PETER DAWSON, TIME, AND SPACE.

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 156, 19 June 1942, Page 4

PETER DAWSON, TIME, AND SPACE.

Sir,-Your interesting article about Mr. Peter Dawson in your issue of May 15 prompts one to suggest that Mr Dawson should devote no further time to singing since, according to: your reporter, he has already apparently solved the problems of,space and time which have been puzzling scientists for many years. The article states that since 1905 Mr. Dawson has MADE more than 12,000,000 recordings. Let us examine this ‘astronomical figure in the cold light of mathematics rather than the warm glow of journalistic enthusiasm. According to statistics taken from catalogues issued by gramophone companies Mr. Dawson has recorded ten-inch and twelve-inch records in the ratio of two to one. Allowing three minutes to each side of a ten-

inch record, and four minutes to each side of a twelve, we may take six minutes forty seconds as the average playing time of one double-sided Peter Dawson record. Taking the round figure of 12,000,000 records and doing a slight multiplication sum, we discover that, singing every second of every hour of every day of every year, it would have taken Mr. Dawson 152 years, 75 days, 13 hours and 20 minutes to MAKE these recordings. Since Mr. Dawson is now but 60 years of age, one can understand why,.in the last fifteen years, he has found no time to practise. If the article intended to,;convey that 12,000,000 copies of Mr. Dawson’s recordings have been made, the whole situation becomes understandable, but one would be loth to credit a Listener reporter with a terminological inexactitude of these startling propor-

tions.

CALCULUS

(Wellington).

(We would not rob "Calculus" of his joke. After all, what

are a few millions among friends?--Ed.)