The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-07-21 00:00:00

Vistellancous

ROIL FOREIGN, AND COLONTAI,

A TEEMING ISLAND.—Orcas Island, an irregular
body of land in Puget Sound, W.T. is said to have
an unparalleled list of resources. It is penetrated by
bays and harbours of countless shapes, giving it the
appearance of a group of small islands, and Mount
Constitution rises on one part of it. Among its
resources are game, fish, grain, grass, vegetables, logs,
timber, wood, shingles, staves, hoop poles, spars,
lime, gold, silver, and various rocks and minerals.
Good water•power is furnished by the streams that
leap out of the lakes that abound and meander to the
sea, and a company from Seattle is erecting a barrel
factory on one of these streams, thinking that they
can sell all they make to the lime companies operating
on the island.

As Eutcrntio RAILWAY. —Amongst the curiosities
which will be exhibited at the approaching Inter-
national Electrical Exhibition at Vienna will be a
short wire-rope railway, in which the motive power is
electricity. This novelty will not be a mere toy model
for the amusement of visitors, but will be employed to
convey coals from the railway on the banks of the
Danube to the Rotunda, in which the exhibition is to
be held in the Prater. The line will also be peculiar
from the fact that it will run above the roofs of the
sheds surrounding the Rotunda, and terminate in a
conit, or open space, where a boiler-house has been
erected.

A CATTLE PLAGUE REMEDY.-00138U1 Cameron, in
his official report on the trade and agriculture of Java,
states that the attention of the Government has lately
been drawn to anew method of combatting the oattle
plague. Dr. van der Heyden, the originator of the
process, who has employed his method in Japan for
curing other infections diseases, has, at the invitation
of the Netherlands-India authorities, experimented in
Java with some success on animals attacked by this
epidemic. The process consists in the intravascular
Injection of iodium in the proportion specified to the
weight of the animal infected. It is added that the
injection has, according to Dr. van der Heyden, the
effect of completely auLihilating the living organisms
present in the diaeased body.

A DEAD AND BURIED CITY.—An American paper
says :—Three hours after leaving TUCB9II, A. T., for
the West you will hear the brakesrnan shout, " Cassa
Grande." You look out and can see only a few houses
but remember that six miles to the north there is a
dead and buried city, after which this station is named.
It is now a gray ashen plain, covered with sand and
me mints ot CzuLid Imildines. extending fivAmitea
south, east and west. In its midst rises huge gaun
walls, all that remains of a once great structure. It is
an interesting relic of the pre-Spanish period; the
crumbled monument of a curious Indian civilization
that the savage tribes blotted out before Cortez landed
on Mexican soil.

TRH POTATO Onor.—Potatoes will probably tuber
late because, owing to a late spring, they were late in
making growth, whilst so far the season has been un-
usually favourable to the devolopment of that growth
(says the Gardeners' Chronicle). Some of the robust
kinds are unusually strong, but all seem very sound
and flourishing so far, and it is noteworthy that
most kinds which bloom are flowering most freely.
Indeed, in a field where several free blooming
kinds are being grown the flowers are so
abundant as to make the field for a time re.
semble a huge flower garden. The unusual warmth
has doubtless tended to promote this luxuriant
growth of plant and abundant bloom. In spite of the
partial showers which have fallen, howevei, the soil
is fast becoming heated and dry. The strong growth
on the one hand and the heat on the other are fast
telling upon the earth, and moisture is being rapidly
absorbed We shall soon probably have to take our
chances between heavy rain—which will whilst pro-
moting tuber growth also promote the fungoid disease
—and continued drought, which will, if protecting
from disease, also seriously check the swelling of the
tubers. In any case, it is pleasant to find that, so far,
we have reached the second week in July and little or
nothing has yet been heard of the fatal spo which
marks the progress of the Peronospora.
MObERN FLOUR MAKING.—The newest flour mill At
Minneapolis, Minn., which is said to be the largest in
the world, except one at Buda-Pesth, in Hungary,
after which it is patterned—is a wonder in itself, (says
the Detroit Free Press). It is 200x150 feet in area,
110 feet height, and cost 900,000 dole to build and
equip. It has a capacity of turning out about 5,000
barrels of flour in twenty-four hours, and has on one
occasion, turned out 5,200 in the same time, on a test
of its capacity. It has actually turned out for_six con-
secutive days—the mills here run night and day, that
Is all the time from Monday morning to Saturday
night-4,960 barrels per day. The water-power run-
ning this mill has twenty-two feet fall, and is 2,800
horse power. At this mill when a wheat train arrives,
the cars are drawn to the mill by a chain cable to be
unloaded. Four cars at a time are thus drawn up,
and the wheat unloaded from them. Each car contains
600 bushels of wheat, and two steam shovels can be
used in each car in unloading. This is the only mill
using the steam shovels. From the hopper bin the
wheat is elevated to the fifth floor and fed into a re-
ceiving in the bottom of which exteeus down to the
fourth floor Out of this it empties itself into con-
veyors, consisting of small buckets travelling upon an
endless belt, and is taken to storage aims upon the first
and second floors, where it rents uni wanted for
milling.

COURAGE.—Papa: "Glad to see you to.morrow
evening. My daughter Alice will sing, and Beatrice
will recite to us a new Poem she's composed. We sup
at nine." Young man: "Thanks I You're very kind.
'Most happy. I'll be with you at Nine! "—Punch.
A REMARKABLE RING. —The Queen has inspected
a large ring made by Mr. J. W. Denison, of Old
Bond.street, London, for the King of Siam. It will
be used by his Majesty once a year for religious
ceremonies, as head of the Buddhists in Eastern India.
It is stated to be the largest ring ever made. The
centre stone, which is of great lustre, is Wm in
diameter, and is encircled by ruby, emerald, and
sapphire, and five other stones. The mounting dis-
plays emblems of the mystic faith of Buddhism. Mr.
Benson, who has but lately returned from Siam, has
completed other Crown jewels for the same Court.
A REMARKABLE CARRIAGE.—A foreign contem-
porary says that the carriage which was used by the
Duke de Montpensier at the coronation of the Czar is
probably the most remarkable specimen of the coach-
builders' art in the world. It was built more than a
hundred years ago, and is conitrncted mainly of glass,
the necessary metal framing being of richly chased
silver. The interior is fitted in blue velvet, em-
broidered with the arms of Castile and Arragon ; and
beneath the haminercloth there is a musical box,
which was designed to play as the carriage went for.
ward, but which is now out of order and cannot be
repaired. The carriage last appeared in public upon
the occasion of King Alphonso's weddinz ; but it has
figured at all the great State festivals at Madrid during
the last three generations, and is regarded as almost
forming a part of the Spanish regalia.
THE GREATEST CONVERSAZIONE IN LONDON. —A
sitting of the House of Commons,—Punch,
THE WIND A LWATS BLows.—The passengers in the
eleeping•car had retired some half hour since, and were
just going off into their tir4 naps, when the voice of a
woman was heard above the noise of the cars and the
rattle of the tenanest.—" Plow the wind blows! ' it ex-
claimed.—E very pat•senger heard the voice and gave a
snort of dissatisfaction. Just as everybody had got
half-asleep, again came the plaint :—"Ilow the wind
blows !)_Again the snorts of displeasure were heard.
All was quiet for perhaps ten minutes. Then a third
time came that monotonous remark :—" How the
wind blows !" An elderly gentleman in one of the
centre berths stuck his head through the drapery of
his couch and courteously remarked ;—" My dear
madam, we are all under great obligations to you for
your meteorological observations, but did you ever
know of a wind that didn't blow ?"—A suppressed
cachinnation meandered through the car, and then all
was quiet—Detroit Free Frees.

• DEAF AND DUMB BRAKEMEN.—The Maine Central I
Railroad employs two brakemen who are deaf and 1
dumb (says the Detroit Free Press). One of them, I
Thomas Starlett, has the advantage of being able to
read and write, but Joseph Rouceaux possesses neither
of these valuable accomplishments and can receive and
communicate intelligence only through the medium of
signs. He was employed for a number of years as a
workman on the road bed, in which capacity he ex-
hibited such extraordinary powers of perception and
memory that he was at length promoted to his present
position. He has a sign for every station, official and
labourer on the road, and never makes a mistime.
As much work and as complete accuracy are expected
from him as from any other brakeman, and his super-
iors think that his unusal coin nand of the faculties
which he does possess more than offsets the lack of
those of which nature deprived him.
THE GREENLAND SEAL FISHERIES.—A telegram
horn Lloyd's agent at Peterhead, dated July 14, states
that the Catherine arrived at Peterhead from Green-
land with sixty tuns of oil, and reports having spoken
the Polar Star, with sixty bottlenoses ; the Star, with
forty bottlenoses ; the Perseverance (on June 18),
with twenty bottlenoses ; Aurora and Resolute, forty-
five tuns each • Active, seventy tune; Intrepid, eighty
tune; Jane Maven, seventy tuns; all belonging to
Dundee.

FIRES AID FIRE INSURANCES IN BERLIN.—From
the official report recently published by the municipal
authorities of Berlin, it appears that on October 1 last
there were 18,543 houses or tenements insured against
fire within the boundaries of the city. The total
amount for which they were Insured was 2,072,151,500
marks, or £103,607,575 sterling. The report contains
statistics respecting the operations of the Fire Brigade
and the losses occasioned by fire during the past 22
years. In the business year, from October, 1860, to
October, 1861, the number of fires, or alarms of fire,
which had called out the brigade was 127. In the
business year 1881-72 the number bad risen to 571.
The num. er of fires from which any actual loss arose
wai at the former date 100, and at the latter date 516.
The alarms of fire and the destructive fires bad, there-
fore, both increased about 400 per cent. in the 22
years' interval. Within the period in question, how-
ever, the number of houses has not increased 100 per
cent.

ANOTHER MORAL LESSON GONE WRONG.—lrate
Grandparent (whose youthful descendant bag just
mischievously broken all the glass in the new cucumber-
frame).—Now, Georgie, what should you do if you
had a little boy, and he had done this very wicked,
dreadful thing? Young Hopeful.—Send for the
Rlazier, and make no more row about it, to be sure.
[Exit Grandpapa in an almost dignified silence.]—
Judy.
- -

THE TWEED SALMON FISHINGS.—The catches during
last week continued very gocd, though the frequent
falls of rain, which tend to increase the volume of the
river, were somewhat against fishing operations. On
Friday there was a heavy fall ot rain in the west, and
the river came down in flood. On Saturday rain fell
nearly the whole day. Grilse are still the most
numerous, but there is an improvement in salmon,
while trout remain in fair supply. Last week a salmon
451 b. in weight, the largest of the season, was caught.
Although the river fisheries are doing well, the sea
coast are at present the most productive. Prices on
Saturday were :—Salmon, 11d. ; grilse and trout, 9d
per lb. In the corresponding week of last year the
prices were :—Salmon, is. 2d. ; grilse and trout, 10d.
per lb.
CHESHIRE SALT EXPORTS.—Returns for the half.
year terminating at midsummer show that the exports
of white salt to the end of June this year, compared
with the same period last year, show an increase of
20,000 tons. The exports during the first quarter of
this year were 61,000 tons leas than the corresponding
period of last year. Consequently the revival has
been enormous during April, May, and June. During
June 121,726 tons of salt were exported from the
Mersey, against 115,372 tons during June, 1882.
Among our largest customers during June were the
United States, which purchased 13,095 tons; British
North America, 13,250 tons ; and East Indies, 23,314
tons.

A THRASHER SHARK OFF HASTINGS.—On Thursday
evening in last week, while some fishermen were pursu-
ing their avocations they observed a monster fish and
immediately made for it in order to prevent its
escaping out at sea. After a gallant struggle the
fishermen succeeded in capturing what turned ont to
be a thrasher shark, measuring a trifle over 14 feet in
length. It was consigned to Messrs. Smithers and
Co., fishmongers, of Cannon-street, London and by
them exhibited. This firm afterwards exhibited it at
their stall at the International Fisheries Exhibition,
where it attlacted considerable- attention. On
S.turday evening it was seen by Professor Huxley,
who at once pronounced it to be the largest and finest
specimen of the thrasher shark which has been seen in
this country during the last forty years. The
Professor immediately purchased it for scientific
purposes.

- -
A REASON FOR EVERYTHING.—First Sub. "I say,
Old Chap, you'll be getting into trouble with that
dog of yours. He bit one of the men crossing the
barrack square yesterday."—Second Sub. "Don't
believe it! Or, if he did, the man must have been
running, or whistling, or swinging his arms or blow-
ing his nose, or doing something or another to pro.
yoke him."—Fun.
THE BELL-COLEMAN RETRIGERATOR. —The Bell.
Coleman refrigerator is based upon the principle of
compressed air being thoroughly cooled and then
allowed to expand. lathe act of expansion, it becomes
cold enough to freeze water. To accomplish this, the
air is taken by air-pumps from the meat chamber and
then compressed ; after which it is cooled by jets of
water and passed through a system of tubes. After
passing through the expanding apparatus, the air is
discharged at the rate of forty thousand cubic feet an
hour into the meat-chamber. The air is drier, and
this system works better than was common in the first
experiments of preserving mast during a long voyage
by means of blocks of ice. By means of this refriger-
ator, salmon has been brought from Labrador to
London, and kept frozen for six months while being
sold in instalments. Tons of English fish have even
been conveyed to Australia, and eagerly bought there
as aluxury. It also enables vessels provided with refrig.
erating apparatus to carry a store of fresh fish, or
other fresh meat, for use on shipboard.—Chamberis
Journal.