HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16570, 1 November 1921, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

EARLY TELEGRAPHY. In the early years of the eighteenth century the “ Letters of a Turkish Spy were eagerly read. They ran through many editions, were written by one well acquainted with the secrehistory of the period, and the following extract is curious and would incline one to believe that the latest development of electric telegraphy—by* induced or sympathetic currents without any connecting wires— was anticipated by the “Red Cardinal”: “ The Cardinal (Richelieu) said that he knew what passed in remote plaof£ as soon as what was done near hiflk He once affirmed he knew in leas than two hours that the King of England had signed the warrant for the execution of . “Those who are his most devoted creatures affirm he has, in a private place in his closet, a certain mathematical figure, in the circumference of which are written all the letters of th* alphabet, armed with a dart which marks the letters which are also marked by their correspondents, and it appears that this dart ripens by tho sympathy of a stone, which those who give and receive his advice keep always at hand, which has been separated from another which the Cardinal has always by him; and *tis affirmed that with such an instrument he gives and receives immediately advices.” A FEW HOUSEHOLD HINTS. Don’t forget to pin your rugs on the line with the large safety pins commonly called horse blanket pins. They will hold the rugs in placo while you brush and beat them. Keep old kid gloves for ironing day. Sew a pad of kid from the left glove in the palm of the right one. The protection from the heat and weight of the iron will do much to keep the irener’s hands from becoming calloused. Extend your couch full width, cover with sheet or newspapers. Then stretch your curtain* on the couch. If you find that the couch is not long enough, take the part of the curtain that hangs over and pin it back on the couch- 1 Black cotton stockings should be dried in a shady place, and smoothed with the hands on the ironing board ; but not ironed, as the heat fades them, and makes them a bad colour. If you wish to iron clothes easily, damp them down, roll lightly, and lay aside several hours before you wish to commence ironing. Embroidery should always be ironed on tho wrong side to bring out the design. POWER OF THE PLANTS. The power of vegetation is wonderful. For instance, asphalt paving or lining proves to be no obstruction to vegetation. In the courtyard of the Bank of Italy, at Rome, is a garden of shrubs, and beneath the court is a basement covered by arches, over which is a layer of asphalt eeveneighths of an inch thick, to prevent percolation of moisture into the space where documents are stored. Removal of earth above the masonry has shown that several roots of chain aer ops—-a kind of dwarf palm—had penetrated right through the asphalt, boring clean holes a quarter of an inch in diameter. Unable to pierce the masonry, the roots had forced a wav between it and the asphalt. The power of vegetation is extraordinary. Paving stones in the streets of a large city have been known to be forced out of their place by the growth of fungi underneath, and instances are on record of rocks being actually split asunder _by the vigorous growth of trees which have grown from seeds dropped into a crevice. THINK THIS OVER. There is a vast black mass, 20,000,000 times larger than the sun, so near us that a Dutch scientist suggests that the sun itself must move round it once in 2,000,000 years—drawing the earth with it. “We believe that the black body must consist of dust and that this is the first stage in the birth of a star,” said an expert. “As it condenses it gets hotter until it becomes luminous ana visible. Sudden * flares ’ or ‘ new stars ’ have been seen in our lifetime, but the black cloud of dust appears to be the real beginning. “The amazing feature is the nearness of the body. It is relatively as close to the earth as a foot rule would appear to be if only two feet away from I your eyes. It is quite possible that even vaster bodies of this kind exist.” The nearness is relative. The body is 280,000,000,000,000 miles away. DESIGNING* HAT PINS. Tli© designer of hat pins is kept going continuously. One artist says: “ I assure you that the task of designing attractive hat pins for the other sex requires as much skill, ingenuity and industry as the creation ©i pictures or clothes.* When designing my hat pin heads, I picture in my mind’s eye a pin head about the size of a football or dinner plate, and upon this “model” my light fancy gets to work. My work table ia littered with paints, transfer pictures, mounted butterflies and the like, borrowed from the local museum, together with hat pins of ©very conceivable variety. “ I design on an average six hat- pin heads a day, and work six days a week. So you will see that I turn out nearly two thousand designs a year. From an accepted design twenty thousand hat pins, say, may be made.” VALUABLE RUST. Oxide of iron is another name for rust, and ia the result of a combined attack on iron by the oxygen in the air and the moisture. It is this fact, that iron can rust, that makes it one of the most valuable metals in the world. Rusted iron gives all the colour to the brown earth as well as to coloured jewels like rubies ; while it is rust, dissolved in water to make food for the plant, which gives a plant its green colour, and which is also responsible [ for the red colour of our blood. And, as you know, a rusty nail in water alao provides a tonic.