RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 169, 13 April 1932, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events LOCAL AND GENERAL

(By

Kickshaws.)

Tf wool has fallen again, let us at least console ourselves with the fact that it is utterly impossible for it t® fall very much further.

While searching for ’ two missing bodies, 4t is reported that "a hand protruding from a grave gave Sydney detectives a clue.” But then, you see, they were trained men.

While discussing the Unemployment Board, a member of the Christchurch Unemployment Committee complained that “the old Board was, good enough to say we were useful, but we have never had that from, the-new Board.” Unfortunately plane speaking does not always make smoother Boards.

When Mr. De Valera declares that Ireland’s right to independence is older than the British nation he embarks upon a river of time only controversial because nobody can definitely lay a finger upon solid fact. If Mr. De Valera insisted upon using rhe word England it would be true that Ireland is a far older country, for England was so named comparatively recently by King Egbert, only 1100 years ago. But Britain was Britain long before that. As long before that, indeed, as Ireland has been Erin. Indeed, under the Celtic name Prydain, from which , the almost slang word Britain was corrupted, we ultimatelv find our home-country inhabitated by Neolithic man some 12,000 years ago. Incidentally, some 400 years befote Christ, England, Scotland and Wales were even then collectively lumped together under the name of Albion. Ifwe were to agree that Ireland has onlybeen Ireland since the Celtic kingdoms were called the “five-fifths of Ireland,” we only get back in history to somewhere about a century before Christ. Again, as in the case of Britain, w® then go back along the avenues of time by easy, but indefinite, steps, to Neolithic times. The only presumption that can be ipade in the whole controversy is that the. people who first inhabited Ireland came by way of England. •

Scientists are doubtless smiling at the fact that a Franciscan Friar claims to have discovered the secret of perpetual motion in an everlasting selfcharging accumulator. When that unknown genius first stated that one could not eat one's cake and have it he was but speaking the plain truth about perpetual motion schemes. It is impossible to do work and hare it. Indeed, it is- impossible not to lose something in the process of doing work. For friction inevitably wastes a part of the power used. If it were possible to eliminate friction and other losses, we could make machinery one hundred per cent, efficient. But before any mechanism could start out to deliver perpetual motion it would hare to ba 101 per cent, efficient. It would have to giro’ something more than was delivered to it. When that occurred we should hare perpetual motion. In the meantime all manner of ideas hare been inrented that hare been called, perpetual motion. All manner of gravitational machines hare been designed that were supposed to work for ever. Tbeir one weakness was that they usually never worked at all. All manner of self-wipding machines hare been designed that do everything asked of them except supply the power to wind themselves up again.

When one starts to examine the subject of perpetual motion it is obvious that the idea is usually muddle I with “something-for-nothing machines.” A tidal engine would be a “something-for-nothing machine.” A solar engine would be the -same. If we were to put a belt around this spinning world of ours and harness it to a dynamo on some distant star we should -have a rather costly “something-for-nothing m.ichine.* On this "basis even Arapunl is a “some-thing-for-nothing machine,” despite tha fact that It has cost over £2,000,000. Indeed, there are in existence numerous "something-for-nothing machines. 1 * Electric.ty has already been generated from the tides. Volcanoes have been used in America and Italy to generate steam in boilers to drive engines. Solar radiation has been used in California and Egypt for the same purpose. But. none of these schemes solve the problem of perpetual motion. Eor, after all, every fraction of power used in this world comes from the sun. Some supplies are more indirect than others — that is all. The-nearest that we have ever got to perpetual motion is in the laboratory. Electrical conductors at very low temperatures lose or nearly lose all their resistance. A current once started in them under these conditions continued to flow for hours, if not for days. But it does no work. The moment it is asked to do so th#/ current ceases to flow.

Opponents to the latest scheme to build a canal to permit ocean liners to cross France from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean contend that it would not save as much as the promoters imagine. Admittedly one can do almost anything with figures, but this contention does appear to be reasonable. This new project is calculated to cost £106,000,000. As engineers seem quite incapable of quoting accurate prices in large undertakings, probably the cost might easily be half as much again in practice. However,, at the estimated price the interest on capital alone would be £4.000,000, even at 4 per cent. The estimated receipts of £2,000,000 seem inadequate to cover this interest. This leaves the company with an annual deficit of £2,000.000, not taking into consideration wear and tear, maintenance and operation costs.

Some little concern is felt in the Vale of Llangollen because, ever since the death of the last Beauty Queen, at tho age of 86 years, the girls of the district have been too modest to claim the title. A short survey of what has happened to many of the world's much-advertised beauty queens makes one wonder if modesty or fear is at the bottom of this reticence. Bobby Storey, for example, was happy as a London barmaid until she won a beauty contest. She was offered a place in Chariot’s Revue. “As long as I'm a barmaid I’ll bo happy” she said, “but if I go on the stage it will kill me.” She was right. After Chariot’s Revue, she joined the Follies. After the Follies she became one of the beauties in “Vanities,” the rival show. There was no after the “Vanities.” for Bobby the barmaid was found dead in her apartment with the room filled with gas. Another beauty queen. Peggy Davis, drove her ear over a precipice after leaving behind a letter that tnado It only too obvious to the coroner that the deed was not accidental. Perhaps the maids Llangollen read England’s Sunday newspapers.