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The Brussels Post, 1962-11-15, Page 6EVER HAPPEN TO YOU1 5E.EM OVER 5A3Y-5tVING wt -r1-1 ThE. EcuR smo [41v5 ANC) I'M NEVER EVEN. GOING Mis\gRfE,121 which unfortunately pulaed bracket holding the clock from the wall; a tall upright — case was .provided, It .cot only strongly- supported the etoek enclosed the weights as well. VMS the grandfather clock wall evolved, which, when less than, feet tall, is knoWn popularly as the grandmother, At first these long-ease Weeks were slender, because the ease only needed to be wide .enough • to contain the weights, as the clock had a very short .pencitt lure, But after Robert Hook had shown by experiment that a. long pendulum worked better than a short one, then grand- father clocks had to be made wide enough for the swing of the pendulum as well. A whole new branch of cabinet making was called into being to create elaborate long clock cases, some of marquetry, — From "Clocks" by Simon Fleet, Picture Painted On A Grain Of Rice Pendulums Made -Clocks. Acciorgte • Until taxi middle of the $.01E14- tomtit century, clocks were not et all accurate, Fos' this reason. they seldom had more than One .hand, which indicated the hour only,, And their time was con- tinually being checked on a sun- dial, The invention that made all the difference to accuracy was thetopryei!thattm. It has a curious In. 1586 Galileo Gaillei, a stu- dent of eighteen when watchi ng the to-and-fro swing of a lamp on a long chain in Pisa Cathe- dral, thought that its movement might be a way of measuring time, From. this idea he attempt- ed to make a pendulum clock, but we are not sure that he succeeded. However, in 1657 Christian Huygens, a Dutch scientist, real- ized Galileo's dream, and revo- lutionized the clock-maker's art by successfully applying the pen- dulum to clockwork, In this way accuracy was so much improved that minute hands became the rule, and soon second pointers were added, Huygens designed the-se pendulum clocks, and Samuel Coster made them. Both the designs and clocks can be seen at Ley-den Museum. Thirteen years later a consider- able further step forward in ac- curacy came with the invention of the "anchor" escapement, of- ten attributed to Robert Hook but first met with in clocks by William Clement, a London maker of about 1670. It' got its name from the fact that the gadgets which control the escape of the driving-force were an- chor-shaped, In America the various parts of the anchor es- capement are to this day known by their. antiquated old English names, whereas in Europe the old names have been changed. These two things, the pendu- lum . and the "enchor" escape- ment, had an immediate effect on clock manufacture. The greater accuracy now attainable made it worth while to contrive mechanism that would go for a longer -period than thirty hours which had been the limit before. Soon clocks were devised to go for a month or more, then for three, six or twelve months, This meant that the mechanism required 'much heavier weights WEDDING SPIN — Much to the surprise of many, Paul Boivin takes his bride, Diana, for a spin on a motorcycle before their wedding breakfast. Following are maid or honor and best man, seen in the foreground. Remainder of the honeymoon trip was by auto. hand and a whistle in his mouth to direct his descent to col- le.lgues above by code-signals, A jutting overhang left him swinging free in the void, kick- ing an ugly black wall at each wing, knocking 011 stones, ma- saonally brushing 'a waterfall. At sixty feet he get a •foot- hold on a iedp just big .enough for his feet, and from this peri- lous perch he could see nothing below but the column of falling water. Casteret kicked. down a big stone to sound depth, It fell, whistling like a cannon-ball, and crashed far below. On the bottom, or just an 'out- crop? He couldn't tell, The rope wouldn't reach that far, anyway, so he whistled three times, then waited to te- hauled back. The •-rope stiffened, vibrated. He began , to revolve in space, whistled again, went up three feet — then down six. His comrades above were ex, hausted, thwarted by the weight and friction. He spun like a top, dangled under the waterfall which hammered him, made him heavier. Again he whistled frantically, but the rope must have got caught. Perhaps it was wearing through? By a desperate effort he swung towards the wall, tried to grip it, but the wet rock was too slippery. He 'heard anguished voices, felt in every nerve the frightful tension on the rope. Very slow- ly he went up by short feeble tugs, As his head rose above the edge of the overhang there was another stop. Now he could see his • friends struggling to wrench him from the abyss. At last he. was safe. The shock and strain had been so severe that it took them three hours to cover the 500 feet to the surface. While climbing some falls in the Cigalere system with his wife Casteret was horrified to see her fall back and plunge into a deep pool of swirling, icy water, But she was an excellent swimmer, and managed taltreach the bank. ,Here she shed: her sodden clothes, shared his, and they went on exploring the cave. He had another scare while re-exploring the Gratte Casteret — which he had discovered near -Gavarnie."— with his two daugh- ters. One found a narrow cranny close to the floor.. She crawled in until only her feet showed, then .suddenly spread her legs, making frantic effort to brace against the rock with her heels. J u st in time, Casteret leapt forward, gripped her feet, and hauled her back. The ice floor,. She' discovered, took a sudden plunge. She had all but slipped into the abyss. Her fate — and. her mother's — might have been as tragiC as that of another woman caver, Who fell. While climbing a seven- ty-faiet shalt in the Lurloch cav- ern and ,died frOm her injuries, Treasured possession of a Sur- rey man is a grain of rice—with a picture of Windsor Castle painted on it. An impossible achievement? No, it was the work of that prince of miniaturists, the late Charles R. Gunner, who received a number of commissions from members -if the Royal Family'. His rice-grain Windsor Castle can't. be seen with the naked eye. But its conscientious. line-work becomes magically apparent when It is magnified, A portrait he executed of the Queen, when Princess Elizabeth, was designed to be inset into a ring for Queen Elizabeth the Queen. Mother, Gunner also wrote what was claimed la be the smallest hand-written book in the world, The late Queen Mary was so impressed by his- -patient miniature penmanship that she bought this book, a his- tory of Windsor Castle. Written on eighty pages, each less than the size of a postage stamp, it measured only three- eighths of an inch by five- /eighths of an inch. This brilliant man, who died in, 1948, also wrote a 3,000-word ac- count of the Coronation of George VI in a volume of 100 pages each three-sixteenths of an inch square. He wrote 300 words on each tiny page! position without removing a sin- gle pane of window-glass. Two weeks. had to be spent in putting the scaffolding in place alone. The work went on day and n i g h t. It was completed on time — and the King was so pleesed that he staged a slap-up dinner for the 800 workmen at. a West End restaurant. Since then the chief change at the palace has been one of char- acter rather than architecture. Prince Philip has a marked- out landing place for his heli- copter in the grounds. The sen- tries, in their pale-blue sentry boxes, have been moved behind the railing to avoid disturbance by tourists, The State Apartments are sel- dom in use. Far from being the Queen's chief home, the palace becomes increasingly functional as the chief business office of the Monarchy — firmly closed to all save rank and privilege, How The President's Word Was Sped • 'Things: Are Spooky. Down -lIndergrounci • Down, d.o wit,. 3,70 feet, through e labyrinth of eaves, lakes, waterfalls, until stopped by an underground river, That was the recent achieve- ment, of a team of aritish pot- holers, in the vast Gonave- Ber- Oger system near Grenoble, lrran.qe, who equalled the world record, They're tough, .theee. .savers who vanish through rook-holes in Britain, Europe,. anywhere, ,as scientific explorers' or just for fun, ),V.her As a dare, .of course — to test their skill and resource, like mountaineers. To challenge a record; penetrate where no other human has trodden; per- haps encounter magical and breathtaking beauty in a subter- r a n e a n fairyland, as did the world's most famous caver, Nor- .Pert Casteret. Probing over a mile into the Cigalere grotto in h is native Pyrenees, he stood speechless in palce of crystal glittering with oolour whose delicate formations surpassed nature's most gorge- ous flowers. Stalactites and crystals eparkl- ad all around him. There were huge needles as fine as cobwebs which trembled and broke from the slightest vibration, silver strings like silk yarn dangling from roof and walls. He walked on ice-flowers, plunged knee-deep in bushes of the loveliest crystals. Ever new splendours kept him breathless. That was the dazzling climax to several explorations involv- ing hazards which only a long- tried expert could survive. In one small tunnel he had to drag himself along, flat on his stomach, his cheek pressed to the ground, his feet flattened out, only to find the end block- To worm into another, a mere crack, he stripped naked to snake himself as thin as possible. He lay flat in icy water. His chest ground into the bed., the roof scraped his back. Then his head jammed and he had to equirm back.. But his most terrifying ordeal. came When he was lowered on A rope over the brink of a dark abyss by a roaring waterfall. And when we say "dark" we recall his own words: "Noa enNe.• iude is comjpa.riable—te the' bowels WHERE AM I? — Probably happy that his satchel jour- ney is ended, this Burma cat takes a suspicious look at Paris after arriving for the world Feline Exposition. ttire—e—artfle no night ,so dark es the blackness underground." Casteret wore a trench helmet — protection from falling stones — had an electric lamp in his BOREDOM IS THE CAUSE The second. great Cuban crisis had its comic moments which the publi.c may now safetly attend to. One of these was the summon- ing of Rep. Hale Boggs of Louisi- ana to the urgent meeting of congressional leaders at the White House Oct. 22. Mr. Boggs was on a boat 30 miles off the Louisiana coast when an Air Force plane caught up with him. The plane's pilot circled, finally dropped the vital summons to Mr. Boggs in the form of a note in a bottle. No one .has checked on other methods used to inform presi- dential confidants, but we'd like to believe that for future crises presidential aides will have on hand: • A carrier pigeon for, reach- ing General MacArthur in the Waldorf Towers when his phone is busy. • A message tied to an arrow shaft for contacting Secretary Udall in Yellowstone National Park, • A note wrapped around a stone for throwing through the window of the American Em- bassy in Grosvenor Square when Ambassador Bruce is besieged 'by Aldermaston marchers. Andk Mr. Boggs might return that bottle. Mr, Kennedy may someday need it to reach the At- torney General in mid-swimming pool.— from the Christian Sci- ence Monitor REUNION — Three of the four surviving Dionne quintuplets got together at christening ceremony for Eric, son ,of Mr. and Mrs. Germain Allard (formerly Annette Dionne,' left), in St. Bruno, Quebec, Holding baby is Yvonne, and at right is Marie. Cecile, ill, was unable to attend. Emilie died in 1954. The famous quints were born on May 28, 1934. For four months in 19.56, play- wright Arthur Miller mingled with street gangs in New York City — chiefly in Brooklyn — gathering material for a movie which never got off the asphalt. This month Miller salvaged something from his impressions by summing them up in a Harp- er's article which concludes that "boredom" is what makes delin- quents delinquent, The jaded rich can always hop a plane for Europe, Miller said, "or have an affair, or at least go shopping." But the poor delinquent "is stuck with his boredom, stuck inside it, stuck to it, until for two or three minutes he 'lives'; he goes on a raid around the Corner and feels the thrill of risking his skin or his life as he smashes a bottle filled with gasoline on some other kid's head. In a sense it is his trip to Miami, It makes his day." IlllEAVY, HEAVY ... David Rapoport decides that art can foe a pretty weighty matter is he studies "in depth" an exhibit at Sari Francisco's an- Dual art festival. David's de- eision: The $350 prize exhibit called "Welded Junk" was just that, for his money. Big Chahges At Buckingham Palace A notable royal anniversary is being allowed to slip by with- out celebration, There hasn't been a whisper, let alone fire- works, to commemorate the fact that Buckingham Palace is now the oldest occupied royal palace in the world, It's just 200 years since a young bridegroom of twenty- four bought Buckingham House for his seventeen-year-old bride. As custom dictated in those days, young King George III intended the place as a dower house for the widow he would leave when he died. Instead, the young couple moved in, just in time for their first baby — who became King George IV — and in twenty-one years they had a family of fif- teen children. The price of the house seemed a bargain. It was less than $3 for each of the 30,000 fruitful mulberry trees in the garden. It had been built by a Duke of Buckingham who acted as a jovial local squire, laying out mazes and. bowling alleys for people to have fun. Right to this day the old man- sion is still in existence, form- ing part of the west garden front. Guests are still apt to stumble between the blue drawing-room and state dining-room, acause of the Slight diffeeence in' floor levels. it was seventy years before Buckingham House was. raised to the status of palace. This came about when George'IV de- 'aided to move in.' In a fit of economy he-directed 'that his old home, Carlton House, should be pulled down, and the materials used in ex- tending his "palace." In reality, the architects quar- relled, the workmen took too many tea and beer breaks—ancl-. the salvaged materials were, time-wasting. Ten years passed and George IV died without moving in — his big ambition was never fulfilled ee.. • Twenty-five mantel pieces still littered the courtyard and were moved to Windsor, Only recently, our present Queen took a second look at a pile of broken stone in the grounds of Royal Lodge, Wind- sor. The pieces fitted together into human figures, They proved to be the work of an important eighteenth-century sculptor and they, toO, were part of George IV's futile salvage campaign. Queen Victoria came to the throne before Buckingham Pal- ace was ready for occupation. People were surprised when she relinquished Kensington Palace to her mother and decided to live in "the new palace" instead. Even then the drains were so bad that the fumes tarnished fresh paint in a single night, and an official report on the Queen's new home revealed that "her doors will not shut, her bells will not ring and her chirri- neys never stop smoking." Arm astute washerwoman, nam- ed Sophie Harding, noticed the smoking chimneys and went all out to get the palace laundry contract. Soot and Moke, she realized, meant a lot of laundry work — and Sophie scooped a contract Worth '$3,000 a month at today's values. When Prince Albert married the Queen, the time had come for reform. Carriages could hardly move in the courtyard because the ashes of 200 fires were dumped there each day by the houserriaids! In, addition, fumes from the 1orc czyorks filled the palace wonder that dr:c.c.le.d to 1*#tlmeir time Osborne and Balmoral — as far from the smelly palace as they could conveniently get. During Queen Victoria% long widow- hood, the palace was occasion- ally lent to fereign`rulers. The Most "discomfiting guest was undoubtedly the Sultan of Turkey, who moved in with his harem, staged a prize-fight in the garden, and is even said to have summarily executed. one of his servants in the palace. pre- cincts. The coroner of the Royal Household n e v e r succeeded in getting to the bottom of the af- fair — .or. in locating the corpse supposedly. buried in. a remote corner of the grounds. Last year, howeyer, a corner of the palace gardens was lop- ped off to make way for the Hyde. Park C o r n e r road lin- provements — an d during the excavations human bones were found. . Roughly ninety years old, they were supposedly to be dis- section relics frem the nearby hospital. But were they, in fact, the vital evidence of the palace murder mystery? asks Helen Cathcart in "Tit-Bits" King Edward VII rightly call- ed the palace a mausoleum when he took charge at the start of this century. Hies father's m o 1,-h. -eaten clothes stilla hung in the ward- robed. The halls were filled with mournful statuary, and the great classical paintings coated with soot from the gas chandeliers. Back in gay Edward VIPs time, American musical come- dies were staged in the ballroom with full sets and costumes. When King George V and Quen Mary took over, new ideas in entertainment had to be found. At palace garden-parties the Royal Waterrnen, in their picturesque costumes, were on duty to take guests boating on the lake. The palace is supposed to be more pompous nowadays — yet only last year; a chiinpanzees' tea-party was held to amuse ex- service gUests, Just fifty years have passed since the palace had its great face-lift, The frontage facing the Mali was looking very shabby and King George V directed that it should be rebuilt with entirely new stonework while he was oil holiday, This meant that the work had to be Completed Within thr months, It involved putting 6,000 tons of cut and faced Manes in t_YMitOL'OF OPE Historic St. Peter's Basilica site of the ecurririldcit council of the Kaman Catholle Church, stands dramatically bathed flaadliO`its err Vatican City, Rarn6,