Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-07-07
EAcrs AND FIGURES.
4 Budget of Interesting Data Compiled
 for ''Current LIterature."

4 Budget of Interesting Data Compiled
 for "Current LIterature."
 The United States Government has paid out in round numbers S1, 900, 000,. 900 in pensions since the beginning ot the civil war.-The Arabian year is lunar, and in the course of thirty-two years each month runs through all the seasons-The total number of Amer ican patents issued last year reached 23, S60, as against 19, 1885 for 1888; more patents were issued from the Patent Office during 1889 than in any previous year.-Three miles is about the average velocity of the Gulf Stream, though at places it attains as high a speed as fifty-four miles per hour; as it passes through the Yucatan channel, which is ninety miles wide and over 1000 fathoms deep, the current does not flow at higher rate than one-fourth of a mile an hour; but in the narrower straits of Bemini it has a velocity of from fourito five miles, Q breadth of fifty miles, and an average depth of $50 fathoms.-The caterpillar feeds with two saw-edged jaws, working transversely, and uses them to such good advantage that he eats three or four times his own weight every day. The oldest of existing observatories is at Pekin, founded in 1279, and still containing three of the first instru- ments.-It is said the first cost of build ing fleet of Atlantic liners is a trifie compared to the cost of running them; in less than three years it will exceed the cost of construction, so enormous is the constant expenditure in wages, port duties, and repairs.
 The total length of the streets, ave- nues, boulevards, bridges, quays and thoroughfares of Paris is set down at 600 miles, of which nearly 200 are planted with trees.-The English flag floats over one-sixth of the population and one-eighth of the surface of the habitable globe.-When Sir John Her. schel was defending the character of astronomical science in view of an error of nearly 4,O00, 900 miles in estimating the suns distance, the correction was shown to apply to an error of observa- tion so small as to be equivalent to the apparent breadth of a human hair at a distance of 125 feet.-A woman-charac. ter was first acted by a woman, so far as the English stage is concerned, No vember Q, 1656.-The number of men is | equal JO Gudb O1 WOulSuS IuS average of human life is SS | years; one-fourth of the popula' tion of the earth die before they attain the age of seventeen years; it is only one person among a thousand who becomes Q centenarian, and hardly six persons among thousand who attaiT seventy-fve years of age.-The highes s | railroad in the United States is the Den yer SS South Park, a branch of the Un ion Pacific, at Alpine Tunnel, II, 59C feet above sea-lcvel.-The number O eggs in six-pound eel in November is fully 5000, 900; under the microscopC they measure eighty to the linear inch
 The growth of the nails on the lief
 hand requires eight to ten days moro than those on the right; the growth il more rapid in children than in adults
 and goes on faster in summer than il
 winter; it requires an average of IS days for the renewal of the nails in col( weather and but 116 in warm weather
 About 2,000 species of insects, ol
 an average, have been discovered year ly during the last tcentury.-One million
 dollars of gold coin weighs 3,6S5 pound avoirdupois; of silver coin, 5S, S,920.'
 pounds.-The small letter ii" was for merly written without the dot; the do was introduced in the fourteenth cent ury to distinguish 'i" from ''e" in hast ) and indistinct writing.-In the forms ton of single locomotive steam engin
 there are nearly 5000 pieces to be pu
 together, and these require to be a accurately adjusted as the works of
 watch.-There are over 1000, 900 mile
 of telegraph wire in the United States = enough to encircle the globe forty time: 3 England is the only country wher 3 members of Parliament are not only UT , paid, but have no special rights or priv
 ileges.