HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18575, 25 September 1928, Page 8

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING. Four Miles Above the Sea. Fifteen years ago a thermometer was left on the top of Mount M’Kinley, the highest mountain in North America. Now' plans are being made for an expedition to retrieve it, together with the recording instruments left with it. Mr Harry Karsten’s ascent in 1913 has been the only successful climb of this summit, which is nearly four miles above sea-level. H H M Fen Tears’ Test of Metal Pipes. The Washington Bureau of Stand, ards, which recently burned a building to see how safes would stand the heat, has now planted 14,000 pieces of piping in 47 different soils to see which corrodes the least. Many of the pipe* now sown were planted in 1922, dug up* and now reinterred. So far the brass and copper pipes are doing best, but it will be ten years before the test is completed. s* 3 Record Price for a Carpet. The record price of 22,000 guineas was paid for a carpet—known as the Wtiperor’s carpet—at Christie’s, London, recently. The carpet is said to have been a present from Peter the Grear, to Leopold I. of Austria about 1093. The carpet remained in the possession of the Hapsburg family until the re volution in 1921. It is a Persian carped and was made probably in the time of Shah Tahmash, 1524-76. k ts x Famous Beauty Spot Saved. Another famous beauty spot in Eng* land has been saved to the nation by the action of the Earl of Devon in handing over Bolt Head and the neighbouring coastline to the National Trust, Portlemouth Cliffs and Downs, with two miles of coast to the east of Kingsbridge estuary, also passed to the Trust at a nominal rent of £1 a year for 500 years. In handing over the deeds at a ceremony held in Salcombe’s beautiful woods by the sea, the earl said he hoped they would have some guarantee that the hand of man would not appealed Bolt Head or Bolt TaiL By that be meant, he said, ginger-beer bottles and cigarette cartons. Those things were necessities of life, but there was no reason why they should be left about on Britain’s beauty spots, any more than that people should leave behind paper bags and other picnic litter. k k :: Lawk of Our Fathers. When Oliver Cromwell became Protector there was passed a law called “An act of Common Council... .For tha better avoiding and preventing of annoyances within the City of London. “ It declared that:—No man shall after the hour of nine at night keep any rule whereby any sudden outcry be made in the still of night, as making any affray, or beating his wife, or servant, or ringing ....under the pain of 3s 4d.” The same Act of Common Council casts a vivid light upon the life of those davs. “ No man shall shoot in the street, for wager or otherwise.... No man shall digge any hole in the street for any matter, except he stop it up again... - No man shall blow any horn in the night within the City, or whistle After nine of the clock in the wight tmder pain of imprisonment. No man shall go into the streets by night or by day with bow bent or arrows under nie girdle, nor with sword unscabbered under pain of imprisonment; or with handmatch, except it be for an unusual May game or A Famous Air-Port. Where the're are regular air services the air-port is developing. It has not by any means reached its full equipment. but it is taking shape. At Croydon. England’s chief aviation terminal, a new air-port has been constructed at a cost of £260.000. Not long ago Croydon was a collection of war time buildings constructed in an emergency and not on a comprehensive plan. Now the new hangars occupy a space of 90,000 square feet, and there is an additional space of 36,000 square feet for offices and workshops. The most striking thing about the new aerodrome is its 80 feet control tower, which is in wireless touch with all aircraft that use the station. The offices comprise a Customs hall, waiting rooms and freight stores. The runway for arriving and departing plane* is a mile in length, and in front of the building an area has been concreted to enable passengers to alight and embark in wet weather in soma comfort. The workshops are fitted up with an equipment necessary for tha repair of aircraft machinery. Croydon has handled as many as LOO aeroplanes in a day. In the vestibule of the administrative buildings are a post office, telephones and a bookstall. - Leading from these is a narrow hall approaching the Customs examination room and a corridor to the aerodrome for outgoing passengers. The central waiting room contains a commodious buffet and booking offices The goods go to a separate shed at the side. Rooms for pilots and officials are on the ground floor. On the next storey are meteorological offices and sleeping quarters. The hangers are each 300 by 150 feet and the doors are large enough to admit much bigger machines than those now used. The lighting arrangements after seven years’ experience are considered to be excellent. A huge beacon giving a diffused red glow able to penetrate fog is mounted high and is visible 30 or 40 miles away. There are filuminated wind vane indicators and the buildings are all illuminated at night with small red lights. The boundaries are lit by automatic flashing red beacons on white posts. For actual landing a flood light giving a Jjeam over an angle of ISO degrees is used. It is mounted on a tractor and can be moved to any position. When aircraft receive the sig* nal to land, they glide in over the beam. Possibly, sunken light to indicate tha landing area in a fog will be installed later. America is considering placing its airports on roofed-in railway yards in order to bring air travellers right to a railway station.