NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1786, 7 February 1918, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A hollow wand has been contrived, with a lead weight inside, which, up a small magnet. On the outside is a celluloid mouse mounted on another magnet, which runs up the wand very realistically, keeping pace with the magnet inside.

Henry VII. was the first monarch who coined shillings for common circulation. Edward VI. added the half-crown, sixpence, and threepence. This is the last reign in which we find a farthing in silver, which had been current since the time of Edward I.

The present conception of an atom is of a nucleus charged with positive electricity round which negative “electrons” revolve in fixed orbits, nearer or farther as the nucleus is stronger or weaker. Hydrogen, the lightest element, has only one electrical element in its nucleus, while uranium, the heaviest, has ninety-two.

Watchmakers cannot guarantee a main-spring for the reason that the springs are the most eccentric things in the trade. They will break at the most trying time, it matters not how careful they are in their adjustment. Some watch-springs will last for years, and other's for not sp many hours.

Cigarette smoking in England dates back to 1844. The great impetus to their increased use was caused by the Crimean War, when numbers of naval and military officers adopted this method of smoking from the inhabitants of Russia, Turkey, Malta, the Levant, and other parts of Europe, Gold was first coined in England by Henry 111., in 1257, three or four specimens of Avhich are still preserved. It is a curious fact that its circulation was petitioned against by the citizens of London. Edward ITT, was the first Prince whose gold coin was circulated, since which time it has been common tender in England. Sir Alfred Keogh, Surgeon-Gen-eral of the British Army, in a recent interview, revealed the close co-op-eration between the American and British medical services, and stated that he had given and is still giving the medical men of the U.S. Army the benefit of the English experience in keeping healthy its enormous army. The first essential for an efficient army is that it be well fed; the second that it be kept free from epidemics; and the third that great care shall be exercised as regards i rural sanitation.

A new 200-bed hospital, the gift of a wealthy widow, has just been opened in Madrid.

It is believed that methods have been diseovered which will eliminate flaws in steel rails.

Passenger cars made entirely of steel are now being adopted on the Egyptian Slate railways. Near-sighted eyes have been cured by a now method based on pressure, shortening the 100-long eye-bail. Stores and comforts needed in the Bed Cross work in Egypt are now being delivered daily by aeroplanes.

. A machine has been invented which counts every stroke an operator makes on the keyboard of a typewriter. In one week recently we sent into the German lines over a quarter of a million shells, weighing over 10,000 tons, a day. An artificial stone resembling marble has been invented. It is composed of a combination of coal ashes, soda and copal varnish.

The women doctors of America are insisting on military commissions being granted to those who oflieially serve their country. Since the beginning of . the war about 90,000 pensions have been granted to the mothers of unmarried soldiers killed in action, on whom they were previously dependent. It is stated that recently a British aeroplane travelled across to Prance with a pilot, six passengers, and 7001 b. of luggage, doing the trip from Hendon to Paris in two hours. An aluminium pencil that writes on glass or porcelain, producing marks that can be etched with acid or burnished to resemble inlaid silver, has been invented by a Swiss. The coldest period of the day is usually a few minutes after sunrise. This is due to the fact that when the sun first strikes the earth it causes the evaporation of a chilling moisture.