The Brussels Post, 1961-01-05, Page 6a..aa; age
ity by running heavy we.ghti.
hack and forth over the rope.
Ropes are also 'tested. for i,-3sti-
ing qualities under water. Picves
are sent to Puxbury, Mass., and
to Florida to be soaked for up,
to a year in sea. water.
And they 41s0 get boiled In.
Mr. Cadigen's laboratory to
get all the oil out of then), . .
Weighing a rope before and then
after it is boiled allows th,
tester to determine what peraen- •
tap of the rope's weight con-
sisted of oil' — a necessary in-
gredient De all ropes,
Manuscripts That
Somehow Survive
Francesco Petrarch was riot,
only a great poet but one of the.
major movers in the revival of
learning and one of the first men.
in Renaissance Europe to collect
books — when he died in 3.1741 it
was in the library of his house
in the Euganean hills. The bulk
of his books went to a Duke of
Milan and in turn moved to Pp:
viR, tO Mole, to Paris arid fin-
ally to the Bibliotheque Nation-'
ale. But a few have turned up.
elsewhere and indeed the last
two have done so in very re-
cent years,
Petrarch owned three copies
of Suetonius. One is in Paris, a
second was identified in Berlin,
not long ago. Since neither of
these contained many notes in.
Petrarch's hand and since it was
known he had much used the.
Roman historian, a scholar con-
cluded that there must be (or
have been) a third much armee
tated "working copy," This, the,
London Times Literary Supple-
ment reports, has now been
found in the library of Exeter
College, Oxfprd. It is indeed, •
rich in Marginalia and variant
readings and these have been in-
terpreted as Petrarch's writing
beyond question. How the manu-
script came to Exeter College
seems not to be "known, as yet
anyway, but it has been estab-
lished that it has a Sixteenth
Century Grolier binding, that it
once belonged to a teacher at
Harrow (who had Byron for
one of his pupils) and was.part
of the famous Roxburghe sale ,
in 1827, when it brought just
about $30. „
The survival and migrations of
manuscripts over the centuries
are equally fascinating and
wonderful, Many of course have
been lost forever; it is indeed as-
tonishing that so many have
been saved. In the case of Pet-
rarch's "Suetonius" more than
half a millennium Of history has
been recorded since it' left his
hands to reappear at last in.
Oxford, a fragile but very real
link between the Renaissance_
and 1080. . . — Baltimore Eve-
ning Sun •
IT'S A SCHOOL — A striking structure indeed is the new Domestic and Trades College in Man-
chester, England. City architect Leonard C. Howitt designed the complex which was built for
$1,680,000. Trades as varied as baking and wig-making are taught at the school which also
has a restaurant where student chefs can try their work out on the public.
VOLUNTARY — Mrs. Joan Anne
Morrow, 24, appeared in Los
Angeles court on two charges of
forgery. Police say she shaved
her head to make lit difficult
for victims to Identify her. But
her conscience troubled her and
she confessed all to a police-
man.
,
end also do general news report-
ing. Put i've developed .a sixth
sense about trains on which
there will be interviewable peo-
ple, I must say the Communists
haven't been very cooperative-
haveto read their releases and
figure that a person will prob-
ably reach here about two clays
after he's officially reported to
have left Peking — weather per-
"Luggage is helpful, some-
times, Often it reaches Kowloon
on an earlier train, since freight
trains don't have to offload at
the frontier. See that pile over
there — suitcases and cloth
bundle. I bet those belong to an
overseas Chinese who is coming
out of China today."
We walked over and, sure
enough, the bundles were plast-
ered with stickers indicating
that they had originated in Can-
ton and belonged to a Mr. Hsieh.
Kr. Wong told me he had been
on the railway beat for eight
Years. A native of Amoy, and a
civil engineer by training, he
had fought with Chinese
Nationalist troops against the
Japanese while still a university
student. He had been nearly ship-
wrecked during a junk voyage
to Formosa just after World
War II. He had had to hide in
a friend's home for two weeks
during the Formosan riots of
1947, and had returned to Amoy
just before the Communists
came marching in. The Com-
munists gave him an exit per-
mit (they were then relatively
easy to obtain), and he had come
to Hong Kong at the end of 1949
with no job prospects, nor even
a knowledge of the local dialect,
Cantonese.
He competed with 50 others to
obtain a reporter's berth with
the Wa Kiu, and was one of
three to be accepted. Starting
out on the court beat, he ac-
companied a friend to the rail-
way station one day and wrote
a story which pleased his edi-
tors. Since then, without actually
assigning him to the station, his
newspaper has come to expect
him to be on the job whenever
an interviewable personality
turns up.
"I've interviewed everyone,"
he says; "from Prime Ministers
to simple coolies. I think I like
the simple coolies best."
He ;recalled one engineer's
story as fairly typical. This man,
who had managed to leave China
legally, told him, "There's no
question things have improved in
Communist China since the Com-
munists took over, People can
get two meals a day, where they
used to have only one.
"But there are other things in
life. Freedom, for instance. That's
why I've come to Hong Kong,
though my mother and five bro-
thers are all'still in Communist
China."
There was a movement toward
the platform among the little
knots of .people standing in the
station, and the 2:02 came roJI-
ing quietly in, pulled by an un-
romantic British diesel engine.
Wang Ping-wong's eyes took on
a professional look as he scan-
ned the mass of disembarking
passengers. Having made his
selection, he strode up to his
target and began, "Excuse me,
but are you a passenger from
China? I'm a reporter, and
By Takashi Oka in The Christian
Science Monitor.
Rolling In And. Out
Of Communist China
Six times a day trains bring-
g, passengers from Communist
Nina roll prosaically into ISOw-
10011. Station, in the British,
crown Colony of Hong Kong,
411egOrging a jumble of citizen,:
from both sides of the well-
guarded frontier 22 miles down
The line.
Among them are peasants in.
black cotton jackets and Wide-
bottomed trousers, swinging bas-
)Cots, of produce or chickens, mer-
chants struggling with assorted
boxes and bundles, pigtailed chil-
dren scampering to keep up with
their parents, occasional Euro-
peans who might, to the un-
initiated, have come as easily
from Fanling golf course on the
British side of the border as
from a Communist sponsored
junket through the People's Re-
public,
From among the crowd of
welcomers and idle bystanders.
a trim, alert-eyed Chinese steps
out. Directing his steps unerringly
toward a tall, stoop-shouldered,
elderly European accompanied
by a Chinese in white cap and
uniform, he says, "Excuse me,
sir, but are you on your way out
from Communist China? I'm a re-
porter, and — ."
Wong Ping-wong, veteran re-
porter for the Wa Kiu Daily, is
on the jab. One day it might be
a group of students from Indo-
nesia, returning to their homes
for the holidays after a college
year spent in Peking, Another
day it might be colorful General
Morris ("two - gun") Cohen,
sometime Canadian bodyguard to
Sun Yat-sen, who seems to have
friends both on the Communist
mainland and on Nationalist-
ruled Formosa. Or it might be
a local businessman, returning
to Hong Kong from a Commun-
ist-sponsored visit to see how
much progress the fatherland
has made under Mao Tse-tung's
"people's democratic dictator-
ship."
The Kowloon-Canton Railway
is today the main route by
which travelers, distinguished
and undistinguished, enter and
leave Communist China. All but
the most VIP of VIPs must take
the single-track railroad from
Kowloon to Lowu, on the Bri-
tish side of the creek that
divides the Crown colony from
Communist territory. Here, after
completing customs formalities,
the traveler must walk 300 yards
across the railway bridge, past
the Communist sentry house with
its five-starred Red flag, and go
through Chinese immigration
and customs procedures before
boarding the Canton bound
train.
The same process must be re-
peated in reverse when the visit-
or is coming out. Thus, an alert
reporter stationed at the Kow-
loon railway terminus can catch
almost all people officially en-
titled to travel in and out of
Communist China.
I accompanied Mr. Wong to
the railway station one day, and
as we stood waiting for the train
to pull in he told me something
about his jab and about his own
adventurous career.
"The most important trains
these days," he said, "are the 2:02
and the 3:23 p.m., because most
people seem to want to reach
Hong Kong in time to gel. settled
before dusk."
"I don't cover every train,"
Mr. Wong went on — "I write
an, aviation column for my paper
As Noah remarked while the
animals entered the Ark: Now I
herd everything.
How Fishes Swim
Not So Simple
Remember those "three itty
fishies in an itty bitty ,pool,"
those "three itty fishies and a
mama fishie too," how they
"swam and swam all over the
dam"?
Well, how?
Everybody, for centuries, has
just assumed that to swim, 'fish
need to swish their tails and use
their fins. But for centuries
everybody, apparently, has been
wrong. The fact is, fish suddenly
bereft of both tail and fins still
swim almost as well as normal
fish.
Only recently have physical
scientists realized that there was
more to fish-swimming than tails
and fins. For some time now
scientists out at the California
Institute of Technology have
been given the matter serious
thought.
Mechanical engineers 'first be-
came suspicious when they noted
that fish and sea mammals move
incredibly fast in relation to the
muscle power they can muster
for ,swimming, writes John C.
Waugh in the Christian Science
Monitor.
The "mama" salmon, swim-
mming up the Columbia River
against rapids arid waterfall in
her frantic, single-minded rush,
to get "home" for the egg laying,
couldn't possibly make the jour-
ney on just the food she ate and
the fat she lost en route if the
energy were expended as waste-
fully as has been assumed.
Out of the investigations there
at Caltech a new concept of
'fish propulsion is emerging.
According to this theory, fins
don't propel a fish at all; they
only serve to control and sta-
bilize side and vertical motion,
much as ailerons control and sta-
bilize airplanes in flight.
Wiggles, gentle or quick un-
dulations of the body, constitute
the principal needs of piscatory
,propulsion.
Dr. T. Yao-tsu Wu, associate
professor of applied mechanics at
Caltech, developed the concept,
He says the wiggling motion
produces a pressure difference
across the two sides of the fish.
The fish simply angles its body
so that the side cf greatest pres-
sure pushes it ahead,
" TABLE TALKS
Andrawee
Here's a trick you may not
have learned. To prevent the
slightly hardened top which
forms on cornstarch-type pud-
dings as they cool, sprinkle a
little granulated sugar aver the
top while the pudding cools hi
its serving dish or dishes.
M
Onions are abundant this sea-
son and of unusually good qual-
ity. It is pleasant to report also
that prices will remain low. If
you boil onions whole, don't for-
get that a small amount of light
cream added to the usual season-
ings of butter, salt, and pepper,
will make those onions some-
thing to remember.
*
As most mothers will agree,
it's a hard job to have plenty of
cookies on hand at all seasons.
This basic cooky dough is a won-
derful help. Here's the recipe—
BASIC COOKY DOUGH
.24 cup butter
14 cup sugar
2 cups flour
Y. teaspoon soda
2 teaspoons fresh grated orange
peel
14 cup fresh orange juice
Cream butter and sugar to-
gether. Add flour, that has been
sifted with soda, alternately with
orange juice. Blend in orange
Peel. Mix, until smooth. Divide
dough into 3 parts—then go on
to make spiced cookies, filled
cookies and sugar cookies!
SPICED COOKIES
,2 tablespoons sugar
.W teaspoon each, cloves, cin-
namon, nutmeg and all-spice
Blanched almonds
Candied orange peel
Orange frosting
Mix these ingredients and
work into 1 part of dough. Roll
out, on slightly floured board to
%-inch thick. Cut into 2-inch
circles and place on greased bak-
ing sheet, placing blanched al-
mond halves around edges, Use
candied orange peel for center.
Bake at 400°F, 10-12 minutes.
When cool, brush' with frosting
made of cup confectioners'
sugar and 2 teaspoons orange
juice.
FILLED COOKIES
Roll dough very thin, Cut into
desired shapes, Place 1 table-
spoon fruit filling on centers of
half the cookies. Cover with
other cookies, press edges to-
gether, prick with fork and bake
at 375'r. 10-12 minutes,
SUGAR COOKIES
Roll out dough to W-inch
thick on slightly floured board,
Gaut in. fancy shapes and deco• -
rate, Bake at 400'F, 10-12 min-
utes.
We think crossword puzzle
fans should be warned that
Mauritania is now the name of
a new African nation' and not, as
many people thought, the name
of an ocean liner.
Brush on wreaths; decorate with
candied fruit. Bake at 375° F.
for 10-12 minutes.
* w*
There are other delicious ways
of using mincemtat besides the
traditional pie. Here's one: some
of you might like to try for that
special occasion. ,
MINCEMEAT
GLAZED TORTE
2 cups sifted flour
34 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
14 cup sugar
2 eggs
hi teaspoon almond flavoring.
% cup milk
1% cups mincemeat
Heat oven to 350° F. Sift to-
gether the' dry ingredients.
Cream the sugar and shortening
together thoroughly. Add eggs
and beat until fluffy. Add al-
mond flavoring. To the creamed
mixture, add the sifted dry in-
gredients alternately with the
milk, Fold in mincemeat. Pour
into 8x12-inch pan which has
been lined with waxed paper
and greased, Bake at 350° F. for
45 minutes, or until done. Re-
move from pan. While still
warm, pow' glaze over top of
torte,
GLAZE
cup sifted confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoons orange juice
I teaspoon lemon juice
Beat all ingredients together
until well blended.
Ancient R,9ppwalk •
Still :Running
Since 1837 etrands of hemp,
ond More recently nylon, have
been twisted into ropes of all
sixes in a long quarter-mile
granite stone building lying un-
der the intricate steel work Of
the •Nrystic River Bridge in Bos-
ton,
One of .the last, remaining
"ropewalks in in the country, the
United States. Navy has relied
on it for 123 years. Originally
a supplier of most of the Navy's.
rope it is now primarily involve
ed in research and development.
Ropewalks originally w e r e
long rooms, in which workers
walked back and forth twisting
strands and fibers together into
ropes,
,At the Charlestown Yard rope-
walk there are four "walks" in
the long corridor — two used
for making "strands" and the
others for twisting the "strands"
into "hawsers."
The Navy today, of course,
uses machinery to weave its
ropes and has since 1837. These
old "walks" with their outdated
machinery could be used today
,if the Navy needed them,
The ropewalk has been the
center of controversy in the past.
Private rope company repre.
sentatives have testified before
congressional committees that
they can and do perform all, the
research that is possible at the
Boston Naval Shipyard. They
charged that the historic rope-
walk competes with private en-
terprise.
. David Himmelfarb, ropewalk
director, contends however that.
the ropewalk does not really
compete with private enterprise
to any significant degree. He
says that with rope technology
constantly changing and new
fibers being developed the Navy
will always have a need for the.
ropewalk. •
Most of the 30 men now em-
ployed at the Charlestown rope-
walk remember when the
"walks" were still in operation
and they could run them again.
The ropewalk workers have been
working there for an average of
20 to 25 years, according to Mr,
'Himmelfarb.
The rope-making !field is a
very narrow one, according to
Mr. Himmelfarb. There are
probably no more than 5,000
employed in the whole industry
in the nation, he says.
Mr. Himmelfarb has written
the only comprehensive text-
book on the technOlogy of mak-
ing and analysis of rope,
All Navy and Coast Guard
rope testing is, carried on at the
Charlestown Naval Yard's rope-
walk. And, with artificial fibers
'beginning to replace manila and
'Central American natural hemp,
the ropewalk is constantly test-
ing new fibers.
Mr. Cadigan 'does the testing
for size, hardness, strength,
stretch, lubricant, etc. Each rope
must have a certain percentage
of oil mixed in with it.
The Charlestown r op e w a l k
produces a very small fraction
of the Navy's rope. But every
rope manufacturer supplying the
Navy and Coast Guard • must
send in samples. of their products
to be tested, writes Robert Y.
Ellis in the Christian Science
Monitor.
Ropes are tested on a pulling
machine which, can exert a
force of 80,000 pounds. On the
same .machine stretching .qualie
ties can also - be tested,.
When a rope breaks it sounds
like a rifle shot, a cloud of smoke
is given off, and the strands fly
in all directions. So much heat
is generated 'by the explosion
that the ends of the broken
fibers become fused.
Other machines test veearebil-
FAROUK'S BOY — Ahmed
raud, 8-year-old son of ex-
King Farouk and Queen Nar-
riman of Egypt, is at school
in Geneva, Switzerland.
Gives Away Great
Doll Collection
What'e the beet time to put the
children to bed? To many par-
ents it was in the era before
television.
Shirley Temple parted with
some $50,000 worth of memories:
Her collection of 523 dolls, most
of thcm, eouvenire of her reign
ae Hollywood's living doll in the
,1930s, Among the playthings do,.
hated to a Los Angeles museum
were Moroccan leather dolls,
French dolls with silk stockings,
dolls made of eornhuske, dried
apples, even bread crumbs. There
was also a doll that once stood
Shirley's .famous curls on ante A
5-foot 8-inch Japanese doll that
was sent to her hotel room while
she and her mother were sight-
seeing in Hawaii. "When we
came back, the room was dark,"
I Shirley recalled. "We saw a
fig-u'e stretched out and did
we scream!"
Gitill4d A HOOT FOR SAFETY — Hue red, white and black
tivd IS standard insiOne on the fleet of a trucking firth. the
istrct advertises the firm while pretectir• iej motorists, ebb be
teen in headlights for a half-`rile.
pantaloon-type black trousers worn by
inspects an honor guard in. newly itirje.a
immediately fat U. nte(iiharShip,,,but The
Wearing sandats a nd
Premier Michel Debre
African nation' applied
*
'Prom Denmark comes this
recipe for e very special cooky
known as "wreaths". The re-
cipe makes about two dozen.
DANISH ;MEATUS
cOp butter
1,4 cup sugar
114 cups sifted flour
ee cup quick or old-fashioned
oats, uncooked
Grated rind of orange
Cream butter and sugar to-
gether thoroughly. Add teniain-
ing ingredients, mixing, well,
(Dough will be stiff, so you may
want to mix with hands.) Chill
thoroughly. Break off small
pieees of dough, working to-
gether with fingers until pliable.
Roll each piece on a floured
board with ringers to form a
stick about 6 inches long and 3/4
inch thick. Shape each piece into
a wreath, crossing ends to form
a knot; place 2 inches apart on
ungreasecl cooky sheet.
GLAZE AND DECORATION
I egg White
2 tribleSpoOlis &Ogee
Candied fruit
.Beat egg white until stiff but
not dry. Gradually haat in auger, iS S Ll -' ittat
bEBRE GETS A SALUTE —
Sahara tribesmen, French
pendent Maoriteinia. The
Sovsitil Union vettied the