The Seaforth News, 1950-05-18, Page 3Birds That Open
Milk Bottles
1u 101, bird, derailed ars tits
began to open milk bottles left on
the steps of houses in *waytliing,
near Stouehaut, Southampton, Eno-
laud, and drinking the milk, Now
at least 11 specie, of English birds
are prey,illg upon the. waxboard
tops of milk bottles in many parts
of England and some parts of
\Wales, Scotland and Ireland,
In British Birds, Jaumw f'ish'er
and R. A. Ilhude find no natisfactory
answers in these questions: ()id hhs
dividual birds learn the trick from
one another or did they discover
it themselves? If most of thein
learned it, Hien by what process?
liow did they discover that milk
bottles rntsta!tt food?
T. II, llatrkins relates in Nature
what his owl( it1Vestigetiolls have
led hint to cotelude. He says that
about 400 records have already
been obtained of bottle -opening by
tits and a lesser nttnther by house
sparrows, hlaekhirds, starliugs; rob-
ins, chaffinches and . hedge spar-
rows. Ile thinks that most birds
mus) have discovered the trick for
themselves, because tits, the orig-
inal experimenters, do not move,
even in winter, more than a few
utiles from their breeding places, -
The bottles are usually attached
within a fes' minutes after they
have been left at the door. There
- are a few incredible tales of tits
that have followed a milk cart
down the street and removed the
tops of bottles while the driver was
busy with a delivery. The method
of opening the bottle varies. Sonne
English milk bottles are closed by
1 cap of metal foil, The bird punc-
tures
ortatures the cap with its beak, -theu
tears off the metal in strips. Sonne•
times the whole cap is removed,
and sometimes only a small hole is
drilled int
Cardboard caps are attacked itt
various ways, according to Hawk-
ins' study of the records. The
whole top may be removed or only
the press -in centre, or the card-
board may be torn off layer by layer
until it is thin enough to be pierced
with the beak. The milk may be
drunk either through the hole thus
made or the bird may insert its
heal: into the hole and flick off what
remains of the top.
As in this country, milk of dif-
ferent grades is delivered in some
English areas in bottles with caps
elf different colors, Hawkins says
that 14 observers saw attacks by
tits only on bottles of one type, and
four others reported a decided pref-
erence for one type, Some observ-
ers report that bottles filled with
water or even empty bottles are oa
casionally attacked, "but this con-
veys nothing," says the cautious
T'foWkitis, "unless the previous his-
tory of the birds is known."
Picked Up From
Here And There
A STATESMAN is a politician
who agrees with you.
<. * *
IT HAS TO BE borne in mind
that in war there is no second
prize.
* *
UP TO NOW, the closest approach
to perpetual motion is a small
boy's appetite.
* * (.
IP WOMEN'S CLOTHES did not
have to change so often, there'd
probably be more change in men's.
s; * *
IT NEVER COSTS anything to
pat a guy o11« the back ami tell
]trot about it when we think he
has done a good job, but -re don't
do it very often.
* * *
IN THE ARMY they used to say:
"If men are grumbling, they're
]sappy." What a happy bench of
folks we have in Canada.
» * *
BEST WAY to get 3 -ourself ac-
cepted as a ratan of profound •
judgment is to agree with the per-
son who's passing judgment on
you.
Kangaroo Kidnapping Is `Xnside Job'—"What are vott doing with me inev " Lhc ulama
kangaroo, at left, might be asking of her sinter, right, fuel'-vacatc(l itis mother's vest
pocket •and tV1O1 promptly kidnapped 1)3' his aunt, tvho already had a katigau'oo baby in her
own pouch.
Invented The Steam Engine
Yet Didn't Believe In. Railways
Most of us have a somewhat hazy
notion of James Watt sitting by
the fireside watching a boiling
kettle, idly speculating on the pro-
perties of steam emerg'illg from the
spout, and later dreaming up the
steam enginie. Like many popular
notions, this has but a flimsy basis
of truth, writes a Special Corres-
pondent to `Answers."
There was, in fact, very little of
the dreamer about James Watt. He
was an immensely practical man, a
skilful engineer and a great mecha-
nical genius. His contribution to
the development of the steams (s..
gine lay in effective improvements
to machines that already existed
and worked—after a fashion,
The earliest known description of
a machine—or perhaps it might
better be called a contraption—
worked by steam occurs in the
?neunlatica of Hero of Alexandria,
approximately 1,866 years before
the birth of 'Watt,
Help for the Miners.
This is the Aeolipile, a hollow
globe, which was made to revolve
by means of steam escaping through
two bent pipes attached to it. Here
we have a working niodei of an
extremely primitive reaction tur-
bine. The Pneumatica also con-
tains a description of an equally
primitive typo of engine worked by
steam pressure.
Why such inventions, subse-
quently to prove so vital to our
civilization, should have remained
dormant and unregarded until the
seventeenth century is a mystery,
Maybe it was because Man got
along well enough (ant] indeed
there are some who feel he nligltt
still get along well enough) with
the sailing ship, the windmill and
water -mill, the horse, the me and the
slave—using always those primary
machines the lever and the wheel.
It was not until the millers,
literally using bucket and spade, had
dug their metal nines to a depth
where water flowed in and could
not be checked, that an urgent and
insistent demand arose for a power
machine that would pump out this
water with reasonable speed and
efficiency and enable the mines to
keep open.
For the mines it was a matter
of life and death. They were
faced with closure, and many of
therm had to close, for the develop-
ment of pumping machines barely
kept pace with the need.
For industrial Britain, indeed for'
all industrial civilization, it was a
crisis and a turning point. There
was at last plenty of incentive for
men to turn their minds to the
development of power.
DCiD'l — By, Harold Arnett
HACKSAW 58881
HACKSAW
BLADE STUN"
HACKSAW CAN BE USED
I N PLACE WHERE THERE
ISN'T ROOM FOR SAW FRAME
BY HOLDING BLADE ASSHOWN.
'WHEEL DRESSER
A GRINDING WHEEL
CAN BE TRUED WITH
'DISCARDED HACKSAW
BLADE .SET THE TOOL
ABOUT 34 IN. FROM'J HEEL.
LAY SAWBLADE FLAT
ON REST AT15 DEGREE
ANGLE TO WHEEL EDGE,
FEED BLADE BACKAND FORTH.
•
The first practical steam pumping
engine was patented by 'Phomas
Savers- in 1698, but it was unsatis-
factory and little progress was made
until James Watt brought his in-
ventive genius to hear on the
problem.
'Watt was- born in 1736. Ile was
the son of a small and uns,tccessful
merchant in Greenock. At the age
of nineteen he was sent to L,orainn,
apprenticed to au instalment maker,
and became skilled in the use of
tools, IBut living was so hard that
at the end of a year he was
obliged to return - home for his
health's sake.
lle tried to establish himself as an
instrument maker in Glasgow, but
•he had not served the full term of
apprenticeship and the City Guilds -
forbade hint to open shops He was,
it other words, a victim of the
"closed shop" policy.
The University, however, came to
his rescue and in 1757 he was
established as its mathematical
instrument maker.- A. model of a
paunping engine formed part of tete
University's collection of scientific
apparatus, and it came into Watt's
hands for repair.
While putting the 1110(:1)1 in order
he was impressed with its enorm-
ous consumption of steam in rela-
tion to the 3111311 amount of work
achieved, and he set himself to dis-
cover why this was and how to
improve upon it. It was twelve
months before Ile bit upon the idea
that was to revolutionize steam
engine design.
I will give one of IVatt's prin-
ciples in his own words:
"I intend in many cases to em-
ploy the expansive force of steam to
press on the pistons, or whatever
may be used instead of them, in
the same manner in which the
pressure of the atmosphere is now
employed in common fire -engines,
In cases where cold water cannot
be had in plenty, the engines may
be wrought by- this force of steam
Sailntobile—MoLorists near
:Amarillo were startled recently
to 888 this landlocked `sail-
boat" skimming. down a high-
way in the heart c l' the flat
Panhandle district. Piloting the
Strang('. three -wheeled craft is
its luib' r. kat• Landrum(, "1111'
dry -land v)elltsnuuh ha:; no
gasoline problc11l, but hr may
1'1111 0111 of 8111,1.
only, by dscharging the steam
into the air after it has dobe its
office,"
The daring notion that engines
might be "wrought by this force of
steam only," without the aid of a
enlulcnse( at all, are a measure of
'Watt's g.mius, boldly, yet calmly,
talrnit what was then an mnpreee-
dmued lead into the future.
Public Danger.
Yet how remarkable it is that the
man whose (mind was capable of
majestic strides into mechanical in-
vention should at the sante time
have altogether refused to coun-
tenance the idea of increasing the
steam pressure in the i•oiler—in
other words, of Luing high pressure
steam, on which the successful use
of the "expansive force" so largely
depends.
In his many engines stcant pees -
sure ivas little more'than the pres-
sure of the atmosphere. And he
even went as far as to try to sponsor
an Act of Parliament forbidding
the use of -high-pressure Steam on
the grounds that it would be a
public clanger. -
How far this was genuinely
prompted by humane fears, and how
far by the fact that a rival engineer,
Trevithick, had successfully used
Pressures of 120 111. per square incl(
is a matter for speculation.
The Lett Invention.
It is also recorded of Watt that
when the idea of a steam locomotive
to run of rails was put to hint,
he refused to have anything to do
with it. Rett this and the ques-
tion of Thigh steam pressure are the
only discernible blind spots in a
mind that, on the level of mech-
anics, was of almost incredible fer-
tility, The last of his innumerable
inventions was a cutting machine for
(making.accurate copies, either in
reduced scale or facsimile, of pieces
oc sculpture.
Not long before itis death the
presented copies of busts to- his
friends, describing then( as the work
"of a young artist just entering on
his eighty-third year."
Tit For Tat
Mr, Goldberg, returning from
Europe, was assigned to a table
for two. Here he was presently
joined by a polite Frenchman who,
before sitting down, bowed, smiled,
and said. "Bon appetit." Not to be
outdone, Mr. Goldberg rose, bowed.
and said, "Goldberg."
This little ceremony s as (c•
prated at each meal. On the fourth
day, Mr. Goldberg confided his
complexity to :roma)) in the smok-
ing lounge:
"Tt was like tide, you see, '1'11e
Frenchman tells Inc his name —Bon
Appetit—anted 1 tell him int name
Goldberg. SO we are introduced.
But why keep it up day after clay'?"
"Ob—brat 3 o don't understand.
lir. Goldberg." replica the other.
"lion appetit mean., '1 lope you
h:.ve a pleasant meal.'"
"Thaultu;" said t;oldbere.
That night Alta Goldhcr; arrived -
l: to for dinner, poked fortualh-, and
said, "Bon app(')))."
Anil the 1'rellllllnall roe.. mur-
mured, "cinldbei'g."
Useful Animal
"The pig, rltildrcn, i, a most use-
ful animal," said the teacher, "\Cr
use its head for Mau 11, il• legs for
ham, it, bristles for brush,'. Now,
-chat else d" we use from the pig:"
"i'lease, mi,.," said our small
child, "we use its name v lien we
want (0 he rude."
Palmistry Was
His Religion
Sone years ago, a good-looking
Ma with deep-set eyes and wavy
hair luo1cd u(tt of the whitlow of
his apat•ttncnt in New York and
smiled wryly, Stautding two deep
along the.pavement ht a 1)118)le that -
stretched out of eight were hun-
dreds of people, all waiting to see
1;11(8.
Why? Because a Sunday news -
imperiled printed .his accurate Kas-
tirilat of someone he had neither
met n.
Kaniorstirilseecat is. the Brahmin science
of palmistry told the. man was
County Louis .Hanson, ktt 11 to
the world )5: Cheiro, •
To. Cheiro, palmistry was his
life's work and his religion. He
firmly believed that God had given
Man PO"er to foretell the future
for his own good. lie leased this
belief on the words in the 37tH
Chapter of job: "Ile sealeth up the
lands of e,'u'y man, that all men
may ]mow his work.,'
.'1t the age of I1, Cheiro knee:'
mare about the science of tialmistry
than adult practitioners, and was
famed locally for correct prophecy.
But before he was 21 he had started
a amid search for more knowledge.
Years Of Study
ile was given free access to the
great Vatican library, and having
exhauster] this, pored over the lore
of Ancient Egypt. Finally, he went
to India and studied with a little-
known and exclusive Brahmin sect.
BROCK-8 ON 9-12 I:NiS.—
The incident in New York hap-
pened when he was world famous.
The editor of a Sunday newspaper
had sent him the prints of several
hands and asked hint to read them.
Cheiro refused to publisli one of
them until he had an assurance
that the owner had given consent.
Then he .said that it was the hand
of a successful murderer who had,
however, become careless.
He would be condemned to death,
but would not be executed.
It was, in fact, the hand of a
doctor who had made a business of
murdering people for their insur-
ance looney. At the same time Ile
was awaiting execution, but later
this was changed to penal servitude
for life.
One of Itis first hand -reading suc-
cesses was accidental. Cheiro was
sitting in a railway compartment
reading a book on palmistry when
the man opposite hien began to lise
cuss the subject and eventually
held out his hand to be read.
Cheiro told hint he was 't success-
ful lean, but that ale day his sue•
cess would turn to complete failure.
The nlan laughed and asked the
cause of lois final failure. "A wont -
aa," replied Clieiro, and the man
;laughed louder still,
Doctor Or Lawyer?
"You are right in everything you
have said, except the w0111511," 110
replied. "There has been nate 111 .111Y
life, nor will there be."
He passed over his visiting card,
He was Parnell, the Irish Nation-
alist leader, but at that time he had
rot met Kitty O'Shea, for love of
whom he became a political out-
cast,
More than one attempt was made
tc discredit Cheiro. A certain lady
once invited him to her house to
entertain her guests with hand -
reading.
Cheiro went, and read everyone's
hand, One guest was a ittan whom
everynue had called "Doctor." The
roiling was so accurate that the
man admitted that lie. Catne with
the intention of catchinghim out,
but that Clteirn'a reutarks 1,nd been
eniaeiti i1y accurate.
C11,11,1 :malul and added: "One
last thing, sit•. You are wasted as
d„rtor, There is only one 1)r0-
fession foyou, and that is a crinl-
3)81 lawyer.r"
Univ then did the than adroit
111(41 Cveryuuc ha(1 been printed 10
call him "doctor" as part of the
trick. Ile t('an, in fact, a Eamon=
ltal lawyer.
The King's Illness
Front thee on, Cheiro was list-
ened to with respect and ave: and
even ltayalty patronized hint, C)ne
(:ay, Queen .\le,andra. 11.60 knew
that he had once read the Bingo
hand, asked hint if the ling, who
pal appendicitis. would di . of his
illness. Cheiro replied that the
King would not die until he was 119.
After that, King Edward referred
to hint as the loan "who rondemus
sue to death at 69." Net Cheiro was
right, for Kiuie Edward did die at
that age,
SMART ANIMAL
"Time after time," said the big-
gauze hunter, "the lion sprang at
1110, and time after time as he
leapt 1 threw myself forward and
he went harmlessly over my head.
Eventually the animal gave up the
attempt to fell me and trotted off
into the jungle. The following day
I came to a cliff overlooking the
sea, and there on the beach I saw
that 58111e lion. I stood transfixed
at its antics."
"Good Heavens!" put in one of
his listeners. "Wat was he doing?"
"What was he doing?" said the
hunter dramatically. "That lion was
practising shorter jumps!"
The Little Foxes Georgia
Sarris, l0, has her hands full
with three baby foxes for pets.
Georgia's mother captured the
month-old annuals when she
shot a vixen suspected of kill-
ing chickens in the neighbor-
hood. Mrs. Sarris tracked the
wounded fox to her dell, where
she found the three furry pups
at play.
"Canine Cop' Goes Through Paces—:\ real police (log, "hajalt""
demonstrates Ilia precision training by jumping over the bac]:
of Police ('onstablc William Robert during a shins at the Itnber
('our! Police 'Training Centre int -Thames .Ditton, Surrey, Eng'-
lanri, '!'lis' slog: at this Centre are trained to assist in appre-
bending criminals.'
JITTER
. .T'M, HAVING A BRIDGE PARTY, AND CAN'T
HURT UP ANY 0LD 8107585 1oR YOU TODAY
•.,COME 911,CIC TOMORROW.
So...5HE CHANGED
HER MIND,1 11 JU5T
AmiNura,rt.L.
YOU 788
MdVEY
By Arthur Pointer
881'011055 AREN'TSORRY. LADY--
Oto CLorSES...TUEY'RRR6 THE PRICE WENT
MYGUESr,i COAT'S JJJJ UP`OINCETNEN«.
ANDTHIS 1574E SAME 8115:5251 IS
AMOUNT YOU .GAM A BUSM1)SS,
JITTER.
ot