Miscellaneous.

Kaikoura Star, Volume XVII, Issue 1849, 8 March 1898, Page 7

Miscellaneous.

If one man conquers in battle a thousand times ten thousand men, and another conquers himself, he who conquers himselt is the greatest of conquerors.—Buddha.

Soda posseses many virtues. It is very valuable to brighten tinware when briskly rubbed on with a damp cloth; it preserves the fresh colour of green vegetables when boiled with them in small quantities; it will clean ceilings that have been discoloured by lamp-smoke if the marks are sponged with soda and water; it will clean stained lamp-chimneys if these are boiled in soda and water, and it keeps cut flowers fresher if a small bit of soda is put into each receptacle in which the flowers are arranged.

At the meeting of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain, held in December, the application of kites to the preservation of life was illustrated by the apparatus of Captain Spiers, who considers that the simplest means of carrying a line from a wrecked ship to the land is by means of a kite. Captain Baden-Powell, the secretary of the society, exhibited a specimen of the kites he employs for manlifting purposes. He said that as a rule four or five kites 12ft. long were sufficient to lift a man, though in a very strong wind he had been raised off his feet by one. In America kites had been used for meterological purposes, and experiments had been made with them for military purposes. He thought it a pity they had not been employed in the operations in India. Mr Pilcher showed one of his soaring machines in which he had been able to cover nearly 300 yards. He was now at work on a four-horse power oil engine, to weigh about 401 b., which ho intended to fit together with a sft. ecrew propeller to one of these machines ; he hoped then to have a genuine flying machine.