nfter launching and during; completion. It is entirely electrically driven, and is the largest of its kind in existence. Three grammes of radium (about 46 grains), the largest quantity yet produced at one time, has been extracted by the Imperial Academy of Sciences of Vienna from ten tons of uranium and pitchblende given by the (Government from its mines in Bohemia, and although the crude material cost nothing, the extraction alone amounted to lOjOOOdol. This, however, cheapens the cost of radium considerably, for the 8 grammes were obtained at one-third the cost of previous products, which it has been estimated would be worth not less than 3,000,000d0l an ounce. A small fraction of the yield has been presented to Sir W. Ramsay for experimental purposes. A part will be used by other researchere to test Professor Ramsay's theory regarding the breaking up of radium into other elements. (