The Walkie-Scorchie
This is one of the nicknames of London’s newest skyscraper, usually called the Walkie-Talkie.
The building focussed the sun and melted parts of a car parked in the street. Note the cones to stop it happening again. There’s a report of the incident here in the Independent.
Will It Be Engineers And Scientists Who Cure Back Pain?
BBC Radio 5 had a discussion this lunchtime about back pain. The most amazing part was a statement by Brian Saunders of the School of Materials at Manchester University. He talked of how they were developing a jelly-like polymer, which could be injected into the body. Things are apparently going well!
Couple this with work, I know of at Liverpool University, where engineers have been analysing the gait of humans, dogs and horses, to get greater insight into problems and I get the feeling that over the next decades engineers and physical scientists will make great process in helping us to live longer and better. These two examples are probably just two of many similar ones.
How Many Good Paintings Have Gone In Skips?
This story about how Robin Darvell found a painting by John Constable in a job lot in an auction, is in The Telegraph.
The painting, bought at an auction in Canterbury ten years ago, has remained in a drawer ever since after the canny buyer spotted a faint signature on the corner.
It has now been revealed as a Constable painting, believed to have been completed near to his home in Suffolk, after being examined by experts on television programme Treasure Detectives.
It now looks like it’s worth about £250,000.
On my wall I have a painting by Arthur Perigal. He wasn’t in Constable’s class, but he is a well-known Scottish artist.
Villa Albani by Arthur Perigal
The painting of the Villa Albani, nearly went in the skip when I moved back to London, as it was in a broken frame and just thrown in the loft. It is signed Arthur Perigal RSA and dated 1872.
It’s not worth a lot, but then it would be worth nothing, if it was in the skip.
How my mother-in-law acquired the painting, can’t be determined now. But she did work for his son, Walter, who was the local doctor in New Barnet. The doctor was an amateur painter and she was given some of his paintings, when she left his employment. Or that’s the story C told. But knowing C’s father, I suspect he got them for perhaps doing a favour for the doctor.
Anybody, who knows the truth, died many years ago.
The Anonymous Widower 