100 years ago

There were many very dramatic stories of spy capture. A citizen of Brussels, who was to go to the front, had offered himself as a spy catcher. He spoke German perfectly and had a pronounced German appearance.

It was his practice to go the round of the cafes with his eyes very much open. When he saw anyone who seemed suspicious he sat down next to him, and asked him in a whisper if he was a German. If the answer was “Yes,” he said, “Where do we meet tomorrow?” If he satisfied himself that it was a case for the authorities he made a sign and both were arrested. He was, of course, released immediately on arrival at the police headquarters.

In this way he had made many valuable captures. Germans had been arrested in some places dressed as nuns. Their secret wireless stations had been tracked down by wireless telephones. Any number had also been caught wearing Belgian uniforms. They had spied out the land from end to end, and German secret code signs had been discovered everywhere.

 

50 years ago

A US company said it had developed a compact device for “spot welding” damaged eyes with an intense beam of laser light.

The firm, Honeywell, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, had built a prototype of the instrument for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where it was being tested on animals. The device, called a laser coagulator, had been developed to repair certain types of torn and detached human retinas, in order to prevent blindness.

The retina, a light-sensitive membrane lining the inside of the eyeball, often was compared to the film in a camera. The laser device created small burns within the eyeball, Honeywell said. When the burns healed, the company said they formed “heat scars” that “welded” the retina to the wall of the eyeball.

 

25 years ago

A national call for juggernauts to be banned from back roads had failed to win support in North Yorkshire.

The National Association of Local Councils had written to the Roads and Traffic Minister, Mr Robert Atkins, with a plan to ban lorries from unsuitable routes. North Yorkshire’s county surveyor Colonel Gerald Leech said he welcomed any scheme which might relieve the burden of goods traffic on rural byways, but warned of practical difficulties in implementing the proposals.

“Even if you designate heavy lorry routes, there comes a time when they have to leave those roads to reach their destinations. And if exemptions were offered for whatever reason, can you imagine the flood of applications which would pour in from operators or the police’s difficulties in enforcing the new arrangements?” he said.