FLIES STOP A CLOCK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13307, 13 October 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

FLIES STOP A CLOCK.

AN EXTRAORDINARY INCIDENT. The extraordinary behaviour of the railway station clock at Wolferton. which lias bscn puzzling the officials for several days, was discovered to be due to a. still more extraoidmary cause. Wolferton is the station for Sandringham,. and is somewhat more pretentious than other places of its size. The station is equipped with a magnificent electric clock, with four faces, and until its fall from grace a few days , ago it had a high reputation for veracity among the villagers. Even when it went wrong the people would have accepted its evidence against that of all the., other clocks iu the place, if it had only agreed with itself in its mendacity but when one, face declared that it was 4.30, and another brazenly insisted that it was 4.35, while the. other two agreed on 4.25. it was evident that even tho Wolferton clock's reputation could not overcome > such a. discrepancy. In addition to this, there was the slight circumstance that every other clock in town with any pretension to accuracy said that the time was 4.45. . The cause of all the trouble was discovered and the clock's reputation was vindicated. An electrician was sent for, and when he climbed up to the top of the tower he found that the interior of the clock was choked with thousands of flies, dead aud alive. • Every sort of fly, from the humble-house variety to the portly bluebottle, was represented, and fresh regiments and battalions were arriving momentarily, while a cloud of hungry wasps, which have been a plague in the district for weeks past, was feasting on the flies. ' ■«' The explanation of it all was that, the flies had discovered that the interior of the west faco of the clock was an excellent place for a. sun bath. The convex glass concentrated the sun's rays, and raised the temperature inside the clock face to 108 degrees. The flies revelled in this warmth, and their presence was soon discovered by the' wasps, which attacked them fiercely. ' -"The bodies' of the slain were removed and the living evicted, and now the clock is rehabilitated in the eyes of - the people of Wolferton.