RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 56, 29 November 1929, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

" ■ ■"" ♦ SIDELIGHTS ON CURRENT EVENTS LOCAL AND GENERAL

(By

Cosmos.)

Disarmament is like a social funo tion. Nobody wants to arrive until everyone is there. « • « According to an expert, a bee has from 4900 to 13,800 eyes. If that is so, why does it so often sit down in the wrong place? • « « If reports are true that it contains over ten thousand million pounds worth of chemical salts, the Dead Sea is due for an early resurrection. • • • Judging by recent happenings overseas, the superman of the future will be a gentleman who is just sane enough to do what he pleases, but not quite sane enough to get convicted for it. • • • “With reference to your note regarding the burial of Clemenceau in an upright position, it is Interesting to read that the famous poet ‘Ben Jonson’ was buried in Westminster Abbey standing on his feet,” writes Mr. G. W. Barltrop. “One story says that one day, being rallied by the Dean of Westminster about being buried in Poets’ Corner, the poet is said to have replied: ‘I am too poor for that, and no one will lay out funeral charges upon me. No, sir, six feet long by two feet wide is too much for me; two feet by two will do for all I want. ‘You shall have it,’ said the Dean, and thus the upright burial was verified as late as 1849, when the ground was disturbed for another burial." • « • “If a man, in his time, plays many parts,” he also finds himself in many queer situations. Admiral of the Fleet

“If a man, in his time, plays many parts,” he also finds himself in many queer situations. Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher of Kilverstone started his naval career as a penniless, friendless and forlorn midshipman, and by sheer ability he brought himself to the command of a ship at the age of 19 years. Even when lie graduated to positions which caused him to be invited to stay with King Edward at Balmoral or Sandringham, he was his own valet. While at Sandringham, on one occasion, he went to his room to unpack. Then somebody came to the door and fumbled at the handle. Fisher had ■_ a boot in each hand. Raising his head, and thinking that it was the footman, he yelled, “Come in; don’t go humbugging with the door-handle.” The man entered. It was King Edward, smoking a cigar which Fisher described as “about a yard long.” “What on earth are you doing?” the monarcli demanded. “Unpacking, sir,” was the reply. “Where’s your servant?” “Haven’t got one, sir.” “Where is he?” inquired the King. “Never had one, sir; couldn’t afford it,” was Fisher’s response. “Put those boots down and sit in that armchair,” he was commanded, and Fisher has said that after he had obeyed, he thought, “This is a rum state of affairs. Here’s the King of England sitting in my bedroom on one side of the fire, and I’m in -my shirt sleeves sitting in an armchair on the other’ side.”

The remarkable ruby w’hich Dr. Holub, of Prague, believes contains some unique ray which is unknown, is not the only precious stone in the world to have a peculiar scientific interest. The late Sir William Crookes possessed a diamond which, after being embedded in radium bromide for some months, assumed a new colour, though unchanged in other respects. This colour was persistent, and could not be removed by boiling the stone in acids or any other chemical agents. In 1914 he showed it to the Royal Society, as proof that a diamond might acquire and retain indefinitely the property of radioactivity. The stone was a large brilliant-cut diamond of pure water white which had been kept in a bottle from May, 1904, to September, 1905 —sixteen months—covered with radium bromide. At the end of the time it was green and highly radioactive. It had been carried about in his pocket at various times during the intervening years, and had been tested on a sensitive photographic film at intervals of a year or more. No appreciable difference in its radioactivity could be detected from the time it left the radium bromide, nine years before, and it still remained luminous in the dark, speedily discharged a delicate electroscope when held near to it, and produced scintillations on a zinc sulphide screen just as if it were a radium compound.

A scientist of Prague has discovered a ruby that turns from black to red when heated and causes a rash if left in contact with the skin. Lapidarists have made use of this colour-changing property of certain gems for many centuries. In fact, exposure to heat alters the colours of some stones so readily the phenomenon is used commercially to improve doubtful specimens. Sherry yellow topaz may be turned pink tn this manner. Smoky amethystine quartz turns a nice yellow. Certain stones called zircons lose all their colour when heated to a suitable temperature, and are commonly used to resemble diamonds.

Experts declare that radio-active materials also have the power of changing the colour of gems. lhey contend that yellow corundum was formed naturally from the blue by these means, owing to radioactive substances in the soil. In spite of all these tricks that can be played on precious stones, even to-day little is known as to how the colour gets there in the beginning For instance, glass of a beautiful sapphire blue can be manufactured by the addition of cobalt. Yet in the real sapphire there is not the slightest trace of cobalt. It is thought that gems that change colour on heating probably contain some sort of organic compound, whilst the most common colour pigments in other gems are believed to be copper and iron.

A semi-precious mineral called Alexandrite makes curious colour changes under varying lights. Discovered in the Urals in 1833 this curious mineral appears green by daylight and raspberry red by candle light. It. is significant that these two colours were the military colours of Russia. Naturally such an accommodating mineral * became instantly popular amongst one of the most superstitious nations of the Northern Hemisphere. So far as the rash-producing properties of the recently discovered ruby are concerned this would not have been considered abnormal a few centuries ago. In those days jewellery was worn more for its* occult properties than for any other reason. Toadstone, for example, was worn not for its beauty but tor magic purposes. Blood red jasper was worn to cure bleeding and green jasper for fertility. Whilst purple winecoloured amethyst was a preventive of intoxication, but it is not stated who wore it. A rash-producing ruby would certainly* have been used to cure something.