HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16837, 13 September 1922, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING. A WONDER GIRL. Wiletta Huggins, of Chicago, although totally blind and deaf. can “see and hear” perfectly through a super-normal sense of smell and touch. To the satisfaction of physicians. Miss Huggins, who has been quite deaf since she was ten. years old. and totally blind since she was fifteen, has demonstrated that she can hear perfectly over the telephone by placing her finger-tips upon the receiver, and listen to conversation with friends by placing her fingers on the speaker's cheeks. She attends lectures and concerts. and hears by holding a thin sheet of paper between her fingers directed broadside towards the volume of sound, and reads newspaper headlines by running her finger-tips over large type. She discerns colours by odours, and before the Medical Society separated several skeins of wool correctly. TALKING FILMS. Tn Chicago a successful experiment has been made with a new method of producing talking films. An actor talked into a wireless telefpltone wthile watching his movements in a film on the screen. The film was a “ masterreel, which controlled the projection of a number of identical films at various other places. All the films were running at the same moment under a new system of electrical timing. At the same time the wireless telephone transmitted the actor’s voice, and sounds, such ae those of revolver shots, bells, and whistles, as they occurred in the picture. Tt is predicted that the time will come when every picture theatre will be fitted with wireless telephones and electrically timed films. FOUR YEARS’ FTGHT FOR LIFE. After a fight for life lasting four years, during which he underwent for-ty-eight operations. Herbert M’Carty, aged 22. died at Catawissa. Pa. A few days before the Armistice his body was riddled by bullets from a machinegun of a German aeroplane, aqd he had been in hospitals almost continuously since he was wounded. Twenty-four of his operations were major ones, and the others were classed by surgeons as minor. Eighteen machine-gun bullets had been taken from his body, and he carried two, grown into his jugular vein, to liis death. In the operations fourteen ribs had been entirely removed, a. portion of one shoulder blade and n collarbone taken out. His case is said by specialists to be one of the most remarkable in American surgery. Until two months ago he had recovered sufficiently to leave the hospital for short periods. M’Carty had been cited for extreme bravery, his citation stating that he was dragging bodies of his comrades back from exposed positions when wounded. He won several foreign decorations and a Distinguished Service Cross. A FATHER’S CURSE. Remarkable instances of inherited deformities came to light before two coroners. At a Nottingham inquest on. a child who died from accidental inattention at birth, a doctor said that the baby, in common with the mother and grandmother, had only one finger on each hand and one too on each foot. Mrs Ann Carter, the grandmother, told an interviewer that shortly before her own birth her father cursed his wife for interfering with a stocking-making machine, and said he hoped her baby would lx? born without fingers. When. Mrs Carter was born with only two fingers and two toes her farther was heartbroken. Three of her IS children had only one finger on each hand and a toe on each foot. At a Shoreditch inquest on an infant it was stated that the child had a- ** club ” foot and a cleft palate, that the father and twe of his sons each had a “club” foot, and there had been four crippled children in the family. The Coroner : Probably a throw-back to some ancestor. CAMER A LESS PHOTOGR APHY. It is frequently the case that one comes across a drawing of which he or •she would like to have a copy, but thev are prevented from making one either bv lack of time or by want of skill ir. draughtsmanship. If there is no printing on the other side of the paper, and the black parts of the illustration contrast strongly with those that are light, you can make a copy in a few moments. Place under the page a sheet of gaslight printing-paper. and hold the drawing near an electric light or an incandescent burner for two or three minutes. Tf you aTe too busy at the time to complete the process, put the printing-paper away in a dark place until you have leisure enough to develop it. hen you do so. vpn will find that it contains an excellent reproduction of the drawing. Records of the shapes of leaves, flowers. wrasses and seaweeds can he made in. a similar way. When they have been pressed, place them in a printingframe over a sheet of either ordinary or gaslight paper. After exposure the prints can be developed or toned and fixed. SHELL-FISH ILLTTMTNANT. An American scientist, after experimenting for many years, has succeeded in producing cold artificial light by chemical means. The substance upon which he worked is “ luciferin.” which is obtained from a tiny Japanese shellfish about the size of a flea. Luciferin ” is very like the material from which glow-worms produce illumination, but before this discovery scientists had never .succeeded in obtaining light from it after it had been separated from the fish. It is now found that “ luciferin ” regained its vitality for a short time if placed in contact with oxygen, and after many experiments a secret substance w’as discovered which causes “luciferin” to giv<s off light for as long as is required This -light-giving substance is dissolved in water;! and in a dark room gives a blue flame strong enough to enable * person to read at 4ft. FEATHERS FOR MILLINERY. It has been the practice for many vears for living birds to be plucked in order to provide feathers for women s hats, and so on. hut this traffic has nowbeen stopped bv the Plumage Prohibition Bill, a measure which makes it illegal for feathere to be imported into this country. The only exceptions are the plumage of the African ostrich and that of the eider duck : in both of these cases the feathers can he obtained without cruelty while the birds are moulting. People can still u * e feathers that were imported before the Bill was paseed, and visitors to Britain will be allowed to retain plumage that forms part of their dress. Clo6c watcli will be kept, however, to see that this privilege is not abused. Ospreys bird of Paradise plumes, and so on are now almost unobtainable, except at enormous prices.