The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-03-03
BITS OF INFORMATION.

BITS OF INFORMATION.
The distance from New York to San
francisco is 8, $50 miles.
YELLOW bananas come chiefly from
the Isthmus Of Darien. The red ones
sone from Cuba.
HUTs, instead of tents, were used by
fe ancient soldiers, as the mode of war
fare consisted chiefly in sieges and
standing camps.
] SINGLE grain of gold may be beaten
oui into an extent of several square feet,
an6 yet the leaf remain so intact as to
transmit no ray of light.
IN Elizabeth's time repeater /"
watches were SO rare that some rustics
TOOK one they heard for the devil, and
thrsw it out of the window with the
toTgs.
DURING storm in Vermont in 1870.
thelightning struck horse In pasture.
burning off his hair or pulling it out.
cutting hole two inches long in his
head and throwing off his shoes. The
hose recovered.
h the time of William, the Conquer
or, an English pound was an actual
ponds weight of silver and coined into
twenty shillings. Now pound is worth
less han four ounces of silver and is
coin'd into twenty six shillings.
STINT DENIS, the patron saint of
France, was put to death in the year
272 upon an eminence near Paris, since
called, from the circumstance, Mont
msrtre. According to the legend, his
head had no sooner been cut off than
the body rose and walked without it two
miles.
AT the close of the year 1880 there
were. SO, 671 miles of railroad in the
Unitsd States. The RGiLaOdy Age states
that the track laid in 1881 was about
800 miles, which is much the largest
milage ever constructed in any one
yea. The cost of building and equip.
melt of railroads in the United States
pei mile during the year 1879, the latest
Official statement, was about $50, 1874.
Th average cost OF construction per
mic in Europe for the year 1873 was
about Ss110, ATS.
A MIRAGE is an appearance of distant
objects in the air, as if standing or re-
fected from the surface of the water. It
is produced by refraction in strata of
Different densities, decreasing or increas-
ing raeidIy, and sometimes. by refrac-
ton ind reflection combined. There
are several cases of which the following
are the most common The mirage Of
the desert, that has the appearance of
inverted objects or reflections from the
surface of water that which has the
appearance of objects inverted in the
air, and which is seen over the surface
of wafer; simply looming, when objects
appear to be elevated above their real
level but are not inverted, the appear
anco usually taking place over the sur
two last given, in which are appearances
of objects both erect and inverted.
Sene of our readers may be able to ex-
plain why this phenomenon appears in
the locality indicated.
The first railroad for carrying passen-
gers was in England-the Stockton and
Darlington road, built by Edward Pease
and George Stephenson, and opened on
Sept. 81, 1926. The Liverpool and Man
chester road, commenced in 1926, and
opened Sep. Is, 1880. In 1914 George
Stephenson constructed his first locomo-
tive, which travelled at the rate of six
niles an hour. The first railroad con-
sfucted in America was projected by
Gidley Bryant, civil engineer, in 1926,
and carried through by himself and Col.
T. Ell. Perkins. in 1926. 1t was designed
tb carry granite from the quarries at
Quincy, Mass, to the nealest tide
water, and is known as the Quincy rail
road. 1t was four miles long, including
branches, and its first cost was $50, 900.
One of the locomotives built by George
Stephenson, at Newcastle-upon- Tyne,
arrived at New York in the spring OF
1929. Another, built by Foster, Rast-
REX & Co., Stourbridge, arrived shortly
aterward, and went upon the railroad
in the latter part of the summer. This
was the first locomotive put into use in
America. 1t had four wheels, multi
tubular boiler, and the exhaust steam
blast.