NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3782, 21 April 1928, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

'Bronze tablets are affixed to six houses in which Charles Dickens lived in London.

No less than 6577 miles of pipes are needed to distribute London’s water supply. The British people spent £97,000 less on telegrams last year than they did in 1926. Non-parlour houses have fallen, in some English provincial districts, to below £4OO in price. ■Silk is considered unclean by the Mohammedans because it is the product of a worm. A system of lighting which gives 300 different colour effects is a feature of a cinema at Dagenham. The estimated weight of the world is represented by tons indicated by G with twenty-one noughts after it. As many as ' 35,000 inventors’ applications were tiled in Britain during 1927, compared with 33,080 in 1926.

The average British woman weighs 7st 121 b., is sft. 2in. in height, has a pull of 1831 b., and a grip of 581 b. Scorpions are known to have starved for 368 days, and spiders have existed for seventeen months without food. The world’s largest spider is found in Sumatra. Its body is 9in. in circumference, and its legs spread 17in. Aluminium is more abundant throughout the world than any other metal. It forms over eight per cent, of the earth’s crust. A remarkable escape from death was experienced by William Scott, of Reimer’s Avenue, Mount Albert, Auckland, on Wednesday, when the wheel of a vehicle passed over his neck, inflicting only minor abrasions. The injured man was taken to the Auckland Hospital. Several stitches were inserted and the patient is reported to be making satisfactory progress.