by Barkham Burroughs
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COMPARATIVE SIZE OF THE ARK AND THE GREAT EASTERN.
The following comparison between the size of Noah's ark and the Great Eastern, both being considered in point of tonnage, after the old law for calculating the tonnage of a vessel, exhibits a remarkable similarity. The cubit of the Bible, according to Sir Isaac Newton, is 20-1/2 inches, or, to be exact, 20.625 inches. Bishop Wilkins makes the cubit 20.88 inches. According to Newton the dimensions of the ark were: Length between perpendiculars, 515.62 feet; breadth, 84.94 feet; depth, 51.56 feet; keel, or length for tonnage, 464.08 feet. Tonnage, according to old law, 18,231 58-94. The measurements of the ark, according to Wilkins' calculations were: Length, 54700 feet; breadth, 91.16 feet; depth, 54.70 feet; keel, 492.31 feet. Tonnage, 21,761. Notice how surprisingly near the Great Eastern came to being constructed after the same plan: Length, 680 feet; breadth, 83 feet; depth, 60 feet; keel, 630 feet. Tonnage, 23,092.
FINGER NAILS AS AN INDICATION OF CHARACTER.
A white mark on the nail bespeaks misfortune.
Pale or lead-colored nails indicate melancholy people.
Broad nails indicate a gentle, timid, and bashful nature.
Lovers of knowledge and liberal sentiments have round nails.
People with narrow nails are ambitious and quarrelsome.
Small nails indicate littleness of mind, obstinacy and conceit.
Choleric, martial men, delighting in war, have red and spotted nails.
Nails growing into the flesh at the points or sides indicate luxurious tastes.
People with very pale nails are subject to much infirmity of the flesh and persecution by neighbors and friends.
DANGERS OF CELLULOID.
A curious accident, which happened recently in Paris, points out a possible danger in the wearing of combs and bracelets of celluloid. A little girl sat down before the fire to prepare her lessons. Her hair was kept back by a semi-circle comb of celluloid. As her head was bent forward to the fire this became warm, and suddenly burst into flames. The child's hair was partly burned off, and the skin of the head was so injured that several months after, though the burn was healed, the cicatrix formed a white patch on which no hair would grow. The burning point of celluloid is about 180 degrees, and the comb worn by the girl had attained that heat as it was held before the fire.
ODD FACTS ABOUT SHOES.
Grecian shoes were peculiar in reaching to the middle of the legs.
The present fashion of shoes was introduced into England in 1633.
In the ninth and tenth centuries the greatest princes of Europe wore wooden shoes.
Slippers were in use before Shakespeare's time, and were originally made "rights" and "lefts."
Shoes among the Jews were made of leather, linen, rush or wood; soldiers' shoes were sometimes made of brass or iron.
In the reign of William Rufus of England, in the eleventh century, a great beau, "Robert, the Horned," used shoes with sharp points, stuffed with tow, and twisted like rams' horns.
The Romans made use of two kinds of shoes--the solea, or sandal, which covered the sole of the foot, and was worn at home and in company, and the calceus, which covered the whole foot and was always worn with the toga when a person went abroad.
In the reign of Richard II., shoes were of such absurd length as to require to be supported by being tied to the knees with chains, sometimes of gold and silver. In 1463 the English parliament took the matter in hand and passed an act forbidding shoes with spikes more than two inches in length being worn and manufactured.
TABLE SHOWING THE AVERAGE VELOCITIES OF VARIOUS BODIES.
A man walks 3 miles per hour or 4 feet per second.
