DO YOU KNOW ?

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 92, 23 July 1943, Page 6

DO YOU KNOW ?

That there was a time when artists painted huge crowded canvascs representing historical scenes, but the face, of everj r person was that of a living celebrity. That the ancient Babylonians usually counted in sixties, not tens, and our division of the hour into sixty minutes and the minute into sixty seconds dates right back to those early days. That one of the rulers of Alexandria made a law that any notable man visiting the city must leave behind him a copy of any book that he had in his possession, thus adding to the famous library which eventually contained seven hundred thousand books. That two brothers—sober, industrious scholars who afterward, became university professors, travelled among the country people of their land collecting the stories which were afterwards printed as "Grim's Fairy Tales." That Henry Cavendish., the great scientist, was so methodical that he never even took a book down from his own library without solemnly entering his name in the loan-book which he kept!

That Sir William Herschel, who discovered the planet Uranus- vas a musician who turned to astronomy as a hobby and did not make the first telescope until lie was thirty-six years of age. That Aesop was a slave who first began writing fables in order to teach his own master a few lessons. That when gas was introduced into the House of Commons the pipes were fixed away l'rom the walls because it was thought they would get so hot that there would be danger of burning! That the llnrt sample steam en-

ginc Avas made by Hero, of Alexandria, about a hundred years before Christ.