100 years ago

The King had paid a private visit to the Aero and Marine Exhibition at Olympia, and inspected many of the exhibits there.

During his tour of the stands his Majesty frequently inquired whether the machines or engines were entirely of British manufacture.

He remarked that it was his firm belief that English manufacturers could make at least as good an engine as could be made in any part of the world, if not a superior engine.

His Majesty spent considerable time in examining the Sopwith “bat boat” or hydroplane, and, after asking a number of questions, made a suggestion which the makers considered so eminently practical that they decided to give effect to it forthwith.

The plan, which comprised a method of getting rid quickly of water, shipped while afloat, directly the machine was lifted into air, would probably be patented.

 

50 years ago

More than half the men called for selective service in the US Forces were rejected for various reasons physical, mental or educational, or a combination of the three.

Lieut-General Hershey, director of US Selective Service, said that the previous year 467,732 men had been rejected, which was more than half those called.

He said he thought part of the reason was the specialisation and high standard now required of those called up. “I hate to say the youth of the country is deteriorating,”’ he said, “but remember, we have got the automobile and a lot of things that takes us off our feet.

“And we have invented all sorts of gadgets to find out what is wrong with the fellow and nothing to find out what is right with him.

“ And so I think somehow we are caught between specialisation and a high standard, and a time when people tend to be softer.”

 

25 years ago

The number of visitors at the York Story Museum was dropping off because of better queue management at the nearby Jorvik Viking Centre, claimed a council report.

The museum cashed in on the success of the Viking centre by “feeding off” queues of visitors waiting to get in.

But a report before the city council’s leisure services committee, said that improved waiting conditions at the centre had hit the York Story.

Before the Jorvik Centre opened, the council-run museum had been chalking up about 50,000 visitors a year.

But numbers had plummeted from a peak of 90,000 in 1984-5 to 73,000 in the last year.

The museum at St Mary’s Church, Castlegate, had opened in September, 1975 and traced the development of York, through its architecture, from mediaeval times to the 1970s, and included displays, city treasures and an audio-visual display.