NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS

Hokitika Guardian, 13 December 1928, Page 8

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS

WONDERFUL' WIRE. A wire doth having I(i0/K)0 ro openings per squaje inch lias been made at .Newark, New .Jersey. It is ths! lines! ever made. It is a “40')mesli” wire cloth with 400 parallel wires per imh of width running each way at light angles. A piece only lOin ,s(|iiare has one million square n. i sc ro,scop i e openings. ON THE TREK TOIL Plants tint perch on tree tops have heoii discovered in British Guiana. They are :ii' plants of the pineapple family, a flat.-joined cactus, and a yellow orchid, and they w* re lonrnl on ilie- top of a fig tree growing in a mass that apparently costed as a parasite until'its long Mints were able to find the ground. BLACK BEDCLOTHES CUBK. An iiniismil Mire for insomnia, suggested hy recent experiments, i.s black hedflotlns and pillows in a black Led, within a room of the same dusky shade. In such a. room many of the mo-t. violent patients in an Italian mental hospital became calm and s«on fell into a deep natural sleep. It, is though!, that the same cure may ho useful in ordinary cases of insomnia. TERRIERS ON THE TRACK. Pox terrier racing with an electric rat was an unusual “turn” at the London CV.iliseum recently. Clad in coloured jackets, the terriers raced round a track seventy-live yards in circumference. The dogs ran twice round the track for each race. Tu two races ii.sLea.ti of chasing round the track, wily terriers doubled back to meet tin* rat half-way, while in another, a dog con tin lied alter the quarry when the race was finished, and with the dummy m its teeth charged through a hurdle. .IKW T EL-COVEILED SHOE HEELS. Thick-soled clogs and shoes with jewel-covered heels were a conspicuous exliib.it at the Shoe and Leather Fair at the Royal Agricultural Hall. Islington. Among dozens of dill'cront types or skins and leather were sea leopard wrlersnake and shark skins. A novelty was the handbag, in colour and decoration to match my lady’s shoe. A "brighter hoot” campaign for men was introduced on one stall Some hoots were 'decorated in a brilliant futuristic design in red .yellow and curedi. while for those of (jineter tastes wei'o black and white parent leather fbools. “Toes on women’s shoes are somewhat more pointed for the present season.” said an official, “with heels tending slightly higher in the Louis stvle. Spanish heeds are also becoming fashionable. HERO SAVES HORSES TN PIT FIRE Eight colliery horses would have perished b v fire in their stalls but for cite heroism of their ostler, John Lloyd, ostler at No. 7 Pit, Tvlorstown filamorgan. .noticed smoke coining from the first and .second story of the stable, and on rushing down found 100 tons .of liny and large quantities ot corn stored over the stable on fire. Lighted straw fell into the stable, causing tbe frightened horses to rear in (heir stalls. Though the roof threatened to give way any moment and so precipitate tbe burning .material into the stable, Lloyd rushed in and quickly released seven of the airmnbs. r l he eighth, however, resisted TJody’s effort and, rearing suddenly, sent him headlong to the ground, bruising his side, severely. "While down Lloyd saw •* blazing rafter fall across the doorway. However bo refused to forsake the remaining horse, and, throwing Ids arms around its neck, at last succeeded in milling it round. The animal then plunged through the tire to safety, wiili Lloyd close on its heels. Both horse ami ostler were slightly burnt The stable and stores were gutted. SHOCKING! Canes and sticks having proved useless in teaching schoolboys to write m-opeiiv. a new method is being tried. Electrical apparatus gives them shock in the neck if they depart from the correct style. At a summer school at Cambridge, it was that a hov gripped his pen so tightly that ho was tired by the end of a line. He simply could not write, so an electrical apparatus was constructed for him. With this he wrote with a steel pen between lines on cardboard, touching the lines in forming the letters, and when lie tom-lied them there was a buzzing noise. If he went outside the lines a bell rang. When he gripped his pen too tightly lie received an electric shock in the back of his neck. After six months the boy was writing easily. WHY gulls watch for sprats. Stray wild birds at the Zoo may In* noticed to be acting strangely. -Whilst sea-gulls wheel around the sea-

lion pond, the lawn opposite the birds-of-prov aviary—usually a rendezvous for sparrows and wood-pigeons—is deserted by them. 'Pile cause ol the commotion among the gulls is that, soon, sprats will take- the place of whiting for feeding the sea-lions, and as the birds become expert at catching the smaller fishes the keeper encourages them. To account for the absence of birds "ii the lawn one will find, leashed to a block, a tame goshawk. Though before- its recent presentation to the society, it had been used to strike down rabbits from aloft, pigeons and -narrows would make equally desirable victims. PRESS-TH E-BUTTON TO'I LET. An ingenious new toilet article enables you to comb and brush your hair with a single motion, thus saving a few precious seconds in the morning. I w< > .sin: ill combs that slip and lock into the side- for instant, rapid use are released by the pressure of a button. Press another billion and a hand-mirror slides out from the top. The device should lie very useful to travellers. UNDERGROUND WATER. WONDERS. The quantity of water underground beneath the crust, ot the earth’s surface in nearly one-third the total volume of the oceanic waters says a scientist wlu> bus just concluded iiivSsligations of buried rivers and eaves. 'I he earib’s groiiml water has been accumulating for countless ages, and extends to great depths, )>erlinps six miles, and percolates slowly through the porous and jointed rocks, to form a great system of undergouiid drainage, HOME-MADE W FATHER. Some weeks ago two agricultural chemists “planted” wheat seeds m a laboratory where sunshine is niamitactured from a dozen .'JOd-caml.e-power lamps tilled with glowing argon gas. Tiie soil was created by filling jars with the chemicals usually found in the natural soil plants required tor food. The wheat grew at an unheard-of pace, reaching maturity in thirteen weeks instead of five months. In another laboratory there is an apparatus winch not only produces siinslTVuo, but ait sorts of weather as well. H is used to make rapid tests ot toe durability ol paints, varnishes, enamels, and lacquers, which are in turn exposed L> hot “sunshine" produced hy a carbon are ’ “a rain-storm” created by a water spray, and the ravages ol time in the form of ozonized air—that is, air containing oxygen in very active torin. 'finis the materials quickly get the equivalent ol several years ol wear. THE EARLIEST Sll IRBUILDERS. Although at a very early period In the history of mankind logs and lloal.s of various kinds were used by many people to cross narrow sheets of water or for paddling along coast tines, the real history of boat building began when the earliest dwo. lers on the banks of the Nile tied together bundles of reeds to make floats (writes Professor Elliot Smith, F.R.S., in the November “London Magazine”) 4 Those simple craft not only determined the form of the wooden ships Limb succeeded them, hut the methods of const ruction lor making the reed, floats, i.e. tying them together with cords, were. also, adopted when wooden .ships came to he built by adding planks to the liolluwed-out logs which eventually degenerated into the mere keel of the composite ship. Thus the earliest Egyptian term for shipbuilding was the word signifying “to bind.” Even at .the present time we still find upon the Nile all these primitive types that are survivals of phrases in the history of shipbuilding, some of them more than sixty centuries old. GROTTO FROM BIT'S OF CHINA. Few people can find a use for broken crockery, but iu the front garden <>r a cottage at Feltlmm (Middlesex) there is a, grotto built largely of china which lias seen its best days. Mr. William Merrick, a retired builder, of Bedlont Bane, started making the structure over 20 years ago—lie lias lived there for twice that period —and he has now created a novel and picturesque corner. The crockery, with portions of Roman wall, sea shells of all sorts, the bottoms of glass hottels, and fragments of broken ornaments, bare all been cemented into position, and the grotto i.s now about 10ft. long, Oft wide and sft high. Pieces of Wedgwood, fragments of Doulton and other valuable china may be seen in company with more humble varieties. People in the neighbourhood make a point oT sending to Air Merrick lots ot broken crockery past repair to lie incorporated in the grotto. A use has been found even for glass stoppers. They are embedded into ornamental shields, formed of cement. Mr Merrick has also exercised his ingenuity indoors by lining the kitchen wall, from door to ceiling with pieces of broken plates. They form a mosaic pattern, colours Mending harmoniously, and present a very attractive appearance.