HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16543, 29 September 1921, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

A LAKE OF PITCH. The most interesting place in Trinh* dad, the largest of the group of W indward Islands, or Lesser Antilles, .?a the famous Pitch Lake, from which comes a large part of the world’s supply of ftsphaltum- It covers ninetynine acres, and contains millions of tons of pitch which never grows less in amount. In the neighbourhood of this pool tho air is heavy, so the earth is as hard as the pavements of a city. But neither the steam and fumes that arise from the pitch roasting in the sun, nor the apshaltum in the soil seems to injure vegetation. Flowers and fruit actually grow in the midst of them, and pineapples come to perfecton. The lake is a floating mass of asphaltura, seamed by narrow channels of clear water, with a few stragI gling islands covered with thin, low I shrubs- At the centre the pitch is at ! boiling heat, and. covered with yellow and white sulphurous foam, upon whicli are floating innumerabl© bubbles filled with gas. The supply for shipment is chopped from the surface, where it has been hardened and dried by the evaporation of moisture. But, like ice ou the ponds of the frozen zones, the quantity cut away during the day is always replaced during the night, for same action of Nature keeps forcing the pitch out of the earth. “ BOBBED HAIR ” GIRLS. The Aetna Insurance Company o? Hartford, Connecticut, employs 6000 girl clerks. Hereafter none of them will wear bobbed hair if they wish to keep their jobs. Mr Frank H. Daniels, president of the Hartford Board of Aldermen and employment director of the Aetna Company, has anaoruced that no more young women with bobbed iiair will be employed, and he intimated that those already on the pay-roll would be gradually eliminated. “ The reason for this order.” said Mr Daniels, ! “is. that we want workers in our offices ! and not circus riders-” Managers of other businesses in Hartford have taken tho same stand, the general opinion being that girls with bobbed hair are frivolous and careless. OXEN FOR* AIR SHIPS. The astonishing fact that over threequarters of a million oxen were necessary—under the old method of construction —to the building of an airship of the R. 38 type, which was recently destro3 T ed while flying over Hull, was disclosed during the hearing of aclaim by the Royal Commisson of Awards in London in July. For th© making of the gasbags no fewer than 825,000 goldbeaters’ skins were required and as only one of the skins can be obtained from each animal, a wholesale slaughter of oxen was necessary. Then came au invention which halved the number of skins required, and in respect of which Messrs Vickers Ltd. made their claim. At the beginning of the war two or more layers of goldbeater*’ skins had to be used on each balloonette. Messrs Vickers’s method, now adopted by the Air Ministry, necessitated only a single layer of fabric, | coated with a rubber solution, and one | layer of goldbeater skin, coated pith a | peculiar linseed oil varnish. Under ill© old method the cost was approximately I £10,670; under the new method j £5812, a savihg of £4858 on each airship. Messrs Vickers claimed on thirteen airships, representing a saving of about £90,000. A CATERPILLAR FARM. In the little old town of Bexley .England), behind an ordinary bouse in a quiet street, is the only M caterpillar farm ” in England- To the stranger’s eyes tho 44 farm” is a garden filled with saplings, among whose branches hang what appear to be miniature airships, but which are really gauze cages containing the caterpillars and butterflies and moths of all species found in Britain “ fattening up ” before assuming the chrysalis form. They belong to the ‘’stock” of Mr L. W. Newman, a Fellow' of the Entomological Society, who makes a business of catching butterflies and moths and " domesticating ” their offspring. 44 We farm butterflies and moths just as one might farm chickens-” Mr W. Webster, who acts as “ bailiff ” on the farm, said to a “ Daily Mail ” reporter. “Mr Newman ‘ hunts 9 th© insects, brings them home, 4 tames ’ them, and breeds them. We have customers all over the country, especially among school authorities and school children. Children have a passion for collecting butterflies and moths.” One orange-tip butterfly in Mr Newman’s dead collection is 102 years old, but its brilliant colouring is un dimmed. * * GERMAN SHIPYARD COMEDY. Over-anxiety to do no extra work caused some little excitement at a shipbuilding yard at Kiel (Germany), where the steamship Wilhelm Hemsoth is being fitted out- A painter was busily painting her name on the bow®, when he heard the whistle go, and immediately laid down his tools to enjoy his evening’s rest. Next morning (reports the Berlin correspondent or the “ Daily Chronicle”), when the painter was working at another part of the j’ard, a group of excited workmen gathered around a ship called Wilhelm 11., and, protesting 'that it w r as intolerable that the ex-Kaiser’s name should ever again be used in such a connection, sent off a deputation to coat?? their feelings to the management. The management protested that they had no such ship in their yard, but there, visible to all eyes, was a ship duly carrying the name of the ex-Kaiser on her bows. Only when the paintei of the previous evening had been recalled to his old job was the explanation forthcoming. When he heard the whistle go on the previous night, he immediately knocked off work, oblivious of the fact that he had just painted the initial “H ” of 44 Hemsoth,” but, not having waited to put the cross-bar between the two uprights of that always trickv letter, had left the ship with Wilhelm 11. on her bows.