GENERAL NEWS

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 February 1920, Page 7

GENERAL NEWS

REVERSING REDDER.

A BRITISH INVENTION

The development of small fast motor craft has forced the attention of inventors to two points—the improvement of steering and of the process of going astern. The ordinary tiller is not altogether satisfactory as to the first point, and the usual clutch system is most unsatisfactory as to the second. By the reversing rudder recently introduced by a British company both actions are accomplished by the one simple mechanism. If one imagines the ordinary helm split in two longitudinally and each half curved so as tg give room for the propeller to revolve inside it, one gets a fair general idea of the arrangement. When the two curved blades lie square, one oil each side of the propeller, they keep the boat straight ahead. When hotluare moved in the same direction they steer the boat givin ga more rapid and efficient control than the ordinary helmAgain, if both halves are moved back so as to form a kind of cup behind the propeller, they reverse the forward push of the propeller and thus translate it into a strong propulsion astern. The engine, of course, is allowed to run all the time in the same direction, so that no reversing clutch, is necessary. So powerful is the ‘reversing action that if it he applied suddenly when the boat is going at full speed ,those on hoard find it advisable to hold tight. POESY AND PROPELLERS. WHIMS OIMTANNENZIO. That Gabriele d’Annuuzio, poet of loves in the days of peace, should become the intrepid airman in days of war was one of the dramatic surprises of the Italian campaign (writes a correspondent of the “Daily Chronicle”). That he should now he setting up an embarrassing little side-ffi.ow of bis own at Finnic, now that the main conflict is over, is more in accord with what might have been expected of his erratic genius. At the age of 15 he published a volume of verse which., both shocked and delighted his contemporaries. A second and more astounding volume followed when he was 19, and before he was 30 his output of poems, plays, and novels had made for him a worldwide reputation. * Stories of ins extravagance and eccentricities got into all the papers—inspired, it was generally believed, by his own craving- for notoriety. Thus lie boasted that be had the largest wardrobe of any literary man in Europe. It was said of him that lie "once set out on a journey to Cyprus merely to pluck a certain rose, and when offered 200,000 francs (£8000) to go to America he refused disdainfully on the grounds that this would not pay for his cigarettes.

POET ON THE HUSTINGS

Seized once with the notion of entering Parliament, he introduced himself to a peasant constituency as the “candidate for beauty,” and made long speeches on beauty and aesthetics to the amazed electorate. In spite of himself and his electioneering methods, he was elected as adeputy. He was a tyrannical master when producing a play. When rehearsing “The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian” in Paris, he explained that the actress who was to take the part of the*saint had, bv Ins orders, followed a strict diet for months, till her figure suited liis idea of the part.- Another actress was ordered by him to knock out one of her front teeth. When she protested he insisted that the character must have a front tooth missing, and that in Italy an actress had offered to have her eyes put out if necessary for the honour of appearing in one of his plays. He professes a love for England and English ways, and is fond of making his characters use English dogs. From his kennels of 24 greyhounds he once brought over a candidate for the Waterloo Cn p. His love affairs have served to keep him in the of the world, and his work is rather erotic for English tastes. But when Italy entered the war —an entry he had long advocated in impassioned speeches—the decadent poet became a daring airman, and his exploits made him the darling of the army.