Barkham Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information Part 15

Shoes among the Jews were made of leather, linen, rush or wood; soldiers' shoes were sometimes made of bra.s.s 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 pa.s.sed 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.

A horse trots 7 miles per hour or 10 feet per second.

A horse runs 20 miles per hour or 29 feet per second.

Steamboat runs 20 miles per hour or 26 feet per second.

Sailing vessel runs 10 miles per hour or 14 feet per second.

Rapid rivers flow 3 miles per hour or 4 feet per second.

A moderate wind blows 7 miles per hour or 10 feet per second.

A storm moves 36 miles per hour or 52 feet per second.

A hurricane moves 80 miles per hour or 117 feet per second.

A rifle ball 1000 miles per hour or 1466 feet per second.

Sound 743 miles per hour or 1142 feet per second.

Light, 192,000 miles per second.

Electricity, 288,000 miles per second.

QUANt.i.tY OF OIL REQUIRED FOR DIFFERENT COLORS.

Heath & Miligan quote the following figures. They are color manufacturers:

100 parts (weight) White Lead require 12 parts of oil.

100 parts (weight) Zinc White require 14 parts of oil.

100 parts (weight) Green Chrome require 15 parts of oil.

100 parts (weight) Chrome Yellow require 19 parts of oil.

100 parts (weight) Vermilion require 25 parts of oil.

100 parts (weight) Light Red require 31 parts of oil.

100 parts (weight) Madder Lake require 62 parts of oil.

100 parts (weight) Yellow Ochre require 66 parts of oil.

100 parts (weight) Light Ochre require 72 parts of oil.

100 parts (weight) Camels Brown require 75 parts of oil.

100 parts (weight) Brown Manganese require 87 parts of oil.

100 parts (weight) Terre Verte require 100 parts of oil.

100 parts (weight) Parisian Blue require 106 parts of oil.

100 parts (weight) Burnt Terreverte require 112 parts of oil.

100 parts (weight) Berlin Blue require 112 parts of oil.

100 parts (weight) Ivory Black require 112 parts of oil.

100 parts (weight) Cobalt require 125 parts of oil.

100 parts (weight) Florentine Brown require 150 parts of oil.

100 parts (weight) Burnt Terra Sienna require 181 parts of oil.

100 parts (weight) Raw Terra Sienna require 140 parts of oil.

According to this table, a hundred parts of the quick drying white lead are ground with 12 parts of oil, and on the other hand slow drying ivory black requires 112 parts of oil.

PAINTING.

1 gallon Priming Color will cover 50 superficial yards.

1 gallon White Zinc will cover 50 superficial yards.

1 gallon White Paint will cover 44 superficial yards.

1 gallon Lead Color will cover 50 superficial yards.

1 gallon Black Paint will cover 50 superficial yards.

1 gallon Stone Color will cover 44 superficial yards.

1 gallon Yellow Paint will cover 44 superficial yards.

1 gallon Blue Color will cover 45 superficial yards.

1 gallon Green Paint will cover 45 superficial yards.

1 gallon Bright Emerald Green will cover 25 superficial yards.

1 gallon Bronze Green will cover 45 superficial yards.

One pound of paint will cover about four superficial yards the first coat, and about six yards each additional coat.

RAPID PROCESS OF MARKING GOODS AT ANY DESIRED PER CENT. PROFIT.

Retail merchants, in buying goods by wholesale, buy a great many articles by the dozen, such as boots and shoes, hats and caps, and notions of various kinds; now the merchant, in buying, for instance, a dozen hats, knows exactly what one of these hats will retail for in the market where he deals; and unless he is a good accountant, it will often take him some time to determine whether he can afford to purchase the dozen hats and make a living profit by selling them by the single hat; and in buying his goods by auction, as the merchant often does, he has not time to make the calculation before the goods are bid off. He therefore loses the chance of making good bargains by being afraid to bid at random, or if he bids, and the goods are cried off, he may have made a poor bargain by bidding thus at a venture.

It then becomes a useful and practical problem to determine instantly what per cent. he would gain if he retailed the hat at a certain price, to tell what an article should retail for to make a profit of 20 per cent.

_Rule.--Divide what the articles cost per dozen by 10. which is done by removing the decimal point one place to the left._

For instance, if hats cost $17.50 per dozen, remove the decimal point one place to the left, making $1.75, what they should be sold for apiece to gain 20 per cent, on the cost. If they cost $31.00 per dozen, they should be sold at $3.10 apiece, etc.

THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD.

Pyramids of Egypt.

Tower, Walls and Terrace Hanging Gardens of Babylon.