NEWS OF THE WORLD

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXV, Issue 3371, 29 September 1931, Page 6

NEWS OF THE WORLD

NATION GETS NELSON RELICS. CABIN FURNITURE GOES TO THE VICTORY. Nelson’s cabin furniture from the Victory was bought at Christie’s recently for 950 guineas by Mr. J. H. Jacobs, who intends to restore it to its place in the famous old ship. The furniture consists of the 12ft mahogany table, sideboard, and cellarette, which was put ashore after the battle of Trafalgar and sold at Oporto, Portugal. Since then they have passed through the hands of six private owners.

Mr. Jacobs, who lives at Portman Place, London W., and is chairman of Messrs. John I. Jacobs and Co., Shipowners, of London, said that he had bought the relics for the nation to mark the jubilee of his firm. "I thought it would be very desirable to get them back in the great admiral's old ship." he said. "Hitherto, however, the price asked has been exorbitant. I understand that an American offered £IO,OOO for the furniture five years ago."

YOUNG BOY ELECTROCUTED. FOUND DEAD IN ARMCHAIR. “Accidental electrocution” was the verdict at the inquest held recently on Andrew Edward Strombeck (12), who was found dead in his home at Johannesburg, South Africa, with his hand on an electric reading lamp and his feet on a stove. W. Inglethorpe, an electrician, said that the current passing through the lamp was short-circuiting to the flex which was exposed in the standard. The stove was “earthed,” and anybody touching the stove and the lamp simultaneously would receive a shock of anything up to 200 volts. ATTEMPT TO HUMANISE APE. WILL BE BROUGHT UP LIKE CHILD. A baby ape is to be brought up like a child of a well-to-do family under the direct supervision of Professor Kellogg, experimental physchologist of the University of Indiana. He will have a nurse and a governess. He will be wheeled round in a fashionable perambulator.-On growing older he will play with at least one human child of his own age. Correct and snappy American speech will be taught him. Dr. Kellogg has strong hopes that he will succeed. Unless the apes lack the motor apparatus of speech, they should be able to talk like human beings, he thinks. Thus the mistake would be avoided of establishment an animal environment and suggestion around the growing ape as is done in most of the animal laboratories and zoos.

SHOWERS OF METEORITES. CONTINUOUS PELTING OF EARTH'S SURFACE. At every hour of the day and night the surface of the earth is being pelted with brickbats from the realms of space. Some of them are quite tiny. We see them as shooting stars which are burnt up by the friction of passage through the air and reach the ground merely as pinches of dust. Others are enormous. One which recently reached the Natural History Museum weighs 3001 b., and is only a fragment of a meteorite weighing many tons which fell in Africa. Big meteorites are comparatively rare in Great Britain, though in the Museum there are twelve of considerable size which have fallen in the British Isles in the last century. One which fell at Cranbourne weighs over 3% tons, and one fell in Hungary in 1806 which made a hole lift deep. Usually only a single meteorite falls at one time and the same place. There have, however, been showers of huge stones, and on one occasion in Central Europe over 100,000 fell with tremendous force, though no one was killed or injured. BEQUEST HELD TO BE VOID. “UNTO MY COUNTRY, ENGLAND.” A bequest “unto my country, England,” was held in the Chancery Division to be void. The bequest was contained in the will of Mr. Theodore Lynford Smith, of Newton Abbot, Devon, England, who left nearly £6OOO. It was contended, for the next-of-kin, that the bequest was void and must be divided among them. GIRL CYCLIST SOMERSAULTS. LANDS SAFELY IN SIDECAR. A girl cyclist in St. Andrew’s Norwich, England, unwittingly performed a feat that would have been vociferously applauded on the music-hall stage. She came into collision with a tradesman’s sidecar combination while descending a hill, and the force of the impact caused her to turn a

somesault which landed her safely in the sidecar. Her bicycle was undamaged. UNWASHED FOR FIFTY YEARS. DEATH OF AGED HERMIT. A well-known Norfolk hermit, Edwin Ernest Colman, aged 78, was found dead at Gissing, near Diss (England), recently, with a bruise on the head. He was turned out of two homes and an - effort was made to evict him from a shed in which he took refuge. As the result of a public petition, however, he was allowed to remain. A whist drive was held, and with the proceeds and donations Colman’s shed was remodelled, and he

had since lived peacefully there, looking after his poultry. It is reported that he had not undressed for years and had not washed for 50 years. EXPRESS SAVES CHILD'S LIFE. KNOCKED OFF LIVE RAIL. An express electric train, travelling at 60 miles an hour, saved a child from instant death recently by knocking it from the live rail. The child was three-year-old Edward Hercaw’, of Norway Street, Waterloo, Liverpool, England. He had wandered from home on to the line between St. John’s Road and Brooks Road. The driver saw the child and applied his emergency brake, knocking

him clear. He was picked up with burns about the neck, hands and knee and rushed to hospital.