HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16681, 13 March 1922, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

MONEY IN SEAWEED. | Certain varieties of seaweed feteK ■ | high prices, and mmiv unemployed, afc I seaside resorts have made welcome sales of such seaweed which thev have j collected along the coast. In Holland j they have a seaweed harvest, anil j there the seaweed is mown w'itlt j scythes, when the tops almost reach j the surface of the water. The har. | t esters are clothed in watertight gar- . ments which reach to tile shoulders. M hen the weed has been cut it iff ! spread out in order that it may be ; withered by the sun. When it be- | comes black it is soaked in water. The fresher the water, the blacker the | seaweed turns, and the blacker tho weed the higher becomes its value. | After being soaked for n few davs the 1 Product is spread ont in the fields to dry. and when thorough! v crisp it ia made up into hales weighing about one hundred pounds each. It is then ready for the market. The seaweed produces a gelatine of a T erv high quality. THE GYRO-COMPASS. ‘ It is generally known that the or. c.inary magnetic compass has one great fault; its needle does not point to the Aorth Pole, hut is always some distance to one side or the other of the true north line. This deviation varies from year to year, and is seldom the same in any two parts of the world. In view of this most great- ships cai ry the gyro-compass, which consists lor the most part of a heaw wheel turned at very high speed bv an electric motor. The axle of the wheel is so mounted that it can turn in anv direction. . If its axle can swing on its mounting, a heavy wheel rotating at high speed will point alwavs in the same direction. The gyro-compass isset whilst the ship is in harbour, and no matter how much the ship rolls, or what turns she makes, its wheel remains faithful to its original direction. Owing its jointed mounting it does not follow the movements of the ship. THE EARTH'S RIGIDITY. Science continues to explode old theories daily, sometimes substituting new ones and. again, figuratively throwing up its hands and leaving the human race without cr peg upon which to hang its opinions and beliefs. Tile latest upsetting intelligence is that tho supposed rigid earth is Teally in a constant state of agitation, the comparatively thin crust being traversed bilong waves—really imperceptible earthquakes—which follow each other at four minute intervals. These “ microseisms,” as they are called, says Popular Mechanics,” flow from north to south at a speed of about two miles per second, and have wave lengths of from eight no sixteen miles. The distance between the hollows and crests of the waves varies from .00002 to .00005 inches. This means that the whole of the earth's surface is constantly rising and felling to this extent. These measurements were made by instruments of such sensitivity that they detect earth movements between points only 60ft apart. When stationed two miles apart they showed that .8 seconds was required for the impulses to trave’ from the northern to the southern station. The origin and cause of the waves are unknown. *.* AN ISLAND HERMIT. The story of a modem Robinson t rnsoe, who for thirty years has lived ou a lonely island in the Arafura Sea. between Australia and New Guinea, war told to the “Daily Mail ” by Mr W. Somerset Maugham, the plavwright, -who has just returned from a fifteen months’ tour in the East. “I had chartered a logger for a cruise in the Araftrra Sea.” lie said, “ and T was asked to drop a; bag of rice on the island for this old hermit. T learned on the way from those who had already seen him that he was shipwrecked thirty years ago. and with fifteen other men reached the island in open boats. They lived on the island for three years before they were sighted by a passing ship. Of the sixteen, only five were then alive, and only four wero taken away—for the fifth, the old man living there now. refused to leave. He told the rescuers that during the three years he had. spent with the other men on the island he had seen such horrible things that he wished never to live among his kind again. During the thirty years he has been on the island,”" added Mr Maugham, “ the old man has lived on chickens—which, it seems, he introduced to the island from the ship in which he was wrecked- their eggs, fish, and the fruit of coooanut trees. During the war he was left alone for five years, for no ships parsed his way, and he was reduced to living entirely on what the island could produce.” V A WONDERFUL MEMORY. A man who has developed his memory until he has an amazing store of information on a wide variety of subjects has been discovered at Birchencliffe, Hudersfield (England). He 3 John Holroyd. a builder's labourer, who is self-taught-, and has. says a correspondent, a system of remembering things by association of ideas. Holroyd has 31,000 facts stored away in bis brain- He can give you the names cf all “ Soccer ” and Northern Union football cap wearers, and the winners of all classic races since 1860. Another of his specialities is cricket scores and results, goine far back. He can tell you the birthdays of national and local celebrities. Once he hears a date he never forgets it, and he has more than once set |>arents right as to tho birthdays of their children. His knowledge of th© calendar is astounding. He can tell you when any Easter or Whitsun fell in anv year since the year 1 A.D. Recently Holrovd was asked to state how many seconds liad elapsed since the war began, and. after thinking a bit, gave the total as 212,875.500 up to the time of asking. He added : “ That makes all allowances for leap years-” Holroyd has had offers to go on the American music-hall stage, but has declined them. He prefers to entertain himself.