WHY DO WE SAY—?

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 204, 30 August 1933, Page 6

WHY DO WE SAY—?

"POURING OIL ON TROUBLED WATERS." A famous politician who was scornful of the peacemakers recently poked fun at this saying. , He said nobody believed that pouring oil on a stormy sea was going to still a tempest. He described it as an old myth, and said nobody ever poured oil on troubled waters; it would be a waste of good oil. Even famous politicians talk nonsense—sometimes. People have poured oil on troubled waters, and with good, effect. In fact the saying did not first arise from literature, but from experience. Jt found its way freely into i literature afterwards. It came into our popular speech direct from the sea and from tlic men who go clown to the sea in ships. They first spoke of oil for troubled waters. It had been a saying for centuries and was generally accepted. Presumably with the , advance of learqing people grew sceptical. The saying became a, subject of keen controversy about a century ago. It was argued, as many do now, including the politician referred to, that tho saying rested on a myth. This provoked an instructive experiment. According: to 4!he report made at the time, waves on a pond, generated by the wind, were completely stilled to a glassy smoothness by means of a film of oil scarcely more than the seven-millionth part of an inch in thickness, and exhibiting the most brilliant zones of iridescent colours from its extreme thinness. Tt was then explained that the modus operandi is believed to consist simply in tlic wind ceasing fo have a liold upon the water by the intervention of the oil, which slips along th-e surface, with the wind, so that the oil must be applied to windward and it moves to leeward, smoothing the surface as it goes. The saying lias, however, more than the evidence of experiment to support it. Unfortunately, it has sometimes been put to the test in bitter experience and by accident at sea. Thus on one occasion a whaling, ship returning home was caught in a terrific storm. She was wrecked, but the huge quantity of oil which came forth from her cargo was seen to still the waters as it spread over them, and in a short time the sea around the vessel was quite calm. It is put to the test even more frequently nowadays with oil ships and tankers, and great oil depots in the most important shipping centres. Those who have business with these notice tho tranquillity of the water whenever there is a coating of oil about.