Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-17
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.
-Whslebone is s15. 900 a ton.

-Whalebone is SD, 0OOa ton.
-Chinamen drink all their wines as hos
as it is possible.
Furnaces for pudding iron were in
vented by Cort in the year l7Sl
Bishop Berkeley wrote the principles
of Human knowledge" when he was 20 years
old.
The largest pyramid in Egypt has BY
late measurement been proven to be <sS feet
high.
Chinese women are not taught to write
or read. they are rot considered Of enough
importance.
The New Jersey Court of ChancerY has
decided that oysters are not real estate, bus
personal property.
Small electric lamps are being tried BY
the London police in place Of the old fash
Toned oil bulls eyes.
The hardest known wood is said to bs
cocus wood. It turns the edge Of any AZ,
however well tempered
AT the siege of Jerusalem the Romans
had a catapult that threw q stone weighing
ITO pounds distance of 500 yards.
India rubber trees grow wild all over
Lee county, Fla. At Fort Myers they are the
chief shade and ornamental trees.
-Horticulturists tell US that the orange
was originally pear shaped fruit about the
size of q common wild cherry Its evolution
Is due to 200 years of cultivation.
There is tree in Jamaica known as the
life tree account of its leaves growing
even after being severed from the plant.
Only by fire can it be entirely destroyed
Investigation of rain drops lead to the
conclusion that some of the large drops must
be more or less hollow, as they fail when
striking to wet the whole surface irclosed
within the drop.
If the sun gave forth sounds loud enough
to reach the earth, such sounds, instead of
reaching us in the space of about eight min-
utes, as light does, would only arrive after Q
period of nearly II years.
The new university of Chicago will in
clude in it's departments 4 school OF cleo
trical engineering. A school of arts will be
or.aniZed, in which the electrical section
Will be a prominent feature
-Crystaiized nitrogen is one of the great
est chemical curiosities. By cooling nitro
gen gas down to 367o below the freezing
point and then allowing it to expand, solid
snow-like crystals are formed.
The new sub-tressury building at San
Francisco has an electric bur .lar alarm in
stalled between tine rows of bricks so that
any interference with either the bricks or
cement will cause an alarm to sound.
ptred in England July 81. The Blake Amer
lean patent for q transmitter expires here
on January 20, 1893 The Beli telephone
patent does not expire until March 7, 1898.
An inmate of the Bates county (Mo.)
poorhouse died lately whose head was 35
inches in circumference and the weight OF
the brain found to be IA ounces, while the
normal weight OF the average brain is but Is
ounces.
"A heavy plate glass shade, ornamented
with gold and securely locked to three sta
pies set in the marble top of d pulpit in q
church in Brussels, is said to cover one of
tine thorns winch formed q part of the
Sayior'S crown.
Files have long been accused of spread
ing disease, but it is asserted now from Hav-
ana that mosquitoes have q use, for if they
inoculate anyone after biting yellow fever
patient the disease which follows is so mild
that fatal results are rare.
The Chinese make what is called "chf
wahi," or grass cloth, from the fiber o! the
common nettle- II is said to make a splen-
did cloth for tents, awnings, etc. When
made into betting Tor machinery 1t is said
to have twice the strength of leather.
If you could cut sections out of the
side o: the soap bubbles and then had some
delicate contrivance with which you could
handle the pieces, you would find that it
would take 80 900, 900 films laid one upon an
other to make pile one inch in height.
The new colors have odd names but
little suggestive OF the tints they represent.
Three of the new reds are "Roi," "Prim
rose" and "Francis l." "Angelique" Is ten
derIy expressive or pnlest apple green.
"Pygmalion" and "Diavoia" are both
browns.
The discovery of an ONYX mountain in
Mexico is reported. The onyx is stated to
he of superior quality, finely grained and
bea utifully marked with streaks of varie-
gated color The find is situated 80 miles
south OF FL Paso and II miles from the Mex
lean Central Railroad.
Twenty millions of acres of land in the
State OF Washington are covered with q
growth of wood which Will cut an average
OF 25, 600 feet of mercantile lumber per acre.
Much of it in the vicinity of Port Crescent
will cue anaverage of 100000 feet and more
to the acle, while single trees are common
that will cut 800 feet.
of The 1922 Swiss factories which en-
plnyed motive power at the close of 1883,
/, ia exclusively employed water power. and
only 655 exclusively steam power. while 457
employ ed both water and steam; and, taken
altogether, these 1922 acCOries used a,24S
horsepower of wafer and Z7,432 of steam,
and only III of gas and electricity.
In many parts OF England, in Germany
and in the North OF Europe there are numer-
Gus superstitions concerning the cuckoo, all
OF which. however, unite in ascribing to it
oracuar powers. In the Maritime Highlands
and HebrideS, if the cuckoo is first heard by
one who has not broken his fast, some mis-
1t is believed, may be expected.
In % of the largest cities in the United
States II, AZ women who are working 1or a
living were questioned by Government
agents. OF these 1855 are single, and the
average age is p years and months. They
represent 342 vocations. and their average
wages are s5 81 q week. partial census in
1856 showed the average wages to be "a rs.
"A long tunnel near Paris has been
lighted in a novel way. Rehectors throw
the light from many electric lamps 10 feet
above the rails to the sides of the tunnel,
where it is again reflected by FURNISHED tin,
covered with glass. into the coaches, making
a soft and agreeable light. The trains au-
turn the current on and of in
entering and leaving the tunnel.
On the shield of Achilles, described by
Homer. were represented the earth, the sky,
the sea- the sun, the moon, oil the constela-
tions. two cities with crowds filling the
rorums and armies besieging town, besides
tiles single combatS, rural scenes, har-
vest scenes vintage scenes, pictures OF homo
H. Q dances cattle herding, lion and bull
dghting and q vast variety of NEUROLOGICAL
subjects.