Shakespeare's Autograph.

Tbe rarest antographs in the world are probably Shakespeare's. Only seven are claimed to exist - three signatures to his -will (two of whioh are doubtful), two to conveyauces of property, one in the folio edition of his plays (doubtful) and one in a translation of Montaigne. This iast is in the British museum and cost over 300 guineas. The largest gasometer in the world is at East Greenwich. When full, it contains 12,000,000 cubic feet of gas. It weighs 2,200 tons, is 180 feet high, 300 feet in diameter, requires 1,200 tons of ooal to fill it with gas and cost nearly L40,000. Gunpowder was invented by Boger Bacon, an Engíishnian who lived in the thirteenth century, but Germany claims the merit for several who lived about 30 years af ter Bacon 's deoeaso.