HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17009, 6 April 1923, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

AtVKVW. ROR E.VERYTHING. NEVER TOO ODD.” Barrjr vrh* has become an Oxford undergraduate at the age ef sixty odd, «ridentiy believe* that one /§ never too old to learn. Such is also the opinion ef the famous Cambridge don, Mr Oscar Browning, who started, learning Polish twe years ago, when he wu eighty-four, and is now proficient ia that language. Even this remarkable feat was surpassed by the subject -ef an obituary notice published by the “ Manchester Herald ” ef June 10, 1817 ; “On Monday, the 2nd inst., at the advanced, age of 108, Catherine Prescott, at George Leigh Street, in this town. She retained her faculties in a wonderful degree, having learned to read her Bible since she was a hundred years of age, partly in the Lancastrian School and partly in the St Clement’s Sunday, School.” ROYAL HIGHNESS. * The decision that Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon shall become “ Royal Highness ’ after her marriage does not conflict with the King’s desire to limit the number of “ Hignesses ” in any generation. When the matter was last gone into, it was decided that the children of the King s younger sons should be entitled to that distinction, and t.% would be absurd obviously that- they should have a title to which their mother was not entitled. But the grandsons of the King’s younger sons and the sons of a King’s daughter are not so entitled, and in that way it is mad& possible to keep the number of Royal Highnesses in any generation withlfi bounds.

SECOND WIND. Frequently one asks the question* if how does an athlete get * second wind,’ and what happens to cauee It?. Our bodies work something lik«* an gine. ~\\e take in fuel by breathing in air, which we convert into oxygen and carbon dioxide. The oxygen, we uae tii* in working the engine—that », our various muscles—while the waste carbon we breathe out again. When w« suddenly quicken up the engine pact* our muscles call for more oxygen, whii* at the same time we have extra cfifboK waste to breathe out again. This prw~ cess throws a strain o-n our lungs, anj we breathe with difficulty, at the saat time the heart has to pump mors quickly to circulate the blood and M split up our fuel into oxygen and carbofe dioxide. At the same time we have alw quickened up the diaphragm, which if the bellows of our breathing apparatus. In a minute or two we are winded $ neither our lungs nor heart can keep the pace. So they go on strike, leaving the bellows distended with nothing work on. Then we get the “ stitch and have to slow down. In another minute we start again, with heart and lungs now prepared for the strain and ready to keep the diaphragm properlygoing. Our engine is tuned up; we have our “second wind.”

STAY-AT-HOME PREMIER. Mr Bonar Law looks like qualifying as Britain’s most stay-at-home Prime Minister. Apart from his visit to Paris, the recess has seen him away from No. 10. Downing Street on -very few occasions. His friends, indeed, wonder how he manages to maintain health on his absolute minimum of exercise and change, .for his. sole recreation. appears to be N a tennis-and-’unch trip So Roehampton on Sunday morning. when the courts are quirt. Apparently he finds small and rather informal dinner parties in Downing Street a useful means of keeping in touch with the movement of affairs. THOSE EVERGREENS. Aboriculturalists say that the leave# of a tree have two duties. They act a# the breathing arrangement! breathing in. the air the tree wants and breathing out its excess moisture and other wastes. At the same time they are a kind of laboratory for the tree, working hard under the influence of light to transform the products drawn up from the roots into suitable matter for growth. Without sufficient light the leaves cannot go on with the second duty, and if they can't do this it isn’t worth the tree's while to keep them. So in autumn* they fall. But in very hot or cold countries, where there is no great distinction between summer and winter, the leaves go on working all through the seasons, and so are always green. It follows, therefore, that the evergreens we see in England axe “ foreigners.”

ALL ABOUT MATCHES. The reason that a match strikes wheS we strike it is that the reaction of certain chemicals on each other will produce a flame. This is the principle that causes the miniature explosion we get when we “ strike a match.” The head of a “ non-safety ” match is made up of two chemicals —potassium chlorate or potassium nitrate, which gives off a good- deal of oxygen, and phosphorus. The head is coated with varnish, to prevent the air getting at the chemicals. When we strike the match, we pierce the varnish, the friction causes heat, the heat causes the “ chemical reaction ” referred to, and the head bursts into a tiny flame. In a “safety ’* match the phosphorus (specially prepared so as not to be dangerous' is on : the side of the box, and the chemical reaction which produces the spark can therefore only take place when we strike on the box. WOOD GRAINS. “ Grain ” is our expression for the arrangement of the cells of wood. A tree grows, of course, outwards as well as upwards, and its wood is not just a solid mass, but a collection of millions of living “ cells.” Each 3-ear new cells are formed around the tree, between the old cells (the wood) and the bark. These cells (reall>- a soft tissue) do the work Nature has appointed them to do, and at the end of the 3-ear, “ set ” as it were, hardening into a cylinder. At the same time, another tissiie of cells is being thrown outwards for the next vear’s work. The grown tree, therefore, consists of a series of cylinders. Cut a tree across, and 3 T ou will see the rings, each outside the other, one for every 3-ear of the life- of the tree. If a tree is sawn straight through, the ring* appear as irregular circles. But * slanting cut will show them as ovals. USE OF CELLULOSE. Prodigious quantities of cellulose m the form of vegetation and crop refuse are wasted annually, said Mr Charles F. Cross, lecturing at the Royal Institution on “ Fact and Phantasy in Industrial Science.” Its use. he continued, should enable the bacterial process to find a very important place in the industry of the near future. Cheap alcohol had an almost unlimited market as a liquid fuel, as also had acetone, derived from the acetic acid. Again, cheap acetic acid meant cheap artificial silk. “Lactic acid has a great, future, in dyeing and tanning industries, while as inter-eommodities these products have great potentialities. Cellulose now wasted should in the near future be put to use to he’n in the solution of liquid fuel shortage. In time nf war each country will hove a source of vital munitions within its own boundaries. should jt wish to exploit it.”