Newspapers used to publish sections of world facts for their readers. The Rice Belt Journal, especially took part in trying to educate its readers about the world around them. The information below is taken from an article published on September 12, 1902 and is a fascinating look at the world during that time.
BITS OF INFORMATION
1. Ranking in Pittsburg dates back to 1804.
2. Massachusetts has 4,500 registered physicians.
3. There are 5,000 Polish miners at work in Scotland.
4. Canada has over 800 lobster canneries in operation.
5. Georgia’s governor has 69 colonels on his staff.
6. California is producing daisies a foot in circumference.
7. There are 5,416 different parts in a modern locomotive.
8. Pittsburg ships more than 12,000,000 tons of coal annually.
9. The gross tonnage of Pittsburg products exceeds 46,000,000.
10. New Jersey is the chief clay producing state of the country.
11. A single pair of rabbits can multiply in four years to 1,250,000.
12. Fourteen Swiss hotels are 6,500 or more feet above the sea level.
13. Jupiter has 4,500 eclipses of its different moons in one of its years.
14. More than a million people die yearly in Europe of consumption.
15. Five hundred and eighty-seven distinct languages are spoken in Europe.
16. The amount of French capital invested in China exceeds $100,000,000.
17. In some New Zealand towns there are more women voters than men.
18. Musolino, the condemned Italian brigand, is starving himself to death.
19. Japanese coiners are alleged to be flooding Korea with counterfeit cash.
20. The mines of South Africa give work to between 60,000 and 70,000 men.
21. The rope on which Charles Blondin crossed the Falls of Niagara cost $5,250.
22. Fifty-four oak trees are struck by lightning to every beech tress that is struck.
23. Paris has double the number of firemen, and fifty more engines than London.
24. No educational facilities whatever are provided for 18,000,000 Russian children.
25. The Royal Irish Constabulary cost the British government $6,775,000 last year.
26. Sir Edwin Landseer is said to have painted “The Cavalier’s Pets” in a single day.
27. The orders of decoration borne by the German Emperor are worth about $11,225,000.
28. The foundation of the Bank of England strong-room is 66 feet below street level.
29. The first machine for folding envelopes was patented on the 17th March, 1845.
30. Off the Cape of Good Hope, waves 38 feet high from trough to crest have been noted.
31. A calf with two tongues is now in the possession of a farmer at Rossert, North Wales.
32. A $50,000 observatory is to be built this year by Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn.
33. The Province of Asturias in Spain has no fewer than 28 centenarians in a population of 600,000.
34. The household of the Sultan is the most expensive in the world, costing three million a year.
35. Beetles in the East and West Indies are so brilliant in coloring that they are beautiful as gems.
36. Loss of voice was one of the reasons given by a London auctioneer for his insolvency recently.
37. Pittsburg and Allegheny have more public bridges than any other city or county in the country.
38. Two torpedo boats of the Imperial Germany navy will always be stationed in future on the Rhine.
39. Two hundred and seventeen lions have been born at the Dublin Zoo during the last 70 years.
40. Sponge fishing has been prohibited in Turkish waters. This will cost Greece at least $2,000,000 a year.
41. The nutritive value of 13 cents’ worth of 3 per cent milk is equal to 25 cents’ worth of round beefsteak.
42. From nettle fiber a thread has been produced so fine that a length of 60 miles of it weighs but 2-1/2 pounds.
43. Parisian butchers who sell horse meat intimate the fact by exhibiting a gilded horse head on their shop fronts.
44. Java has thunderstorms on at least 97 days in the year, and in Jamaica there are often such storms on 150 days.
45. The Dronk grass found in Transvaal has the effect of making cattle and horses quite stupid and sleepy.
46. The jewels which the Princess of Wales took with her on her recent tour of the world were insured for $375,000.
47. The biggest mortar in the world is Mallet’s 36 inch mortar, made in 1855, and still in Woolwich Arsenal, England.
48. The United States has 700 million acres of woodland, forty seven million of which area is preserved by government.
49. The longest pendulum ever made was 377 feet in length, and was swung from the second platform of the Eiffel Tower.
50. The highest priced stamp issued in the United States cost $60; but Victoria at one time issued a stamp valued $500.
51. The biggest open air concert in the world is the Welsh Eisteddfod, which is attended yearly by 20,000 to 30,000 people.
52. The houseboat or barge of Magdalen College, Oxford, is 82 feet long and will accommodate 1,200 people. It cost $12,500.
53. Soldiers commit suicide more frequently than members of any other profession, and gardeners and fishermen least often.
54. One of the new bridges to be thrown over the Seine is to be built in two stories, with on set of arches resting on another.
55. Out of 2,599 murders of Christians in Turkey last year there were only 61 cases in which the murderers were punished.
56. Switzerland has, on an average, 1,200,000 tourists yearly, and has built 1,008 inns for their benefit, at a cost of $65,000,000.
57. “Le Petit Journal” is said to have the largest sale in London of any foreign newspaper. Nearly 1,800 copies a day are sold there.
58. Lord Kelvin, who is now 78 years old, is entitled to place no less than 26 letters, indicating various titles of honor, after his name.
59. According to John Hays Hammond mining on a large scale on the Rand is not likely to last more than a quarter of a century.
60. A man in Kentucky has discovered that lightning is a cure for rheumatism, but it requires a good deal of care to experiment with it.
61. Quicksilver mining has the worst effect on the teeth of any known occupation. Bleachers and bakers also frequently lose their teeth.
62. The amount of heat generated by a man’s body in a day’s work is sufficient to raise 63 pounds of water from freezing to boiling point.
63. The Church of England bishopric of the Mackenzie river is 600,000 square miles. That is five times the size of the whole United Kingdom.
64. Pekin’s big bell, weighing over 53 tons, was cast in 1415. It is 15 feet high, and has a circumference of 34 feet at the rim. It is 9 inches thick.
65. France has 2,864,000 dogs — just double as many as Great Britain and Ireland combined. Germany has 1,432,000 also, just half of France’s number.
66. The common herring is the most difficult of all marine creatures to catch alive for an aquarium. A whale is the most difficult to preserve alive.
67. Within the last fifty years 164,589 people have emigrated from the County Mayo, Ireland, or nearly as many as there are now inhabitants there.
68. There are 6,000 monks on the promontory of Athos. They pay to the Sultan $10,000 a year for the privilege of being allowed to govern themselves.
69. Last year Canada produced $205,000,000 worth of copper, nearly $25,000,000 worth of gold, $4,500,000 worth of nickel, and $3,000,000 worth of silver.
70. The largest bore cannon ever made is the Maleck-e-Meidan, or Lord of the Plain, still existing in India. It is 14 feet long, and its bore is 28 inches.
71. The greatest size to which a horse has been known to grow is 20-1/2 hands high. This is the record of a Clydesdale which was on exhibition in 1889.
72. The increase of population between the ten year censuses is 12.2 percent in England, 21 percent in the United States, and 2.1 percent in Australia.
73. The caaba, or sacred stone of Mecca, is covered fresh every year with damask sent by the Sultan or Khedive. A single covering has cost as much as $75,000.
74. There are 17,180 Jews in India, of whom only one-third are of European origin. The rest claim to be descendants of Jews who emigrated during the reign of King Solomon.
75. The biggest orchard in the world is near Santa Barbara, in California. It covers 1,700 acres, and contains 10,000 olive trees, 3,000 walnuts, 10,000 almonds, and nearly 9,000 other fruit and nut trees. [Source]
