NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1791, 19 February 1918, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The strain on a man’s nerves when fighting with a sword and bayonet- is not so severe as that on a man whose duty it is to stand still under fire. An interesting feature in the development, of Italian aircraft is the mounting of a mac,hine-gun which fires COO shots a minute through a propeller making 1,200 revolutions. Orders for 17,000,000 yards of khaki cloth, to be manufactured from January to April, have been allocated amongst woollen manufacturing districts in the United Kingdom. The system of “running . the gauntlet” was in force in the army until 1787. The soldier sentenced to “run the gauntlet” received a cut from a switch from every soldier in his regiment. The total war expenditure of Austria-Hungary for the first three years of the war has amounted to £1,162,000,000, while the expenditure for the fourth year of the Avar is estimated at £500,000,000, A receiving installation for the radio station at Royal Observatory, Hong Kong, is now being constructed. The station is located at the observatory, in latitude 22deg. 18m. 13s. N., longitude 114 deg. 10m. 15s. E., of Greenwich. The most decorated officer in the Italian army is Colonel Ambrosi, Avho has been :nvarded two silver and bronze medals for valour, the French Croix de Guerre, the British Military Cross, and other decorations of allied countries. All French regiments will have in their official equipment in future an Association football. While 20 years ago football avus hardly knoAvn in France, there is not a toAA-n to-day which does not possess one or more elevens, and the game is played all over the front. To encourage the study of Italian the Commercial Bank of Italy has placed £SO a year at the disposal of the London County Council for the best student of Italian in its schools, including the Regent Strhet Polytechnic, and £-100 a year towards a chair of Italian in London University. In French towns Avhich may be shelled or bombed almost every AvindoAv has tAVO strips of paper pasted from corner to corner diagonally on the inside. This minimises the risk of breakage through concussion, and many thousands of panes of glass has been saved by this simple precaution. Unofficial telephone services have not hitherto prospered in China, for tAvo reasons. Upon the beginning of the European Avar there avus only one long telephone line in China, viz., from Pekin to Tientsin. There Averc a dozen secondary lines, used solely in connection Avith the railAvays, and there Avere local services in Pekin, Tientsin, Shanghai, and Canton.

Experiments carried out during; the years 1914 and 1915 showed that aqueous solutions of lead nitrate exercised a stimulating; effect on a majority of agricultural plants, provided too much of this substance was not used. The lead nitrate was made into a fine powder and mixed with potash salt or sodium nitrate,used ax a fertiliser. Good results were secured with rye, oats, wheat, barleyj maize, peas, and beets, but not with potatoes. A dry-battery for electric pocket lamps has been invented by a citizen of Zurich, Switzerland. Instead of a single block battery, it consists of three separate and distinct elements, which are placed side by side in the metal lamp case. The chief improvement is the possibility of substitution for a single element in case the battery is out of order. In the event of the battery becoming defective, the voltage of each elej ment is tested to ascertain whicn one is useless, and it may then be replaced by a single new element. The early torpedoes were detonated by means of a striker pin, which projected axially from the warhead, and, upon contact with a ship, was driven in. This had the objection that, if the torpedo struck a glancing blow, the pin might not be operated, and there would be no explosion. In the present type, the firing of the charge is done by the inertia of a small steel hammer or striker, which, when the torpedo is not in use, is held in place by a catch at the inner headyjf a safety pin." When the torpedo is fired, its progress through the wafer causes a little propeller on the safety pin to rotate ;) nut, which draws the pin forward, releasing the hammer and leaving it free to move. The least shock, ahead or lateral, causes the hammer to move and fire the charge.