July 25

A travelling sales agent visiting a large factory had made a bet with the manager that he would pick out all the married men among the employees.

Accordingly he stationed himself at the door as they came back from dinner and mentioned all those whom he believed to be married, and in almost every case he was right.

“How do you do it?” asked the manager in amazement. “Oh, it’s quite simple,” said the traveller.

“Quite simple. The married men all wipe their feet on the mat, the single men don’t.”

50 years ago

A break-through into the use of new materials and methods in ladder construction had been achieved by HC Slingsby Ltd, London, who were currently manufacturing in quantity ladders made wholly of fibreglass.

The fibreglass ladder had great structural strength and was well suited for use in high voltage work. It was resistant to many well-known alkalis, acids, solvents and corrosive chemicals. A fibreglass ladder would withstand the flame of a blowlamp played on it for some time before becoming affected.

These ladders were not intended to replace the ordinary type of ladder used for general purposes. The special features of construction made them expensive to produce but this was justified by the attainment of a new high level of safety.

25 years ago

The Evening Press was welcoming Princess Alexandra on the proudest day in the paper’s 106-year history. The Princess was in York to officially open the £10 million printing and publishing centre in Walmgate, giving a Royal seal of approval to a venture designed to take York & County Press into the 21st century.

The Royal motorcade was drawing up outside the Evening Press at noon. Inside the building the civic dignitaries would be presented to the Princess.

Then Mr Richard Wooldridge, managing director of York & County Press and editor of the Yorkshire Evening Press, would present, among others, members of the London-based board of the division’s parent company, Westminster Press. Mr Wooldridge was making a short speech before inviting the Princess to unveil a commemorative plaque in the centre’s reception area.

He was to tell the Princess: “It was some 60 or so years ago that your late uncle, King George VI, then the Duke of York, said during a visit to this city that the history of York was the history of England. Today we make a little history because the opening of this new publishing centre marks the end of a 250-year tradition of printing and publishing newspapers by the side of the River Ouse, and it marks the start of a new and exciting era of publishing from Walmgate.”