NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2117, 20 April 1920, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manuscripts written in gold and silver inks have been preserved. Mexico ranks next to the United States and Russia in the production of petroleum. The oil obtained from the liver of the shark is said to be the finest of animal'oils. It was in the twelfth century that gloves with separate fingers were first worn.

Upwards of 210 tons of soot falls annually on each square mile of the City of London. It was near the middle of the sixth century before the silk wfls first woven in Europe. Italian scientists have perfected a highly nutritious bread that is made from grain partly-sprouted.

At first table forks had only two prongs, later three, and four only towards the end of the seventeenth century. Prussian blue is made by fusing horses’ hoofs and other refuse animal matter with impure potassium carbonate.

Turkish fans, though often elaborately decorated, must never have upon them the likeness of any living thing. The sound of a bell which can lie heard -15,000 feet through the water can he heard through the air only 450 foot.

The city of London's rent for certain property off the Strand consists of two knives, six horseshoes, and (if nails.

In the 17 provinces of Siam there are nearly 175,000 monks and nuns connected with the temples of the native religion. The Persians are renowned lovers of jewels, and Teheran, “the City of Jewels,” gives jewel names to its streets.

The first motor cycle to be driven by electricity has just been tested. It runs, 24 miles before needing to be recharged. More than 40 per cent, of the people of Great Britain could not write their name when Queen Victoria ascended the throne. Automobile manufacturers in the United Elates shipped in one month 0,283 passenger cars- and 1,2i:>0 trucks to foreign countries. Australia, which is twenty-six limes larger than the whole of the British Isles, has a population not exceeding that of London.

Salt miners can wear summer (dollies iu the coldest weather without fear of catching cold, for colds are unknown among these workers.

A special “commission" is still dealing with the winding up of the Great Exhibition held in the Crystal PJaee, in Hyde Park, in 1851. According to their own calculations the Jews number altogether 15,430,000, or enough, if they were united, to constitute a second-class Power.

The deepest well in the world is at Czuchow, in the coal field of Lpper Silesia. It has reached a depth of over 7,30(1 ft. below the surface. Films taken on the battlefields have already brought the British Government over £71,000, a huge proportion of which has been given to war charities.

The wav debt per head of the population of the Lnitcd Kingdom ?s £157 ss; of Germany £l2B (is; of France, £.114 4s; and of the United Stales, £55 ss.