Dripread - Book

thirty feet. Their ages are estimated at from 1,000 to 3,500
years. Their height ranges from 150 to 237 feet.

FACTS OF GENERAL INTEREST.

A hawk flies 150 miles per hour; an eider duck 90 miles; a pigeon, 40
miles.

A man's working life is divided into four decades: 20 to 30, bronze; 30
to 40, silver; 40 to 50, gold; 50 to 60, iron. Intellect and judgment
are strongest between 40 and 50.

Hair which is lightest in color is also lightest in weight. Light or
blond hair is generally the most luxuriant, and it has been calculated
that the average number of hairs of this color on an average person's
head is 140,000; while the number of brown hairs is 110,000, and black
only 103,000.

Goldsmith received $300 for "The Vicar of Wakefield;" Moore, $15,500 for
"Lalla Rookh;" Victor Hugo, $12,000 for "Hernani;" Chateaubriand,
$110,000 for his works; Lamartine, $16,000 for "Travels in Palestine;"
Disraeli, $50,000 for "Endymion;" Anthony Trollope, $315,000 for
forty-five novels; Lingard, $21,000 for his "History of England;" Mrs.
Grant received over $600,000 as royalty from the sale of "The Personal
Memoirs of U. S. Grant."

One woman in 20, one man in 30 is barren--about 4 per cent. It is found
that one marriage in 20 is barren--5 per cent. Among the nobility of
Great Britain, 21 per cent have no children, owing partly to
intermarriage of cousins, no less than 4-1/2 per cent being married to
cousins.

The largest bells are the following, and their weight is given in tons:
Moscow, 216: Burmah, 117; Pekin, 53; Novgorod, 31; Notre Dame, 18;
Rouen, 18; Olmutz, 18; Vienna, 18; St. Paul's, 16; Westminster, 14;
Montreal, 12; Cologne, 11; Oxford, 8; St. Peter's, 8. Bell metal should
have 77 parts copper and 23 tin.

American life averages for professions (Boston): Storekeepers, 41.8
years; teamsters, 43.6 years; laborers. 44.6 years; seamen, 46.1 years;
mechanics, 47.3 years; merchants, 48.4 years; lawyers, 52.6 years;
farmers, 64.2 years.

A camel has twice the carrying power of an ox; with an ordinary load of
400 lb. he can travel 12 to 14 days without water, going 40 miles a day.
Camels are fit to work at 5 years old, but their strength begins to
decline at 25, although they live usually till 40.

The checks paid in New York in one year aggregate $77,020,672,494, which
is more than nine times the value of all the gold and silver coin in
existence.

Pounds of water evaporated by 1 lb. of fuel as follows: Straw. 1.9;
wood, 3.1; peat, 3.8; coke or charcoal. 6.4; coal, 7.9; petroleum, 14.6.

The average elevation of continents above sea level is: Europe, 670
feet; Asia, 1,140 feet; North America. 1,150 feet; South America, 1,100
feet.

A body weighing 140 lb. produces 3 lb. ashes; time for burning, 55
minutes.

The seven largest diamonds in the world weigh, respectively, as follows;
Kohinoor, 103 carats; Star of Brazil, 126 carats; Regent of France, 136
carats; Austrian Kaiser, 139 carats; Russian Czar, 195 carats; Rajah of
Borneo, 367 carats; Braganza, 1,880 carats. The value of the above is
not regulated by size, nor easy to estimate, but none of them is worth
less than $500,000.

According to Orfila, the proportion of nicotine in Havana tobacco is 2
per cent; in French, 6 per cent; and Virginia tobacco, 7 per cent. That
in Brazilian is still higher.

One horsepower will raise 16-1/2 tons per minute a height of 12 inches,
working 8 hours a day. This is about 9,900 foot-tons daily, or 12 times
a man's work.

Good clear ice two inches thick will bear men to walk on; four inches
thick will bear horses and riders; six inches thick will bear horses and
teams with moderate loads.

One pair of rabbits can become multiplied in four years into 1,250,000.
Australia ships 6,000,000 rabbit skins yearly to England.

The largest of the Pyramids, that of Cheops, is composed of four million
tons of stone, and occupied 100,000 men during 20 years, equal to an
outlay of $200,000,000. It would now cost $20,000,000 at a contract
price of 36 cents per cubic foot.

One tug on the Mississippi can take, in six days, from St. Louis to New
Orleans, barges carrying 10,000 tons of grain, which would require 70
railway trains of fifteen cars each.

Comparative Scale of Strength.--Ordinary man, 100; Byron's Gladiator,
173; Farnese Hercules, 362; horse, 750.

A man will die for want of air in five minutes; for want of sleep, in
ten days; for want of water, in a week; for want of food, at varying
intervals, dependent on various

The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing / A Manual of Ready Reference