NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 243, 28 June 1928, Page 3

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Mme. Abreu’s collection of apes v.*as started about 30 years ago, and now contains 130 simians of 25 species. One of the 12 chimpanzees screened proved to be a real film actor, and instead o ‘ walking like liis mates he stood e.ect, 11 showing off” before the An amazing 11 mechanical man” that plays chess and automatically responds to the moves made by its human opponent has been invented by a Span sh mathematician. Almost human in its actions the machine man, it is asserted, can even delect an Qpponent if lie attempts to cheat, for it stops working as though disgusted with the player. Although this automaton cannot play a full game of chess, it works perfectly with halt the usual number of chessmen on the board. Recent tests have shown that when a man gives a quart of blood for a transfusion he parts with more than a fourth of his entire life stream. The average healthy man possesses a quantity of blood equal to 4.9 per cent., or about one-twentieth of his total weight; thus, if one weighs IGOlb., he has about eight pounds of blood—a little less than four quarts. An interesting experiment in the reception of wireless on moving motorcars is now being tried. For three years Captain L. F. Plugge has been investigating this side of wireless reception, and he is carrying out tests with two cars travelling in the centre and South of Europe. One car, /Ether IT., carries a supere’ght one-control receiving set, while the other, III., has a nine-valve receiver and a one-valve transmitter, with which it is hoped to transmit over a distance of five hundred miles. These two cars are endeavouring to keep in constant touch.

Few people (have the same view on the monetary value of an ear, and not many, I think, would sacrifice one for £BOO, as a Chicago woman is reported to be doing, writes a correspondent in an English paper. Judge Clucr a short time ago declared that a linger was worth more than £SO, while the value

of a nose was assessed at £450 in an action at Toronto. The human eye has been rated as the most valuable part of the body, no less than £50,000 being awarded an American doctor who lost the sight of one cl his eve's in accident. A smile equa's £l2O in the eyes of the law. At least this was a sum secured by a Paris mannequin who in a street accident lost her abi it v to look pleasant and claimed £2500/ An American dancer was given £SOOO for the loss of a leg. but many famous dancers have insured their limbs for much higher amounts than that. Nothing varies more than the values put on the human frame as a whole. A wife’s worth has been put at 2s 6d by one judge and £IO,OOO bv another. The value of a husband to his wife was in one case put at such a meagre amount as threepence. The largest continuous stretch of concrete roadway in the world has just been completed in America. This road is 137 miles long, and passes through 29 towns and villages. It is estimated that the new road will save thousands of pounds annually since prior to its being reconstructed it was costing ns much as £750 a mile to early as 1534. A great advance in maintain as a gravel-surfaced road.