25 Years Ago

September 12, 1975

OLD people in Grange are in danger of being frightened to death by low flying, it was claimed this week.

The claim was made by Coun B.

Ward at Monday's meeting of Grange Parish Council when it was decided to find out where the jets were based and lodge a protest.

Coun Ward said "one of these terrific high powered aircraft" had flown over Grange that afternoon and the noise was so great it was enough to give an old person a heart attack.

"I've never heard anything like it," he said.

"We should find out where these jets are operating from and make a protest on behalf of the residents of Grange."

Coun Mrs M.E.

Webster said a slide show at the Over-60s club had been stopped in its tracks by Monday afternoon's jet.

"It was frightening," she said.

"It was very bad," agreed Coun E.L.

Gill, while Coun J.

Wadsworth complained that the jets started flying over Grange from about 10am each morning.

"I don't mind them going overhead, " said Coun Ward, "providing they are at a reasonable height.

But this afternoon it was frightening."

50 Years Ago

September 16, 1950

SO KENDAL'S time gun, whose loud boom used to announce the hour of one o'clock in the afternoon, has disappeared from its place of honour in Serpentine Woods.

This piece of mechanism, formerly in use as a ship's fog signal, has been silent for 11 years, but before the last war people came to rely on its message which, because of some intricate wiring system, was always fired to synchronise with Greenwich time.

Made of brass and weighing nearly one hundredweight, it would not be an easy object to move and its sudden departure can hardly be attributed to the enthusiasm of children wishing to play at soldiers.

Neither can it be assumed that the gun has been taken by someone who has a horror of alarm clocks and desires an alternative method of early morning wakening.

100 Years Ago

September 15, 1900

THE innocence of the junior reporter is proverbial.

His latest achievement is worthy of a place among the Pitman curiosities.

It comes from the north country too.

This young man was sent to take a political speech, by a Radical candidate.

The candidate of course had to say something smart about the Government; so he declared that the obscurity of their intentions in regard to the dissolution reminded him of "the dim religious light" of a famous poet.

The heroic junior had never heard the phrase before, and his shorthand outlines were misty.

When the speech was printed the candidate's friends were horrified to find that he had spoken of "the damned religious light."

150 Years Ago

September 14, 1850

MR WISE, the American aeronaut, has the following singular suggestion for a leaping machine to assist exploring tourists.

"If we take a balloon of limited size, about 18 feet in diameter each way, it will, when inflated with hydrogen gas, be capable of raising 160lb; independent of its own weight.

Now, if this be so fastened to a man's body, as not to interfere with the free use of his arms and legs, he may then ballast himself as to be a trifle heavier than the upward tendency of the balloon, which will be nearly in equilibrio.

"If, then, he provides himself with a pair of wings, made on the bird principle, with shoulder joints to slip over his arms at the shoulders, and a grasping handle internally in each one, at the same distance from the shoulder joint of the wing, as the distance is from the shoulder to his hand, he may beat against the air with his wings, and bound against the earth with his feet, so as to make at least a hundred yards with each bound.

"This the author has often done, in the direction of a gentle wind, with the aid of his feet alone, after his balloon had descended to the earth; and on one occasion, traversed a pine forest of several miles in extent, by bounding against the tops of the trees.

Such a contrivance would be of inestimable value to exploring expeditions.

Landings to otherwise inaccessible mountains; escapes from surrounding icebergs; explorations of volcanic craters; traversing vast swamps and morasses; walking over lakes and seas; bounding over isthmuses, straits, and promontories; or exploring the cloud-capped peaks of Chimborazo, could thus all be easily accomplished."