RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 226, 22 June 1939, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights On Current Events (By Kickshaws). Bare legs for women, it is statea, have some supporters. We would add that stockings always have. » * « We note that a device has been in- . vented by which salt can be shaken from a salt-shaker. All this is now required is an attachment for lighting cigarette-lighters. * * It is declared that New Zealand may be confronted with the problem of the extermination of the farmer. We expect farmers will always be wanted in political circles as an issue. “Being a constant reader of your column, and looking to you as the fountain of all knowledge, could you please settle the following argument?” says “M.M.” “Is Lord Nuffield a married or single man?” [Married in 1964 Elizabeth Maud, daughter of William Jones Anstey, Oxford. No children.] Commendable as is the writing of the Lord’s Prayer on a stamp, those who have done so have far to go before they can claim to have written anything of a record-breaking nature in smallness. Indeed, the writing of the Lord’s Prayer on a stamp seems but a step toward, small writings. There was sold in London, in 1935, a microscope slide on which was inscribed the whole of the Lord’fj Player in a space of a fourthousandth part of an inch. The Creed was also inscribed on the same slide in a space proportionately small. lumped, it is a fact that, included in the treasures of the Queen’s dolls’ house is the Lord’s Prayer, written six times in a space that can be covered by a threepenny piece. This curiosity of penmanship is the work of a chemist in Birmingham. One scientist went so far as to invent a machine for writing on microscope slides. The instance mentioned already was one of his efforts. With the aid of this machine the whole contents of the Bible could be written 59 times in the space of one square : inch. The inventor, Mr. William Webb, destroyed his machine before he died. In efforts to write the Lord’s Prayer in the smallest possible space all manner of mediums have been u£ed. Stanley Boardman, of Keighley, Yorkshire, England, for instance, managed to write the whole of this prayer on a pea. Moreover, there is an engraver who lives in Whitechapel, London, who specializes in engraving the Lord’s Prayer on farthings. A potentate from India commissioned him to engrave a complete chapter from the Koran on a rupee. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, one penman copied out the Bible and placed the manuscript inside a walnut. A converted Chinese is said to have carved on a grain of rice a bust of the Pope. The curiosity was presented to the late Pope. Another effort on a grain of rice involved the successful inscription of the words, “May God bless a long, happy, and prosperous life.” On another occasion the complete alphabet was written on a grain of rice. Those who contemplate beating writing records must, therefore, settle down to a long apprenticeship. When the job is done much of its merit is lost, owing to the fact that a magnifying glass is required to observe the feat. * Some little time ago there was considerable competition to write the greatest number of words on a stan-dard-size postcard as sold oyer the counter of post offices. Mr. Rispin, of Derbyshire, England, was one of the first to enter the lists with a speech by Lloyd George, which totalled 3466 words. It took him 8) hours to do the job. A student of Alcala, Spain, managed to get three chapters of Dou Quixote on his postcard, raising the record to 4760 words. A young Jew, with no little dexterity, went one further by writing 11,367 words in Hebrew on a postcard. Auguste Meunier, of Brus'seis, however, set a standard by coping on a postcard a complete “Life of Napoleon.” This totalled just over 17,000 words. It was then discovered that a draughtsman by the name of Farrell, of Brooklyn, U.S.A., had written 20 years previously 21,000 separate words on a postcard measuring five inches by three and a half. A dentist in Northampton thereupon succeeded in writing 60,040 words on a postcard consisting of a five-word sentence repeated 12,008 times. This record still stands. Are there any competitors?

Minute marvels have not been related to the writing of the Lord’s Prayer on small things, or even to the writing of an incredible number of words ou a postcard. In the Bodleian Library, Oxford, one may see the smallest book in the world. This is a translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in a book measuring Jin. high by three-sixteenths of an inch wide. It contains 34 pages. The text on each page is three thirty-seconds-of-an-inch high and five thirtyseconds wide. The whole thing weighs a grain and a half. The setting of the type was so delicate a job, it had to be done during that part of the night when traffic was at its lowest. These small marvels must not be confused with modern photographic methods in use today in some libraries. Professor J. PTikhonov has developed a method of reducing books to minute proportions by photographic methods. A whole newspaper page is photographed into a space of one-third bf a square inch. The photo is transferred to a platinum film placed between two glass plates. When needed for reference, a projector throws an enlarged image on a screen. By this method, all the collected works of Shakespeare can be stored inside an ordinary matchbox.

“I wonder if you could settle a small football argument,” says “Football.” “A friend of mine states that Rugby representative teams from Taranaki and Wellington have never met on a King's Birthday, and I maintain that they played at Hawera on June 23, 1936, that day being King Edward’s birthday.”

[The sports editor advises that: —“Wellington played Taranaki on the King’s Birthday, June 23, 1936, at Hawera, when Wellington won sensationally by 18 points to 16. Taranaki led at half-time by 9 points to 3, and were leading by 16 points to 14 with a minute to go. Pollock and Tindill then combined in the most sensational move of the match. Pollock put the ball into a scrum instead of Tindill, who stood well back. Lambourn heeled the ball, which came out cleanly to Pollock, who flashed a pass to Tindill, who brought a tremendous cry of enthusiasm from the crowd as he potted a perfect goal. The game ended immediately with Wellington victorious by 18 points to 16.”] » * *

All, tell me not that memory Sheds gladness o’er the past; What is recalled by faded flowers, Save that they did not last? Were it not better to forget, Than but remember and regret? ——Landon«