PACTS AND FANCIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 554, 29 March 1913, Page 7

PACTS AND FANCIES.

A "Royal" Snake. The Python Regius, or Royal Python, of West Africa, grows sometimes to a length of 15ft., but specimens so large as that a§e seldom found. The natives of certain parts of the Guinea Coast are reputed to worship this creature, and to set apart special temples where all the pythons of the district resort with a view to the attentions lavished upon them.

"Mountainous" Waves. The size claimed for the waves in great ocean storms is often exaggerated, for science has shown that the biggest wave caused by a gale does not exceed 30ft. Tfdal waves have been known to reach heights of 60ft., but they are an exception. With the increase' of size of ocean steamers the point of sight of the passenge- has been raised, and it requires the roughest kind of a.sea to show a broken horizon from the promenade deck of the newest ocean liners. In these the pitch of the vessel is largely eliminated, although their decks, high above the highest waves of the most severe storms, have been washed by water thrown upward because of. the opposition offered to the advance of the great wave by their hulls. On the checks of the small steamers of past years, where the point of sight was low, the waves often appeared mountainous.

Freakish Headgear. The agitation against women's freakish headgear so far from being new has its record away back in the days of the Sixteenth Louis. In the year 1776 the Paris Operahouse made an order forbidding the admission of women whose high-dressed hair prevented a view of the stage. It was not, in those days, a question of asking the offender to remove her hat, for the offence was in the hair. According to the me&ioirs of Madame Campan, Lady-in-Waiting to Marie Antoinette, "the coiffures were at one* time so high, consisting of a combination of gauze, flowers, birds, feathers, etc., that women could not sit upright in their coaches and had to keep their heads out of the window. At a ball, too, thev had to pay constant attention to stoop every time they passed under a chandelier, which made them look ungainly."

The Devil's Horse

Just off the main road from London to Cambridge, between Ware and Puckeridge, is a straggling hamlet called Standon Green End. Here in the middle of a meadow stands a remarkable monument known as the Balloon Stone. Under a hinged metal flap is a bronze plate bearing an inscription chronicling the first balloon ascent. Lunardi's ascent created a tremendous sensation, all London turning out to witness his departure into the upper atmosphere. His sole companions were a dog, a cat, and a pigeon. When he was nearing the earth in the field where the Balloon Stone stands, five labourers declined to take hold of his mooring-ropes, and, swearing they would have nothing to do with the "devil s horse," took to their heels. But for the plucky conduct of a young servant "girl from an adjoining farmhouse, who seized the rope and summoned assistance, the pioneer balloonist would not have effected a landing.

Where Nature Beats Science. Man's earliest attempts at illumination produced something like i per cent, of visible light waves, and qg per cent, of invisible heat waves. His'most modern electric lamp produces about 35 to 38 per cent, of visible light rays and 62 to 65 per cent, of invisible heat rays. lhe latter are seldom wanted, and their elimination is the problem of scientists. They find that some of the humblest creatures have solved the problem much more satisfactorily than they. Glow-worms, fireflies and luminous beetles represent Nature's solutio.n, for they appear to have a light efficiency of probably 99 per cent, of the total energy which the insect expends in producing these visible rays is wasted in invisible rays. What is the secret of their efficiency? We know that they are, in some cases, a source of considerable radiant energy almost all of which is confined to a limited part of the visible spectrum, but little accurate data on the subject is available. The British glow-worm emits so little light that it mav be dismissed at once, but we have the fire-flies of the West Indies and South Anjerica, some of which give really good illumination. In Hatvi, for instance, eight or ten fire-flics confined in a phial give sufficient light to enable a person to write. The structure of these insects, particularly the chitinous layer through which the light passes when leaving their Body, has been carefullv examined, but nothing verv definite has beeri ascertained as "to the precise nature of the energv radiated. The discovery of the incandescent gas-mantle, while doubling the light-giving efficiency of coal gas, only raised the percentage of visible rays from 0.35 to 0.75 per ce n t. Even now the best that coal can do is to .give r per cent, of light, and 99 per cent: