A COLLEAGUE tells us that not so long ago he acquired a beautiful handmade
“perpetual motion” machine. German patent expert Gerhard Hennig had flown into
London to give a lecture at the Royal Society. At the end of his talk, he
brought out a beautifully engineered machine made from steel and aluminium, with
a handle that turned a collection of wheels, coils and magnets to send current
through a couple of electric sockets and dangling wires.
Hennig had lovingly constructed the device at his workshop in Munich, and he
used it at the Royal Society to demonstrate a magnetic effect that countless
inventors have tried to harness to create perpetual motion machines. Magnetic
shields or “insulators” move between magnets and coils to switch a magnetic
field and act as a motor and generator. The lecture ended when Hennig turned the
handle ever so slightly to ignite a flash bulb and show the kind of energy that
could be available—if only there were such a thing as a perfect magnetic
insulator.
“You can have it,” said Hennig, when our colleague admired the machine.
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To the X-ray machines and customs officials at Munich airport, the device had
looked exactly like the key component of a terrorist’s bomb. “I dare not try
taking it back through Heathrow to Germany,” Hennig explained.
So Feedback’s colleague is now the proud possessor of a beautifully
engineered machine that can never be taken anywhere for fear of falling foul of
a random security check.
SINCE time began, radio listeners round the world have relied on the BBC to
pronounce unfamiliar names correctly. Presenters in their turn have relied on
the Pronunciation Room at Broadcasting House in London for guidance.
Recently, however, broadcasters have been stumbling over strange words. A
letter in the BBC’s house magazine Ariel reveals why. Because of the
changes made by the BBC’s recently departed director general, John Birt, the
Information and Archives Department now charges £10.30 for advice
on a word or phrase. As reports of news in foreign countries often contain
several difficult words, and radio programmes are strapped for cash, many
presenters now have to guess.
Ariel also publishes a letter from a BBC employee who is pleased to
note that although past criticism of Birt’s “reign of terror” was usually
anonymous, with “name supplied”, this is changing under the new DG, Greg Dyke.
Strangely, however, this letter is also signed “name supplied”.
THIS week’s blind-them-with-science-prize goes to the makers of a set of
strings that reader Horst Puschmann bought for his classical guitar
recently.
“The future is in your hands,” proclaimed the label on the bag they came in.
“Corrosion Intercept Technology, developed by Bell Labs and used by D’Addario
for the packaging of musical instrument strings, is the most significant
development in string packaging since D’Addario pioneered the environmental
string package in 1992. Each Corrosion Intercept bag employs a plastic which
contains a gas-neutralising barrier in the polymer matrix. This barrier reacts
with and neutralises gasses which cause materials to tarnish, guaranteeing that
your D’Addario strings are as fresh and as tarnish-free as the day we packaged
them. And since Corrosion Intercept bags are both environmentally friendly and
completely recyclable, they’ll help keep our planet untarnished as well.”
We wonder how much the consultant spin doctor was paid for writing that
lot.
READER Tony Puclin points out that in the item “Plant of ages”,
(12 February, p 23),
we wrote: “Biologists in Canada have found a living relative of the
common ancestor of all plants.”
“Is there something difficult about this?” he asks. “I believe I can do the
same any time I look out my office window.”
The pedant’s curse then struck rapidly, as is its wont. Even as Puclin’s
email was swimming through the Net towards us, we published an item upbraiding
Nature for making a similar solecism in the press release that was the
source of our story
(see Feedback, 26 February).
We now believe we have found the ancestor of all living blushes.
OUR note of 26 February about “heavy” floating barges reminded reader Pat
Anderson of a no doubt apocryphal story about an eminent lecturer at the British
Association. He asked the assembled members if they could explain a singular
observation he had made—that if one put a goldfish bowl with water on a
scale, adding a goldfish made no difference to the weight.
The members were astounded, and had to admit that they were baffled.
“The explanation is simple,” said the lecturer. “I was lying.”
No doubt his audience was delighted by this explanation.
FINALLY, the tape measure manufactured by Ross may look inoffensive enough,
but the company evidently knows something about it the rest of us don’t. The
warning that comes with it advises: “Always wear protective eyewear and gloves
where appropriate. Keep away from children.”
