HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1951-01-11, Page 7GOT A WORLD HATTER,JN IDEA
THEN SAID "FOOL THAT I WAS"
Every day millions of men, the
world over, hack off hundreds of
thousands of miles of hair front
,countless acres of faces.
The harvesting of this formidable
crop has invoked more oaths and
lamentations through the ages than
any other toilet activity, It is of
great antiquity writes jefi Peters
In "Answers".
Bronze Age razors have been in-
a.arthed and metal razors used in
Egypt in 3400 B.C. have been dis-
covered. Farther back the first
*razors were probably sharpened
flints. Before that the technique
was probably to pluck the hairs
out—a method that is still in use
in parts of China to -day.
Male agony began to ease in the
early 19th century when the tech-
aique of hollow grinding was evolv-
ed. Until then steel razors were
wedge-shaped, tapering to a sharp
edge. They were hard to sharpen.
The trick of hollowing out the sides
oaf the blade by grinding made it
easier to sharpen and improved the
Hcutting edge.
That Sharp Edge
The cut-throat is still the razor
favoured by most barbers, who as-
sert that you can get a closer shave
with it than with any other razor.
But in every day use it is out-
numbered by the safety.
The first safety razor was design-
ed by a Frenchman, Perret, in 1771,
He made a razor with a small blade
placed in a holder so that only the
edge could touch the face. Rut
although Perret's razor worked, the •
world had to wait another 150 years
before the efforts of alt American,
.King C. Gillette, made the safety
razor as universal in modern bath -
zooms as toothpaste.
A. razor was only a sharp edge,
he argued. The rest but a support
for this edge. Why spend time and
Labour forging a big piece of steel,
hardening and grinding it, and riv-
eting a handle to it. Why not make
a blade that could be used once and
thrown away?
"I stood there before the mirror
in a trance of joy at what I saw,,,
lie wrote. He sent off a letter to his
wife. "I've got it; our fortunes are
rade."
Gillette strode blithely to a near-
by hardware store, bought brass
lengths of clock spring steel, a
'hand -vice and files.
"Fool that I was," he said later.
"I knew little about razors and
practically nothi'ig about steel, and
could not foresee the trials and trib-
ulations I Was to pass through be-
fore the razor was a success."
One of his biggest headaches was
to find a thin steel that would keep
flat when sharpened. For six years
Gillette played round with his bits
of steel and tried to find someone
to back his idea with hard cash.
In 1901 he suet W illiani Nicker-
son a mechanic, who ironed out
some of the technical snags. More
struggles lay ahead, but the razor
was now a practical propos'tion,
and they found backer.
Gillette's Boston, U.S.A., factory,
started in 190'5, to -day turns out 27
million blades a week and 16 million
'razors a year. The London factory
makes 10 million blades a week.
Two Rivals
Another landmark in .the 13attle
V Whiskers carne with the inven-
tion by another American, N. j'.
Gaisman, of a stroppable safe,y
razor. He offered the idea to (i'il-
ette who turned it down.
Gaisman consequez.tly started to
manufacture on his own account.
He, too, had an uphill struggle at
first, but by -the end of. the 1920's
the autostrop razor was a formid-
able rival to Gillette's blades.
In 1930 the two American com-
panies merged.
Other manufacturers were soon
producing• safety blades. Other in-
ventors were busy, too, and elec-
tricity was about to be harnessed
to the problem.
In 1919 Colonel facob Schick re-
tried from the "American Army be-
cause of ill -health, A few years
later, while recovering from a
sprained ankle and growing an irri-
tating crop of Whiskers in the Alas-
Iran wilds, Schick experienced much
the saltie sort of inspiration as that
which had burst upon Gillette. Why
not a shearing edge and blade on a
powerful little motor he asked him-
self as he thought the problem over.
Schick was an engineer and in-
ventor, and was better eguipped
than Gillette,
But even so, it was still several
years before Schick had solved his
problems. The original factory in
1930 had a staff of two --Schiele
and a helper. The first electric dry -
shaver carne on the market in 1931
M the middle of the Big Slump,
It was a compact little gagget with
cutting teeth moving at the rate of
7'200 times a minute.
Inventions to Come?
Other manufacturers came into
the field, some with different ideas
for heads and cutting edges. All
dryshavers, whether electric or
hand -driven, work broadly on the
same principle.. BI{ades or teeth,
moving at high speeds, cut or pul-
verize the' hairs as they project
through round holes or slots in
shaving head.
,Razors, whether rut -throats, safe-
rties or dry -shavers, are all gadgets
for cutting hairs, Perhaps at this
moment an unknown is afire with a
revolutionary idea for burning the
hairs away with a harmless ray, Or
with a scheme for an effecive hair
remover—or better still, something
that will stop hairs frons growing at
all,
One Of The Oldest
Arts---ROpemaking
'J.'he twisting of fibra, into rope
is one of the oldest of the arts. The
Egyptians and the Chinese did it;
the American Indians and the Poly-
nesians did it; the Romans and the
Greeks and the Anglo-Saxons did
it. Boston imported a ropemaker
from England as early as 1641; by
1794 there were fourteen ropewalks
in that town alcne; by 1.810 there
were 173 ropewalks in the United
States. But coopetition constantly
reduced their numbers; while output'
increased
The, essential processes of rope -
making are the sane now as in
1824, although machines have im-
mensely speeded up every process..
The fibre, purchased in great bales
as it came from a warehouse on the
Baltic or a "hemp mill" in the
American West, first -had to be
hackled. This was a process like
combing a lady's long hair.
Every subsequent operation, ex-
cept the tarring, had to be perform-
ed in a ropewalk when Plymouth
Cordage was founded. Originally a
ropewalk was a level yard or field
marked out with a series of pegged
posts on which the yarn, strand or
rope was hung as fast as it was
spun, formed or laid. The vagaries
of New England weather required
ropewalks :o be covered, and by
1824. these Jong wooden sheds with
square wit.dows, resembling a mod-
ern "roadside diner" pulled out to
thirty times its length, were famil-
iar features of almost every sea-
board town. 'L'lhere were already one
or more in Plymouth in 1824, Ow '
ing to the use of tar in ropemaking,
ropewalks Frequently burned down
and selectmen were always trying
to push ;heat out iuto the country.
In Boston, for instance, the princi-
pal ropewalks in 1819 were on the
edge of what is now the Public
Garden. After the third big fire that
year, they were rebuilt in the sub-
urbs. 'the C'harJestowu ?Tavy Yard
still operates a stone ropewalk
built in 1831, bu, only the Navy
could afford to build with stone.—
From ""rhe Ropevnakers of Ply-
mouth", by Samuel Eliot Morison.
11 OW t
.Y•_ rrr ,..�.-+'':�;. �.! its..u;::tr>;:.I�Tir_w.:r,r:_u..�..lv�,�
.w+.41u
BY
HAROLD
ARNETT
BOLT
j." - HACKSAW
BLADES
UAt SAW TWEEZERS To MAKE
TWEEZtRS ROM HACKSAW BLADES, GRIND TEETH
oPP AND' SHAP . DESIRED POINT. HEAi",BEND
"iPS,ANt Boo"--toGE'THER, SPACING- WIDH NUT'S
ASHION Nori
WOMEN
A bouffant skirt of black silk net contrasts with the white im-
ported linen sheath. The wide revere -collared jacket has wing -
cap sleeves—open to the banded waistline.
Land. Of Peace
And Independence
•
Orsett Welles' propaganda against
Swiss neutrality in the filen, the
"'Third Man,"— that all 100 years
of peace had produced was "the
cuckoo clock" 'did not' disturb the
Swiss.
The peace, independence, and well-
being achieved for 4,000,000 people
speaking four languages, they be-
lieve something to cherish and be
proud of.
"Besides," they tell you, "the
cuckoo Block comes from Germany."
Probably there is no country in
• Europe where the public attitude
today toward government is more
nearly tike the American than.,: n
Switzerland. Railroads, telepho3tes,
radio, •and telegraph are national-
izect but the Socialists are not the
dominant party, The railroads run
at a deficit, but government sub-
sidy seems to be the only way this
small country can operate them
efficiently.
it has been 15 to 20 years since
the leading Swiss plants have had
. strikes, though a large portion of
workers are organized. Both labor
and management are protected by
industrywide no -strike agreements
that set wages.
Switzeriand has ventnred a little
way into health insurance but it
covers only lowest -income groups.
Management is enlightened to a
point where it provides welfare
'programs that many -age earners in
other countries are still striving
for through rollectivc bargaining.
Brown Boveri which employs 6,000 •
workers in its vine -decorated shops
at Baden, put into its welfare fund
two and one-half tunes what it paid
to its share -holders in 1949-50. Most
of Switzerland's factories• are close
to the green countryside walrere man-
agement is helping finance garden
flats or houses at lower costs than
workers would oth.,rwwise have to
pay. The bathtub is still a novelty
in many rural Swiss homes but is
a feature of these housing projects.
if he looks closely, even the
American used to the spectacular in
modern coittrivanccs'cacr find things
in Switzerland to excite the inhag•-
lnation. For instance, you can dial
any telephone number in the count-
ry. You can get the latest news on
the telephone every four he •;s, and
a telephone operator will wake yon
in the morning for just ., slight
charge,
In St. Gall, many giver -minded
persons have clone away with the
habit of sending Christmas cards
that usually go into the wastebasket,
Instead, for about $5, they insert
greetings to their friends in the St.
t all Taghlatt. The phoney goes to
charity.
On the outskirts of 'Zurich, one
finds the Prof est an t llarlcus (lurch
.as pleasing a piece of modern
architecture as anything the ,fu-
seme of Modern Art Ilea put on rlis
play in New Fork.
:\ colorful Swiss humanitarian
projects that effects many visitors
from other countries these clays is
the Pestalozzi Children's Village
at Trogen.• Here youngsters of
eight nations, most of them war
orphans, are living as families in
houses supervised by their nationals.
Ii1aclt child is brought up in the
majority religion of its homeland
.'rd learns its national traditions
with the prospect of returning hone
when be or site becomes of work-
ing age.
After- World War 11:, the Swiss
had an ardent resire to help rehabil-
itate .Europe's children out of their
'peace -accrued stores. 'Young Poles
4nd Hungarians came and were re-
c'alled, but Greeks, 3talians, Finns,
incl others still live and play to -
learning German as a com-
e n$4Rlanguage. Recently a group of
,--i;ii,gftsh• children arrived to join the
tier little "family of nations" - 00 an
Appenzel: hilltop.
.1?cstelozzidorf's big problem is to
find a way to get money without
encouraging the continual stream of
visitors from abroa'tl to increase.
'The latchstring is always out as
long as visitors are discreet enough
not to interview the youngsters on
their war experiences.
Switzerland is the world's prune
example of what hard work can do
for a country. Without coal, oil,
or other basic natural resources the
Swiss have built a flourishing and
stable economy.
Around the cave, of a 1 oust, in
,lialoja, near the famous ski resort
of St. Moritz is carved, "Arbeitsam-
keit est.,i.'flicht"—"industrionsness is
a moral duty."
Swiss schools begin at 7 a.m. in
.the summer and you will find night
schools in Zurich where workers
are still studying at 10 and 11 o'-
clock. The 48-hour week is still reg-
ulation in industry; yet every Swiss
finds ohne to go honhc for two hours
at noon to have dinner with ties fam-
ily. With no city in the country
over 400,000, this enatonhi tradi-
tional and preferred.
Yodeling, embroideries, Alpine
horn-hlowing, carved music boxes,
and other tourist attractions in
Switzerland have not changed much
in the last 20 years, but Orson
Welles was more clever than accur-
ate in summing up the bettcffits of
Switzerland's long era of p: -ace.
1
(
CHILDREN
SHOULD BE SEEN
—!OT HURT
e , ust Like Joe
Minister - President Otto Grote-
rvoht of East Germany piled the
superlatives on Prime Minister
Stalin in a birthday oration for the
Soviet leader,
A packed audience in the State
Opera cheered itself.hoarse as Herr
Grotewoll said the Soviet leader
was:
1. The greatest of all living men,
2, The greatest defender of peace.
3, The greatest master of sciences.
4. The greatest philosophical
praetician.
5. The best friend of .the Soviet
people,
6. The greatest politician.
7. `rite wisest prophet ,
8. The most experienced counc l-
lor.
Bach of the eight points got more
than a minute's cheers.
Playing Chess
Ry Machinery
It is possible to devise machines
that could learn to play chess and
other games, says Dr, 3, Bronow-
ski, British mathematician, in a
contribntioric to "Nature," British
scientific journal. Machines can be
made to make the best move at
each step in a game of tic-tac-toe
or chess by providing them with a
mechanism for learning, he writes.
1,Vlen playing against a series of
human opponents, be asserts, "such
a machine may never do much
better than draw. A good human
player against the same opponents
may score more wins by making un-
sound but more puzzling moves,"
On the other Hand, he continues,
a machine can be remade to imitate
the human. player. Instead of play-
ing perfectly, it can be made to
play well by the inclusion of an
r'+ui,ir'cal or statistical mechanism
in tierce: units. One unit would
�..,a the nhec:hiue experiment with
different alternatives each time
certain positions are reached, The
second would count the results and
relate them to the alternatives cho-
sen, while the third unit 'would steer
the machine into the lines of play
that had been winning most often.
Could Classify Players
"indeed; the mechanism can be
made more subtle," Dr. Bronowski
states. "The second unit could also
he made to classify players, say by
the'r opening moves, into the bold
and the timid. The third unit would
then, in a given end game, choose
the move which had won most
often against players of that type.
"By putting in a mechanism
which estimates the probability of
success M. the future by analyzing
the distribution of successes in the
past, it is possible to devise a ma-
chine so that it Learns, matures and
even develops a style.
"Perhaps this is not the way in
which animals learn, or perhaps, on
the contrary, it is the very reason
tvlty animals play games at •all.
But 1 am confident that the inclu-
sion of such statistical mechanisms
will be an important development
in machines, T can speak for its
usefulness in strategic problems,
for T myself used it in a rudimen-
tary forte in bombing studies, in
• those days when we worker) with
punched carets."
'While it is true, he argues, that
a machine cannot learn unless it is
provided with a mechanism for
learning, it is quite posaible to de-
vise such a mechanism.
Dr. Rronowski thus takes issue
Royal Bank Figures
Set New Recon
Total assets reach new peak of
$2,497,376,342, Deposits now $2,337,
503,468, highest in Canadian bank-
ing history, Loans thew marked
gain, Liquid position strong. Profits
increase,
Marked growth in every depart-
ment and the establishment of new
high. records in the field of Cana-
dian banking are revealed in the
balance sheet of The Royal Bank
of Canada, just issncd.
Covering the year ending Novem-
ber 30, 1950, the balance sheet
shows total assets of w'2,497,376,342.
This total represents an increase of
$162,390,988 over the record figure
of a year ago,
Deposits have tooved tip to
$2,337,503,468. This is an increase of
$146,362,890' over the figures of a
year ago and is a new record in
the field of Canadian banking. fn-
terest bearing deposits have in-
creased by $43,785,626 to reach a
total of $1,103,918,226, a new high.
indicative of the mounting tem-
po of business and industrial acti-
vity in the Dominion is the increase
in commercial loans in Canada.
Continuing a trend w.`:zich has been
steady since 1945, the total under
this beading now ;sands at $555,-
160,656, an increase of $83,727, 318.
as compared 1.•ith tt'e figure w
year ago. •
The liquid position of the bank
15 very strong. Cae h assets totalling
$471,113,083 are equi::;,lent to 19,5.4
per rent of all the bank's public
liabilities. Liquid assets are again
higher and stand at $1,717,765,402,
v.lrich is equal to 71.26 per cern �f
the bank's liabilities to the public.
included in the bank's liquid assets
are Dominion and Provincial se-
curities totalling $906.766,904,
Bank Premises account has in-
creased froth $13.401,961 to $17,-
068,704, reflecting the banks pro-
gramme of branch building and
improvement. A number of new
branches were established hi areas
of new development, existing pre-
mises were modernized and the
latest type of mechanical equipment
installed to ensure faster and more
efficient service to the bank's
steadily increasing clientele.
After the usual deductions for the
Staff Pension Fund and Contin-
gency Reserves, profits for the year
were $11,815,138 as compared with
$10,918,243 a year ago. Of this
amount 84,012,000 has been set aside
for Dominion and Provincial taxes
and $1,273,413 for depreciation of
bank premises. After the above de-
ductions, the net profit was $6,559,-
725. This compares. with $5,827,521
in 1949. Oat of net profit $3,500,000
was paid in dividends and $3,059,725
carried forward to Profit and Loss
Account, resulting in a balance of
$6,920,039. From this amount
$6,000,000 has been transferred to
the Reserve Fund, which brings
the latter up to 850;000,000, leaving
a balance of $920,039 in Profit
and Loss Account.
with the prevailing view that no
machine can learn from its mis-
takes. A machine incorporating his
concept of a- mechanism for learn-
ing, he believes, could learn to beat
the greatest human chess :neater
by profiting from its mistakes. And
only another machine like it co•ti,l
match ;nits with it.
it's illegal for a wife living in
Maryland, to go through her hus-
band's pockets. In Canada it's
merely useless.
Santa
Rings
Twice
For little !flails
in l;Nt'17.1t,
Santa makes
.two calls. Can
the first visit
he fills . 1Tan's
shoe,... -or in
this case his
father's,
because' they're
bigger-- with.
apples, cookies
and nuts.
Then, on
Christmas
Eve, Santa
brings t he
presents, Han;,
and his elders
in West
Germany' had
their most
prosperous
('rous
holiday since
before the
War.
By Arthur Poi l ter