THE WEEK OVER THE WORLD

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21908, 8 October 1936, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE WEEK OVER THE WORLD

THE QUEEN MARY Some Interesting Figures Interesting figures have been published to show the size of the Queen Mary, described by his late Majesty King George y. as the stateliest ship in being. The Queen Mary will carry 2075 passengers; this means that a train on the main south line from Christchurch to Invercargill would need to have more than 50 full length carriages to carry the Queen Mary’s passengers. On the Britannia which was the first Cunard liner to go-4p sea, it was possible to carry passengers and crew numbering 200. Each lifeboat on the Queen Mary will carry 145 people. The length of the great ship is 1004 feet, about one fifth of a mile; if you walked in Christchurch from Cashel street down Colombo street to St. Asaph street you would have walked a little more than the length of the ship. If the Queen Mary were stood on end the ship would reach higher into the air than the Eiffel Tower in Paris (984 feet). This is the measurement along the water line. Some idea of the deck space available for sport will be given to country readers when they know that space is three acres. Those who live in Christchurch will realise that this is a little smaller than Latimer or Cranmer squares, both 4J acres. In building the Queen Mary 10,000,000 rivets were used; these would make a pyramid 25,000 cubic feet in volume if they were piled together. The rudder weighs 160 tons —that is exactly the tonnage of the little ship Mayflower in which the Pilgrim Fathers sailed to America in 1620. The anchor weigh 16 tons, the weight of 12 motor-cars, and is about four times a man’s height in length. The ship is 180 feet from keel to top of funnel (Niagara Falls are 162 feet). The funnels are 30 feet in diameter; three railway engines could run through them, side by side without touching. And from these funnels come the siren calls of the Queen Mary; they can be heard 10 miles away and the reverberations keep on to be heard 50 or 100 miles away

On board the ship are shops and theatres in all classes so that passengers are able to buy anything they need on the voyage. There are telephones and wireless sets; passengers may talk by telephone with any part of the world that also has telephone sets. The larders and linen presses are the most surprising places; for a round trip the Queen Mary takes 50,0001 b of potatoes, 60,000 eggs, 6 tons of fresh fish, 36001 b of butter, 20 tons of meat, hundreds of boxes of oranges and apples and 1000 pineapples, 2000 quarts of ice cream, 280 barrels of flour, 3600 quarts of milk and great quantities of cheese, tea, sugar and other fooc'. to be served on the 40.000 meals in a single trip. There are 210,000 towels, 30,000 sheets. 31.000 pillow cases, 21,000 table cloths and thousands of other pieces of linen. Knives and forks, cups, plates and dishes run into thousands approaching the million mark. A battery of vacuum cleaners for the six miles of carpet, 30,000 electric lamps, rows on rows of refrigerators and electric ovens all add to the magnitude of the world’s biggest liner.

RECORD FLIGHT BEGUN Jean Batten on Her Way Miss Jean Batten took off from the Lympne aerodrome, England at 4.10 a.m., on Monday, on the first stage of her flight to New Zealand.

She wore a green jumper under her flying suit, for she says green is her lucky colour. As on her other flights, she wore her New Zealand flag as a muffler. Miss Batten hopes to halve her record to Australia.

NEWS IN BRIEF

A Cheap Aeroplane

A company has begun the production of an aeroplane named “Brawny” to be sold at £ 195. The aeroplane is a single-seater monoplane, with a baby car engine capable of 35 to 40 miles to the gallon and a top speed of 80 miles an hour. Keas for Berlin Zoo

Eight out of nine keas sent from New Zealand to England survived the voyage and will be sent by air to the Berlin Zoo, Germany.

Park of Empire Trees That a Park of Empire Trees should be planted has been suggested to the Coronation Planting Committee in London. One suggestion is that the trees from the Dominions should be planted in groups of nine in the shape of King Arthur s shield, with an oak in the middle.

Maori War Canoes at Sydney There will probably be Maori war canoes at the harbour carnival during the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary celebrations in Sydney in 1938, New Secretary for War

Mr Roosevelt announced the appointment of Mr Harry Woodring to succeed Mr George H. Dein, who died recently*

Air Bace t>ver ttte Tasman A. proposal to organise an air race fcpn Sydney to Napier next January has been placed before the Napier Thirty Thousand Club. Prize money will amount to £SOOO. Several Sydney, pilots have expressed.-file opinion that the race is quite practicable; but the prize money is too low. There have been many criticisms of the proposal on the ground that the race will be dangerous arid that pilots are asfcpd to risk their lives deliberately. Lovelock Beaten

J-E. Lovelock was beaten in the race at Princeton, United States, on Saturday. He was beaten by, Archie San Romani, a young Kansas College student who ran fourth in the 1500 metres race at the Olympic Games, which Lovelock won. Romani’s time for the race he won at Princeton was 4 minutes 9 seconds. Altitude Record

Squadron Leader Swayne, a test pilot attached to the experimental section of the Koyal Air Force at Farnborough, broke the world s altitude record last week. He readied a height of 49;967 feet; the flight took 3 hours 20 minutes. The flight was made in a specially designed open Bristol 138 aeroplane, fitted with a Pegasus Smell Device Invented

Two unemployed men have invented a pro* cess with which smells can be added to talk-* mg pictures. The inventors have taken seven years in research work to produce the apparatus which they call an odourising device for films. They claim that the device can provide a smell to suit any scene on screen. The African Air Race *

Messrs C. W. A. Scott and Giles Guthrie won the Portsmouth to Johannesburg aiy race. They were the only competitors to finish and their' flying time was 52 hours 56 minutes 48 seconds.

The Airspeed Envoy aeroplane piloted by Ken Waller crashed in Northern Rhodesia, and Mr Max Findlay, pilot, and Mr Morgan, the wireless operator, were killed. Mr Waller, pilot, and Mr Feachev, the mechanic; were not seriously injured. Another Air Race

Forty entries have been received for the South Australian Centenary, air race from Brisbane to Adelaide in December. The race will start at Brisbane on December 18. There will be speed and handicap sections, and in the speed section compulsory stops must be made for refuelling at Sydney and Melbourne.

Memorial to King George A cheque from members of the staff of the Imperial War Graves Commission received « at theMansionHouse brought the total of th® King George V.’national memorial fend to £250,000. >r . f . New Lord Mayor of London

Sir George Broadbridge, an Alderman of the City of. London, has. been elected. Lord Mayor in succession to Sir Farcy Vincent. He wiM be in office during the Coronation ceremonies.