To Interest You

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20923, 30 September 1939, Page 21 (Supplement)

To Interest You

PACKET OF BEES A big parcel marked, “ Fragile, with Care,” was handled by the postal authorities at Butte in Montana, the other day, as carefully as if it were dynamite, not long ago! This was because they had spied another little notice on the box saying that the pacakge contained 250,000 honey bees! MONEY IN SCALES Many fishermen in Deer Island, New Brunswick, are finding that it is more profitable to sell the fish themselves. They sell the scales to pearl essence factories in Maine at so much the pound, and are earning three times the value per pound ol the fish themselves. FRIENDLY HERON Mr Lowe, a chemist in Bolton, South Lancashire, is also a naturalist, and over a month ago he did his Boy Scout deed. He was by the sea when he came upon a heron in a sad plight and, putting it in his car, he took the bird home, called it Hector, and made a fuss of it. His kindness seems to have been appreciated, for though herons are shy birds, Hector has now made himself at home in Bolton. He sleeps on the roof of Mr Lowe’s house and flies off every morning, but always comes back. He can eat two pounds of fish at a meal. OIL FROM COAL Orders for ten million gallons of oil will mean steady employment in at least on Derbyshire coalmine. Mr Geoffrey Lloyd, Britain’s Minister of Mines, has recently opened at Bolsover a new refinery where coal is converted into oil. Each week 3400 tons of coal will be taken from the pit, and almost on the spot each ton will be made to yield 14cwt. of coalite and 21 gallons of crude oil. The crude oil will then be refined to yield an equal quantity of heavy oil. There are other products, too, such as creosote, germicides, and disinfectants. The new refinery at Bolsover, the only one in the country working practically athe pit head, has a capacity for ten million gallons of oil each year, and it is likely that another plant with a similar capacity will be constructed.