RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 111, 4 February 1935, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current A Events (By Kickshaws.) It is reported that drought conditions, a poor honey crop, and bare markets, will make for higher prices. Another sting. * * * Fashion hints, says one writer, tell you what is going on. This refutes the suggestion that fashion hints tell you what is going off. ♦ • » Au investigator declares that among human beings females are gradually getting control. Given time a scientist can be trusted to discover everything we take for granted. » » ♦ Television, from being an electrical engineer’s dream, is now well on the way to becoming a familiar everyday affair. The engineering dreams of one century are usually the practice of the next. There is not the slightest doubt that the time must come jvhen vast stores of unlimited power will be at the disposal of man. If some method could be found to unlock the enormous supplies of power that have come from the sun and have been stored in various ways in the world man would be able to do most remarkable things. Controlling climate would be one of them. It requires about a million million million horsepower to stop a 20 mile an hour wind on a 500 mile front. When that amount of power can be produced for the asking possibly Wellington will be able to chase those southerlies off the map and give those northerlies a smack in the eye when they become too boisterous. Given sufficient power, more over, it would be possible to melt all the ice at the poles and Byrd could discover once and for all about those continents. Ice melting, however, would require careful regulation. If all the ice were melted the oceans would rise 50 or 60 feet. Wellington would be under the sea, not to mention Petone, the Hutt, London, and New York.

Another engineering dream is to harness the oceans to deliver power. Numerous schemes have been devised. If it were possible to obtain power from the tides more than enough could be provided for every country with a sea frontage. The tidal power, for example, on the Severn Estuary has been estimated to be at feist 300.060 torse power. This represents taking tidal power from only two or three miles of water. If one multiplies that out for a thousand-mile coastline the total is far greater than any nation could ever want. The only snag is the cost. Another method of obtaining power from the oceans depends upon the difference in temperature of the surface water and that deep down. By spending a million pounds or so, and installing a 12-foot steel tube a mile long, it would be possible to obtain horsepower year in A ear out. The system has already been tested on a ssmtl scale, and. it is stated, works f weIUL Another engineering dream is to- recover the power in the waves of the sea. There is an unlimited supply. : Eltca feoit ienarh of a 15-foot wave carries to it something like 5 horsepower. Ohwionsly the power going to waste along a piece of coast only 100 ] miles long is enormous;

Tb.er'e is really nothing remarkable i in the fser, just reported, that a yacht 'is setting out to circumnavigate the . world. We have become so accttsi toraed to large liners crossing the oceans of the world that tve forget that : there was a time when there were no i liners, Columbus discovered America iu a cockleshell craft little larger than the Cobar. that plies her 100 tons between Wellington and Eastbourne. Drake was content with a craft little more spectacular. Long before Colum bus discovered America it had been visited by Norwegian navigators in craft comparable in size with the pleasure yachts in the boat harbour at Oriental Bay The early Polynesians, moreover, made extensive cruises in the Pacific in hollowed-out logs of wood. It will be seen, therefore, that large craft are not essential for ocean travel. The Pacific, in fact, was peopled, thanks to the skilled navigation of tree trunks. Sailing experts are perfectly aware of the fact that it is possible to sail round the world in comparative safety in small craft. In fac*, one expert lays down the minimum safe size at only 10 tons.

The building of the crazy craft that was to transport the castaways of Disappointment Isiany to the main island, some five or six miles away, was, in itself, an epic of ingenuity. There was not a straight piece of scrub on the whole island, much less a tree. The entire boat bad to be made with natur al bent timber, whittled laboriously with the only knife saved. The hull, perforce, had to be made out of the very clothing that the castaways were wearing. With only one match left, it was necessary to transport the fire complete when the trip across was made. Unfortunately, heavy seas put the fire out. The nerve-racking effort to put the only remaining match to good use occupied no less than three days, counting the careful drying that had to be done to it. Lots were cast for the important duty of striking it. When this was attempted the head flew off. and the last match was spent. All told, two trips were made in the home-made boat. In fact, two boats were constructed iu the end. owing to damage putting the first one out of commission. Eventually the whole of the except the first officer, who died a few days after landing, succeeded iu reaching the food depot on the main island.

Even Esthonia is increasing her naval strength. The main part of her navy, the Wambola. formerly rejoiced in the name of Spartak and formed a part of the Russian navy. Esthonia, however, took the- Spartak from the Bolsheviks in fair fight. Having acquired a navy in this dramatic manner Esthonia to add to’it in an equally dramatic manner. The Lembit, another important unit in tlie Esthonian navy, also came from Russia via Germany. When the Germans evacuated Esthonia in 1918 they tried to take the Lembit with them They were unable to do so and Esthonia added her to the naval list. The Estlionian mosquito craft, a torpedo boat, was dredged up from Reval harbour where she had modestly remained sunk for seven years. In 1924 the Estbonians raised her and added her to their navy. In this strange manner did Esthonia become n naval power Most assuredly site must lie represented at tlie sug ■rested Conference of minor navies for she lias shown an acumen in the collecting of a navy not equalled by any other country.