The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-08-30 00:00:00

THE FRUIT-EATING BATS.

The species of frugivorous bats, of which about
seventy have been described, agree very closely in
their general .characters, and constitute a single
family, to which the name of .Pteropidm has been
given, derived from that of the oldest and Most ex- -
tensive of its genera, Pteropits (wing-foot). They are
distributed all crier-the Warmer parts of the Eastern
hemisphere and the islands of th-e Pacific. Wherever
they occur, they piesent nearly the same fOrni, and
generally a very similar style of coloration, whilst in
their diet they stick most religiously to fruite, fr
although some havobeen found in captivity to feed
on the flesh of birds and rats, and others are charged
with .catching And eating .fish, iii the former case some
allowance must be made for the artificial condition of
the animal, which probably produced a morbid
appetite; %-jt ightened by the
_fact that the supply
of his nafutal. food had been exhausted; and the •
, second statement seems to rest exclusively on
the observed.. fact of these bath' on 1644 r-their
roosts at s—uarit 'skimming close Over the inrEce of
water, and"-sornetimes even---islippirig. into barite
obj ect-of these eirOlutiOfis, tiS keitirked by liftr."-ThibsOn,
"is tprobably, in the first instance, to dtink,
secondly, to • rill thEnnselves of some of.the 7namerous
parasities with 'which they are commonly Mated."
Sir • Janits• Emerson Tennant,. however, says' Of giei
Ceylonese, Spebleg;• 'that "insects, caterpillars, -bitas,
eggs, itird young birds are-deVoiired by them; and the
Singhalese say that the flying fox can • even atttick a
tree snake but these statements are riot ConfirMecl.
by other writers, and from the referenee to tlie.Sing-
hales°, it seem probably that they are founded' upon
hearsay evidence. Mr. Dobson, however, has sug-
gested that one species feeds occasionally upon the
shell-fish that it finds upon the shore; and in this
opinion he is supported by Hr. W. T. Blanford,
who found the species upon the island of Kislun, in
the Persian Gulf, a spot so barren that he thinks
the bats would starve if they depended upon fruits
for their noarishment.—Cassell's Natural lii.story.

THE MANUFACTURE OF ICE.

The Daily News says: Among the most agreeable
of all forins of industry at this time of year, and es-
pecially in such weather as we have had of late, is
what may be called the manufacture of cold. An
extensive factory for this purpose is just now being
set up beneath the floor of the poultry market in
Smithfield, and before very long King Winter will
have added to his realms nearly half the basement of
that establishment. The place has already been
fortified preparatory to occupation, and a cool retreat
will soon have been provided, which would make the
• famous subaqueous glass saloon of the Kings of
Siam merely a hot and sweltering chamber by
comparison. One of these Eastern potentates
is said to have had a glass house with crystal
furniture planted in a huge marble tank,
into which, when his Majesty had ent+d,
and the front door been securely stopped, a
deluge of water was let by sluices until it covered
the whole structure except the crown of the dome,:
left as a sort of breathing hole. • The idea is ;an
attractive one in this sultry weather; but his Siamese
Majesty would probably:have been hardly satisfied with
the capabilities of his ingenious contrivance if he could
have knoNin what is being done in Smithfield, and has
already been done elsewhere. At the Health Exhibi-
tion just now any one may have a practical illustra-
tion of the possibilities of modern science in this
direction if he dare venture to step out of a tempera-
ture of perhaps somewhere about eighty degrees
Fahrenheit into one of several degrees below freezing.
He Will find the cold clutch hold of him, and he will
be distinctly conscious pf the process of refrigeration
going on in his own person.
One of the machines which are freezing meat in
small chambers at the Health Exhibition is the same
in principle as that which is now being erected under
the poultry market. The basement of the market,
or nearly half of it, has been lined—walls, roof, and
floor—with non-conducting material, and the pas-
sages are blocked in certain points with "tempera-
ture "locks." The insulation of the floor is deemed
the most important point, and this is effected by lay-
ing on the concrete base three inches of fine charcoal
and two inches of hoarding. The walls are less ex-
pensively barricaded by first an inch of boarding,
held out at a distance of one inch from the brick-
work, so as to leave an inch of clear air space, then
an inch of hair-felt covered by an inch and a
quarter of boarding. The roof is covered in just the
same way as the walls, and when the doors are shut
fast and the engine gets to work, winter may reign
supreme. In such a house the King of Siam might
not only have kept himself cool, but, if he had been
inclined, might have enjoyed a game of snowball, or
spent the hottest portion of the day in skating. This
is rather an extensive experiment of the kind, and
seems to be called for by the success of the trade in
meat imported from the antipodes, a trade which has
become of considerable extent, but which unfor-
tunately has not as yet exerted any appreciable in-
fluence on the pockets of the consumers of meat
in London. In and about London there are several
other Arctic corners which about this time
of year afford to the parched and panting visitor
one of the most striking of those many forms of
contrast upon which writers have been so fond
of dilating. Out of the scorching sun and sultry air
one may here and there about London step at once
into retreats where hoar-frost hangs upon everything,
and where the corners and hedges are clogged up with
little accumulations of snowy-white ice, and the air
bites shrewdly, as Hamlet says. The refrigeration
under the poultry market is to be effected by the simple
process of condensing and expanding air, the cold
being the mysterious natural result of the expansion.
The process, which is extremely simple in principle.
would be even more interesting if we could only find
any reasonable ground for believing that it was one of
those enterprises which tend to reduce the price of
meat. At present this new refrigerating storehouse
is mainly interesting from the agreeable idea of frost
associated with it.

THE CAPTURE OP A BURGLAR AT
CROYDON.
Frederick Bates, a middle-aged man of respectable
appearance, describing himself as a tailor, of Kenning-,
ton-road, London, was charged on reMana at the
Croydon Petty Sessions on Saturday with burglariously
breaking and entering the Six Bells beerhouse, Hand-
croft-road, Croydon, and stealing therein 86 cigars, 11
half-ounces of tobacco, ss, Oid. in silver and bronze,
one snuffbox, a pound of cheese,.a I-ox of matches,
and a black leather bag, the goods and chattels of
Thomas Harwood. The prisoner, who confessed his
guilt on the former occasion, was met at half-
past three in the morning by Constable Mounti-
field, who took him to the station pendinz in-
quiries as to the statements he made with refer-
ence to his possession of the articles mentioned in the
charge. Some three hours later the prosecutor called
and gave information of the burglary, whereupon be
-,--- • Avtv Bates had. effected an entry
was s -us -
to the house by forcing back the catch of tub parlotir
window with a shoemaker's knife, which was also
found upon him. Police-constable Asard now de-
posed that while being detained at the station the.
prisoner expressed a wish to go to the rear. He was
then asked what he had got about him, and he pro-
duced from his waistcoat pocket six sixpences and
2s. Old. in bronze—the exact amount stolen from pro-
eecutor's till. The prisoner had nothing to say in his
defence, and Mr. Edridge commiteld him for trial at
thA 11Antral Criminal Court.