FACTS AND FANCIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 558, 12 April 1913, Page 7

FACTS AND FANCIES.

Origin of Roller-Skating. Since roller-skating has long been one of the most popular of pastimes, it is particularly interesting to note the origin of rollerskates. These were first introduced by a Dutchman named Merlin, who during the latter part of the eighteenth century gave exhibitions of skating over a smooth floor, playing a fiddle meanwhile. Unfortunately, his efforts in this direction seemed to be more ludicrous than successful, for history relates how, much to the amusement of his audience, Merlin used to crash into mirrors and pictures. The pastime did not at this stage make much appeal to popular fancy, and it was not until the famous ballet "Les Plaisirs de l'Hiver," given at Her 'Majesty's Theatre in 1894, took London by storm, that the fashion of skating on wheels was taken up with anything like enthusiasm by the public. Another Fertiliser from Waste. The creamery "wash" is often wasted, but a method has been recently discovered which not only removes the waste, but apparently transforms it into a valuable fertiliser —the efficiency being equalled only by its simplicity. On a barn floor is placed a heap of coarse phosphate of lime, hollowed out as a mason would arrange his heap of sand in preparing to make mortar. Into this the "wash" from the creamery is poured, and a handful of yeast is added. After a few days the -whole, mass is mixed and turned as in the making of mortar, the result being a greyish mass of clamp material resembling superphosphate in appearance, and containing 52.78 per cent, of total phosphates when damp, and 72.30 calculated to dryness, and 1.65 of nitrogen. No nuisance of any kind is created by the process, and as a fertiliser for land it should prove excellent. #

The World's Chief Industry. Few people realise that agriculture is the world's greatest industry, and that ploughing is the world's greatest single item of power consumption. Such, however, is the case, and it is because this is so that the agricultural world is looking with so much expectancy to the efforts of our engineers in their experiments to help this greatest industry and reduce the cost of this power consumption. In recent years it cannot be said that very much has been accomplished. There is an immense field for the tractor on the farm, but the horse still remains the best prime mover for allround purposes, and will never be entirely displaced by a machine.

Names that Mislead. f Many people assume that india ink comes from India; but it does not, and- never did, any more than did india rubber. The first originated in and comes from China, and should be called Chinese ink, as it is in France, and the latter comes from Central and South America. Camcl's-hair brushes are not made from the hair of camels, but from hairs from the tails of Russian and Siberian squirrels. The hair of camels is, however, used for making, fine fabrics, such as shawls, rugs, and underclothing, and is sometimes mixed with silk. "Genuine French brien-root pipes" are not made from the roots of brier, but from the root of a white heath which' reaches a considerable size and is cultivated in the South of Fiance for pipe-making purposes. The name is derived from the French bruyere, the dialect form of which is briere, meaning heath. A centipede has about thirty feet, at most not one hundred. Silkworms are not worms, but caterpillars; sealing-wax contains no wax; heartburn has nothing to do with the heart; and sweet spirits of nitre does not contain any nitre. <S The Vatican Observatory. The Vatican Observatory came into existence shortly before the year 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII. succeeded in amending the calender. The Council of Nieea, in V A.D. 325 had assigned March 21st as the date when the sun entered the sign of Aries, but the day was not really a fixed one, and by Gregory's time the accumulated error, which amounted to ten days, seriously affected the date of Easter. The really active phase of the Observatory's work began after the jubilee of Pope Leo XIII. in 1888, when' a scientific exhibition was held and among the presents received by the Vatican were a number of meteorological and astronomical instruments. The latter are now housed in domes built on the massive turrets formingpart of the fortifications erected in the ninth centurv by Leo IV. • ——— "To Haul Over the. Coals."

As regards the origin of the saying, I have understood it to be derived as follows :—During KingJohn's reign, when that notorious monarch was in want of money, his custom was to summon a rich Jew, and ask him to oblige. Tf the latter refused, he was hauled over burning coals till he consented. So arose the phnise. T give this for what it i>; <- -M-?h, and, ,at any rate, it is 1 remeu:!..';- Lading this explanation in an English