SAWDUST WHEELS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1256, 16 December 1882, Page 2

SAWDUST WHEELS.

\V« in England (says the Bailding mid Engineering Times) often hear ofavariety of very ingenious applications and inventions emanating from our occidental cousins, and it must be confessed that for rnanyof these our admirationis irresistibly awakened, Half the world are unacquainiod with the fact that railway and tiamc;ir wheels are mado of paper both in this country and the Slates, and we are now informed of a still more surprising feat; for the " Lumberman," in American contemporary, describes a model car wheel made of sawdust, consisting of an iron rim of 7 inches outward diameter, by £ inch thick, fitted with a well proportioned hub, the ipaco betweon being filled with pine sawdust, pressed in so solidly that we are ready to believe the assertion that a presturo of 23 tons applied to the hub failed to develope any signs of weakness, What next ? and next I

Ijj;iiig tho' debate on the so-called !' reptile fund" or impounded moneys of tho royal Hanoverian house, in the last session of the Prussian Parliament, Dr Wmdihorst expressed the conviction thai (be I)uke of Cumberland might' noon bo induced to listori' fo reason in a mattor afflicting his own dearest interests, and oome to terms with the Oourt of Borlin. The clippings of sole leather in New England shoe factories were formally regarded as worthless, and tho smell of their burning was a peculiarity of suoh townß as Lynn and Salem, Theso soraps are now stampod into buttons for olothei and fancy taok-hends for upholstery.

_ Malcolm Khan, the Persian ambassador in London, recently went to Vienna on an extraordinary-, mission. In private audience ho presentod to the Emperor a richly omamentod autonraph letter from the Shah, informing the Austrian monarch (hat another sun had been born to the Shah,, to. whom he had given the name Musred' Eddin-" Supporter of "the Faith." The Adelaide 'Observer' vouches for tho faofc, that the.wife of Mr Thomas,, dairyman of the Grange Estate, wai on 30th October, dafely delivered of five children-four girls and one boy. Shortly' after birth three of the girls and the boy died, leaving one girl atill living, with a reasonable prospeot of still continuing 1 to do so. The children were all • perfectly formed, and weighed probably about 2lb eaob. The emigration from Europe to the United States for the last current year ending June 80thj amounts to no less than 780,000 persons. It is estimated that the immigration for the preßent.year will be larger still, and may crowd hard on to a million. This immigration is equal to the population of one large Stntt mnuallj, School libraries aro greatly off the increase in France, In 1865 the number | was only 4833, and In 187416,048, There [ ire now 25,918, This .does not include the teachers'., libraries," which number §348,; with an aggregate of : some 600,000 Toluenes,. " In Europe electrio railways are growing rapid|y.:in' public estimation-,.not only on the Continent,! but in/. Great "Britain. Already 100 .-miles of electric transit are in operation, and there is every probability, of thevtota} riiitige being;, considerably inwiiswl before the end of the present year.;-::; ■./: : U-;:\v/.: j\/; : Field Marshal;Von Moltke endorses the syUern of gymnastics; in the German higher jchpols.i^The;national association •mbrMM?.2BOO and, gymuastio looietiu, and mow than 200,000 numbm

~ Thrreturna from several oharabM of: fWUHer; ,nd Pruaaian, ahorv ; ' sJeQermwcorn.faotorainoo D ftiq D ei l oe - of the weisire import duties on grain v ■• Airman < :patent has been taken out > for the manufacture of bottles, &., from cait iron, containing 12 per cent of Bilicum a Khioh is said to resist the action of the Btrongeßt;acida,. It ii »l ao V recommended for the iron plates of %o and iron galvanic v ■ at short time since at Dorgali, in the island Sardinia, of* great stalactite cave. Fifteen galleries have been already traced. Ujm of them there is a row of pillars like'white marble; and the floor is -generally smooth, resembling the finest basalt. ■ ; M; i ,SaintV.Paul ■haa--.offered the JVehoh Academy, of Medicine a sum'ofilOOO to found aprize for the discovery 1 'of a cure for diptheria, the cotripetitionto be open to the world, and not confined to medical profeisipn. l /,.: ;,, . v.' "■,. i ;';.;!^",-, : ;. Vast,rums haYo)been discovered in the Zulu, country, in South' Africa-obelisks, with' colosg'al carvings,' terraces and halls of hewn stone or cut out of solid rock. The natives regard them with mysterious awe, aad. keep strangers' from them, for fear that i they are approaohed no rain will fall for three years. ■Pollok Castle, lately burned, was bn'e'of the most interesting country houses irf'the west of Scotland. It was built in the pio- ■ turesque old Scottish bai-onial'style, about 200 years ago, The walla and entrances of of the courtyard were very quaint; every, where were to bo seen carved stone ropre- I Mutations. of tho elephant and the grey. """H the supporters of tho CrawfurdPollok families.