HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17245, 11 January 1924, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHINGFOOT TESTS FOR FIANCEES. A scientist who recently examinee, the feet of five hundred girl students at the Kansas University must at the present moment be one of the most unpopular men in America. He reports that he found only two perfect pairs, and one of these belonged to a Chinese maiden. Among 250 girls at the New Hampshire University he failed to -discover a single Al pair of feet. The scientist is reported as sayj ing that the photograph a young j man should value of his best girl is not one of her face but of her feet. - A girl with “ fallen arches ” he scorn*, j He says she will make a poor wife and a ‘ no-good sort of mother.” because her mind is only ankle-deep. She I loves dancing so long as it is a. dance : of the jazz order, but when it comes I to the duties of life she is found want- ; ing. The girl who wishes to pass for a sensible and staid example of her sex: must wear low-heeled. square-toed ! boots, and abandon the 'high and dizzy heel which culminates in Evereatj pointed toee ! WATCH THAT WINDS ITSELF. A watch that will stand the hardest day's golf, and which winds itself, has i been invented by a Wallasey engineer, j The constant movement of the weari er's hand winds the watch automatic- • ally by means of an oscillating slide in the movement. The setting of the hands is done bv moving the face , cover, which works on a Email ratchet. r All protruding or epen parts have I been eliminated, and the inventor | claims that it is both waterproof and i dust-proof. Otherwise this new self- ; winding watch is much like other 1 watches in size and thickness. IS PERPETUAL MOTION POSSIBLE?

Recent demonstrations have proved that perpetual motion is not only possible, but rhat it is likely to become a prominent factor of life. This achievement is only possible by means of the narnessing of radium rays. The rays that are constantly given off from radium are no powerful and so inexhaustive in their effect that it is difficult to foresee to what hitherto unknown ends they cannot be directed. A radium clock, invented by Lord Rayleigh over ten years ago. has been operating ever since without having once been repaired or altered by human hands. The rays that are shot out from radium carry with them an electrical charge. One ray in particular. the beta ray. is negatively charged with electricity. In the clock in question Lord Rayleigh achieved his end by taking a glass tube from which all air had been excluded, and hanging inside it a quartz rod to which was attached a small tube containing a tinv speck of radium. At the bottom of the tube hang two gold leaves. When, the beta rays, negatively charged, penetrate the walls of the small tube, the radium left behind in the tube becomes positively charged. The gradual accumulation of this charge causes the small gold leaves attached to the inner tube to distend until they reach the sides of the larger glass tube, where they are discharged and return automatically to their, normal position. The principle of Loud Rayleigh’s clock can be variously utilised. The substitution of certain supports for the gold leaves may prove that there is no liroH to the extent to which radium can be positively charged.

THE TALKING RAY. •At the annual assembly of the British Association, a demonstration was given in connection, with the talking ray of the wonderful photophone. The greatest advantage of this apparatus is its secrecy; only persons to the ray is directed can receive the messages. A rav of light is reflected from an electric lamp, and the vibrations of the human voice cause the light ray to tremble and oscillate slightly. These tremblings are picked up at the receiving end of the photophone by selenium cells, and translated back again, through a telephone receiver, into intelligible sounds. Unfortunately, the range of the light-phone is limited by the curvature of the earth, as the source of light must be in a direct Tina with the persons receiving.

MOST POPULAR MAN. The ten most popular Englishmen, according to a test carried out by the London • ‘ Daily Sketch,” which promoted the competition for the benefit of the Empire cancer research fund, and realised £4OOO. ar. as follow: Mr Lloyd George. Mr Baldwin. Steve Donoghue. the Earl of Balfour. Mr Bona-r Law, George Robey, Mr Ramsay Macdonald. Jack Hobbs. Jimmy Wilde, and Cecil Parkin. BRITAIN’S FIRST CHURCH. According to tradition, Joseph of Arimatbea reached the shores of Britain in the year of the Christian era 61. settled at Glastonburj with eleven companions. and built the first church. Its length was 60ft.. anil its breadth 26ft. The walls were made of twigs and branches twisted together after the ancient custom. Professor Willis, in his • “ Architectural History of Glastonbury Abbey,” records that on the spot where the present church stands there ! existed a structure of twisted rods, or bundles, which was believed to have : been built as a Christian Oratory, and reported to be the earliest church in Britain. It- bore the name of ‘Vetusta Ecelesia.* the ’Old Church.’ and was dedicated to the Virgin Mary.” SHOEBLACKS’ UNIVERSITY One night, sixty 3ears ago. a young Loudon social worker. Quintin Hogg, who afterwards became the father of the present Attorney-General. Sir Douglas Hogg. K. 0., met by arrangement two ragged London pickpockets and, by the light of the candle stuck in a bottle, gave them their first lesson in reading. The scene was an arch under a Thame® bridge : and before long a policeman appeared, whereupon the , two pickpockets flea leaving their : teacher, an overturned beer bottle, and J j an oxtiguished candle to face the majesty of the law. This was the beginning of the greatest educational establishment of its »xind in the world—the Regent Street Polytechnic, wher* hundreds of thousands of young men and women have obtained, by means ci 1 day and evening classes, an education s fitting them to take important poetf 1 and to rise to big positions in oarnmerc* nnd industry, and in the various pro s fessions. Over 600 rlaase* in non s than 100 different subjects are belt i every week, the course*; ranging fron cabinet-making to Hindustani ; fron | electrical engineering to domestic eeo c >1 curry bricklaying. and mathematic* _ The Polytechnic first came into bexnj *> ; as a. direct result of the pkkpocketi n ’ rlass in York Place, Charing Croa e where, in a room rented at four slril w ' Hngv. a week, ra- i'-ouder taught read [ tog. a rad wvitiE.fr fce a iJasc of khfieKadk*