RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 103, 25 January 1935, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

4 Sidelights on Current Events

(By

Kickshaws.)

A flying flea aas been invented by a Frenchman with a top speed of 100 miles an hour. Yes. but how far can it hop? s „ * News comes from England that no progress has been made this week with the' meat question. If the problem is the same as ours it is to he expected that the meat question inevitably sets in a hash by Friday. * An expert back from England declares that there is little improvement discernible in the shipping trade. The matter is further complicated by the fact that the more ships there are at sea the less shipping is*at sea. “Ex-Machine Gunner” writes: “While on the subject of rope tricks and suchlike mystifying performances, can anyone inform me how the fol.owing trick, which I saw at the Cape during the war, is done? Seated before a small square of carpet spread upon the footpath of a busy thoroughfare was an aged Malay. After demonstrating several rather ordinary tricks, punctuated by considerable jabber he continued in this manner. ‘Xew Zealand soldier very fine man, very generous man. Tommv soldier no good, very mean. I no do this trick under five shillin’.’ Of course if the majority of his audience were Tommies he would, strike a different note. Upon receipt of small change amounting to about two shillings he would consent to commence. The old man then bared his arms to the elbows to show he had nothing bidden in his voluminous sleeves. He then turned over the carpet to show there was nothing underneath but the bare pavement. Seizing a peculiar instrument like a flute suffering from goitre he played a few wheezy notes. Immediately the centre of the carpet bulged, and as our friend plaved the bulge grew to the size of a cocoanut. He then laid aside his flute, and thrusting his bare arm under the carpet drew out a live struggling pigeon. The wine of the Cape is good wine, but the Diggers agreed that upon this occasion they could no* offer it as an explanation *ot the trick.”

Sir Malcolm Campbell, we are told, is to wear a crash helmet to prevent injurv from his car’s increased acceleration. If his car went vertically upward or vertically downward one could understand the need for a crash helmet for the purpose. As Ins ca. accelerates horizontally the proper place for his crash helmet, to save him from the perils of rapid acceleration, would be his back. Is his acceleration so rapid after all? The standard ac celeration in this world is that of gravity. Except for minor variations at different parts of the world this may be taken to be 32 feet per second per second. The repetition of “per second” shows that if we allow ourselves to fall through space we will increase our speed by 32 feet per second every second. Compared with the average car this acceleration is high. Even a goo modern touring car takes at least 10 seconds to reach 50 miles an hour from a standing start. Now o 0 mp.h. represents 73 feet per second. This represents an acceleration- of just over < feet per second per second. Compared with gravity this is a trivial amount. Even Sir Malcolm Campbell’s car probably does not accelerate any faster than gravity, some two seconds and a bit to reach 50 m.p.h. *

Acceleration must not be confused with maximum speed. The acceleration of the lash of a whip just before the crack is tremendous; as also is the speed, about the same as sound, which is 750 miles an hour. The acceleration of a flea on the jump is also tremendous, but the top speed is no more than twenty or thirty miles an hour. The acceleration required for the comparatively small laud speeds that man can attain, a few hundred miles an hour, can well be countered by comparatively simple methods. It is. however, an inexorable rule that acceleration pushes you forward every bit as hard as you push backwards. For that reason there is a limit to the acceleration that the human frame can endure. For example, no human being could accelerate with the speed of a bullet for the simple reason that flesh and blood would be squashed to a pulp. Actually the acceleration of a rifle bullet works , out, according to the experts, at** about two mdlion feet per secoinl per second. The time is very distant when any vehicle will be able to travel as fast as a bullet, and the time may never come when a vehicle will be able to accelerate as fast Even a tennis ball has an acceleration of nearly 10,000 feet per second per second when it is given a good hard whack; a whack far harder than flesh and blood could withstand.

The Wellington resident who has hud the misfortune to be stabbed by a pair of scissors in his own pocket must take what comfort he can in the fact that strange as is his accident even stranger have occurred. Indeed another New Zealander who resides in Ashburton was carving a roast of beef when the knife slipped and stabbed him in the stomach. In America a we.l-known lion tamer was even more unfortunate He died not from the bite of a lion, but by biting himself. Moreover, he bit himself to death on his tongue of a.L places. He had previously survived severe maulings by his lions. Perhaps the sad tale that comes from Kansas is even more pathetic—it was certainly tragic. A farmer was sheariii£ a nnile. A boe stuns the mule. T mule kicked the shears. The shears pierced a vein in the farmer s arm. The farmed died of haemorrhage Perhaps, though, the strangest tragedy of all occurred in a London street. A blind man was waiting on the curb to cross the road. He felt a friendly hand to help him across. It was another blind man who also thought,he had found a helper. Both wore killed. ♦ * ♦

The truth about accidents is that you never know what will threaten next. It is the unexpected that hapliens. That one chance in a million has a knack of turning up. For instance some gangers left.a spade on the rails by mistake while stepping to one side to let pass an oncoming express. The train struck the spade. The spade flew through the air and struck the stationmaster, who was Vuled instautly. An accident that is much the same occurred in Valencia. 'Spain. A matador transfixed a bull through the neck. The enraged bull gave its head a violent shake, 'lhe sword flew out like an arrow from a bow and transfixed one of the attendants. He was taken away dying. Even laughing has its dangers. A lady laughed so immoderately in a cinema in London, where a popular farce was billed, that she lost control of her false teeth. Th? result was that she very nearly choked and surgical assistance had to be called and the film stopped. Mean while we tender our sympathy to the individual who was stabbed by his own scissors and wish him a speedy recovery.