RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 106, 29 January 1935, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events (By Kickshaws.) It is said that the question of the moment is whether Mr. Lloyd George will be invited to join the Cabinet. A question much more to the point soon will be whether the Cabinet will bo invited to join Mr. Lloyd George. The operations of a purse-snatcher wearing a beard have given rise to the theory that, he is Santa Claus trying to get it back. * * » Inventors, it is reported, hope to evolve a workless world in fifteen years’ time. So far they haven't done so badly. “It is the pen knife holder and not the palm holder who must be inevitably identified as of those who are moved to perform the ‘knife and peas’ act,” says 0.C.11. concerning the art'of eating peas with a knife. “It'would have been well, and possibly illuminating to ‘Old Timer,’ if you had added that the pen knife holder is of the same breed as those who throw down a- magazine (preferably on the floor) folded back at the pages just read; as he who leaves the pen in the ink pot when he has finished with it and stuffs cigarette cartons and wrappers into a standard ash tray. All these painfuLacts are, unhappily, ‘permissible,’ inasmuch as no punishment has been imposed to fit the crime.” * * * “Would you be so good as to explain, from your apparently inexhaustible supply of knowledge, the working of the ‘tablet’ system of single track operation on the railways?" asks “J. 8.5. “Is the systenf foolproof and how far does the personal element enter into it, if at all? Presumably, if the personal element does enter into it, the system is not foolproof. 'What happens if the driver drops the tablet? Does he stop the train and run back along the track for it, or does he send his fireman?” * ♦ * A tablet is a fibre disc about -Ilin, across. It is kept in an electrical instrument which can only be opened electrically. A tablet is a permit for the driver to proceed, but does not make it physically impossible not to do so if he has not received a tablet. The operator at station “A” has to have the permission of the operator at station “B” before the tablet can be obtained from the instrument. This is done by the two operators making contact simultaneously in an electrical circuit connecting them. The system makes it impossible for a train to enter a block section of the line when there is another in that section, unless, of course, tlie driver deliberately risks dismissal by entering a section with no tablet. As both fireman and driver must examine the tablet before proceeding, this possibility is remote. One hesitates to call anything foolproof but in view of the fact that a fool could not operate the tablet system and could not cause an accident the system may be taken to be as foolproof as it is possible to make a thing foolproof in this world. The personal element does however enter into the matter; if the driver went mad 'and disobeyed regulations the system would fail. If the driver loses the tablet between stations, the fireman and the guard walk back to look for it. If it cannot be found the driver proceeds to the next station and reports the loss. Resumption of tablet working may take time. Therefore Pilot Working is instituted, by which method a man with a written permit to proceed pilots each train through the section that is out of order. » » ♦ With the burning season now iu full swing it may be remarked that if there are fire-calls and fire-calls there are also fires and fires. There are few fires more difficult to handle than one in which coal gas is involved. It is easy enough to extinguish, but there remains a grave danger of explosion. Oil and petrol are notorious for the way they refuse to be put out, but fire in a chemical works is perhaps the worst nightmare of a fireman. Such a fire occurred in Manchester iu 1914. Sulphtlric ttcid poured out of the building in streams, eating up every object it touched and producing suffocating yellow fumes. Cork is a material that firemen hate to deal with when it is on fire. Volumes of suffocating smoke rise from burning cork that cau set people coughing a mile away. Burning eggs arc nearly as bad as cork. The reck and gases from thousands of burning eggs is an experience not worth repetition. Moreover, an egg can explode iu a nasty, vicious manner if it suddenly encounters intense heat. Eggs and ammonia mixed with burning cork no doubt represent a fireman’s idea of the exact opposite of heaven. * * « Admiral Byrd’s official report ou his adventures in the Antarctic doubtless omits all the important thiegs. Possibly one day interest will be roused in the Antarctic. Just because it is covered with snow’ aud ice. that does not mean that this part of tlie world is valueless. One may compare Antarctica with Alaska. When the United States bought that province from Russia in 1867 for £ll million, the rest of the world was not particularly interested in tlie doubtful bargain. Alaska was a bleak frozen land. Ye’ the bargain was not such a bad oue. Nearly £lOOO million worth of gold has been mined in Alaska. There may be another Alaska somewhere down in the • Antartica. No mention of it is made in Byrd’s official report. The fact is that the North Pole and the South have nothing in common. The North Pole is situated in the middle of an ice-bound sea. The South Pole is hidden by a huge land area which stretches nobody knows how far. It is far colder in the Antarctic than in the Arc-tie. Rain falls in the latter, but. never in the former. The influence of this bitter cold extends for thousands of miles. Georgia is the same latitude as England, but not a tree will grow in Georgia.

Antarctica is nor wholly desolate Although the summer temperature never rises much above freezing, mosses ami lichens taahage to grow. Birds are plentiful ami the sea teems with lite. But we know very little about the 5.000,000 square miles of country that may be one of the larger land masses of the world Wo know that, there icoal ami therefore at one time the climate must have been tropical. Diamonds ami precious stones are believed to lie hidden there Meanwhile there’ is plenty of snow Indeed this snow is a little hit of a mystery. Observe tions show that snow accumulates a' the rate of one foot every vear Th” ticcu tn it kited snow travels reward rh< sea,at the rate of one-third of a mil" a year. Snow falling on the Barrie' 300 miles inland arrives at the sea after an interval of 900 years.