Basically it is a result of static electricity created by friction as materials of dissimilar material strike against each other. In this case titanium/nickel blades moving through the air and dust. It occurs on the ground as well, but you don’t usually see it as much unless the aircraft is landing or taking off. The most common time is when fuel is being pumped. When large tankers are being fueled they must be grounded to prevent static electricity from discharging and creating explosions.

“Print number 6517 and 6518 are smeared and does not define clarity.”

Another excellent find among my grandmother’s old documents was a set of hilariously informative instructions for nose-printing your dog.

When my father was young, his family owned an enormous Great Dane named Lady who turns out to have had a pedigree. Canadian National Live Stock Records show her mother’s name as “Duchess of Willowdale” and her father’s as “Dandy of Metheringham.” To register Lady herself with the Canadian Kennel Club, my grandfather had to send in a nose-print. I have no idea what the primary method for taking nose prints was, but it apparently failed, according to this letter from the Dept. of Agriculture:

                       February 6th, 1951.

Mr. W.K.G. Duffin,
R.R. 4,
Thorndale, Ont.

Dear Sir:

      We return two applications for your Great
Danes and the nose prints you provided. Print
number 6525 is incomplete as not enough of the
dogs nose was shown. Print number 6517 and 6518
are smeared and does not define clarity.

                 Yours truly,
                 CANADIAN NATIONAL LIVE STOCK RECORDS
                 R.G.T. HITCHMAN
                 DIRECTOR

Enclosed along with the note and the “incomplete” and “smeared” nose prints were the following helpful instructions…

Alternative Method of Taking Nose-Prints

For the information of those using this method of identification, we would report that the following method of procedure, in taking prints, has proven satisfactory:

1. A small amount of tube ink (see below) is placed on the smooth surface of a piece of wood, glass, or other smooth surfaced material and is spread evenly on such surface.
2. Excessive moisture is removed from the dog’s nose by cloth or other absorbent material.
3. Using tip of index finger, a small amount of ink is spread as evenly as possible across area of nose to be nose-printed. The amount of ink to be used and the extent to which the ink is spread by fingertip can best be determined by experiment.
4. Take an official nose-print form (or plain paper when experimenting) and grasp it firmly, at centre of its outer edges, by the fingertips of each hand, holding the form in a vertical position.
5. Person taking print (while dog’s head is firmly held by another person) takes position directly in front of dog, facing its nose and holding the form (still in vertical position) so that gummed side is toward holder of form.
6. Move form forward till contact is made, at centre of form, with nose, then carry outer edges of form slightly more forward so as to allow for curvature of dog’s nose.
7. As soon as print is taken, remove form by quick backward movement of hands.
8. Set print to one side until ink is thoroughly dry.

As a suggestion to those nose-printing such breeds as Boxers, Bulldogs, Pekes, etc., make fold in the form about one-third from bottom of form, and in taking print see that fold is directly opposite the lowest section of the nose to be printed. Straighten out form after print is taken.

Care should be exercised, when folding the form, to see that gummed edge folded back does not adhere to gummed section unto which it is folded.

Other Nose Print Ink Available

It has been found that excellent prints can be obtained by following the method outlined above, and using the same type of ink that was used, for nose-printing purposes, some years ago. In order to accommodate those who would wish to use such ink, arrangements have been made so that a two-ounce tube of this ink may be obtained from the Canadian Kennel Club, 667 Young Street, Toronto, Ont., on payment of 75¢. Official nose-print forms (30 for 25¢) can be obtained by forwarding order, with covering payment, to the Canadian Kennel Club. No C.O.D. orders, please.

Success

Presumably, thanks to these instructions, print number 6537 was more satisfactory.

Lady’s nose-print (via the “alternative method”)

Personally, I think it’s quite attractive. Broad strokes sweep diagonally towards the nostrils, where they fragment into little splotches and dots. Flecks of muzzle hair speckle the region below. Definitely Lady. I can see it now — my grandfather pressing Lady’s moist and inky nose to the official nose-print form. It sticks in the middle, but the outsides smear as she twists her head away, preferring to paint other things like furniture and squirrels.

Lady the Great Dane, with my father and aunt, summer 1953

Perhaps the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. But probably my oxen will haul a dozen loads of gravel just as quickly.

Going through my grandmother’s old things last night, my father and aunt came across her typing textbook from secretarial school in England, 1934 to 1936. One of the exercises, about halfway through, includes a somewhat hilarious list of sentences using every letter of the alphabet.

The Clark’s College System of Rhythmic Touch Typewriting begins with an introduction to the home row, with diagrams,

The British Empire Key-board

And proceeds through a collection of exercises like this one:

Exercise VII.

(Two Fingers on Two Rows of Keys.)

(Right Hand Only.)

Upper Two Rows.

1st and 2nd fingers.

ykykykykykykykykykykykykykykykykykykykykykykyk

1st and 2nd fingers.

ukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukuk

2nd and 4rd fingers.

ililililililililililililililililililililililil

3rd and 4th fingers.

o;o;o;o;o;o;o;o;o;o;o;o;o;o;o;o;o;o;o;o;o;o;o;

1st and 3rd fingers.

ululululululululululululululululululululululul

1st and 3rd fingers.

ylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylyl

…

 

The combinations marked with an asterisk are those most frequently used. You must be very sure of these.

Students work gradually through more patterns, adding more and more letters, while the book admonishes “The object to aim at is perfect evenness of touch. If one letter prints more heavily than another you are typing badly,” and “Accuracy and style are everything. speed is nothing.” However, it recommends that students construct a cardboard model of a typewriter before attempting any of the exercises on an actual machine.

“The student is recommended to construct a model … upon which to practise before using the actual typewriter.”

I’m sure it was worth working through it all to get to this:

Instructions for Exercise XIX.

(Alphabetical Sentences)

We have now learnt to write the alphabet correctly, and may proceed to work on sentences which contain every letter in the alphabet in sequences other than that in which they occur in the alphabet itself.

Exercise XIX is a rather more difficult way of testing your knowledge of the key-board. Here you have sentences, each of which takes the fingers over every letter of the alphabet, but not in any recognised order.

Let the first 10 minutes of each lesson be devoted to a small portion of each of the Exercises XVII, XVIII, and XIX. The whole could be completed each week by taking three lines from each exercise at every lesson.

Great care must be taken when working through the alphabetical sentences. This will be your first acquaintance with connected matter, and you must try to preserve a uniform rate of typing.

Don’t type in spasmodic jerks—going quickly over the easy words only to slow down when the hard ones are encountered.

Each sentence must be practised until it can be done correctly, evenly and quickly.

CAPITALS.—Important.

All students, when the sentences can be properly accomplished as they stand, should practise them starting each word with a Capital, as in the case of a heading.

Exercise XIX.

(Alphabetical Sentences.)

• The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
• The boy was not lazy and jumped up quickly before the box gave way.
• My help squeezed in and joined the weavers again before six o’clock.
• They provoked a quarrel by zealously mixing a few black cats.
• You spoke about having a ten quart zinc box joined firmly forward.
• Whenever the black fox jumped the squirrel gazed very suspiciously.
• We dislike to exchange job lots of sizes varying from a quarter up.
• The black jury fixed up the question of prizes with the Government.
• Probably my oxen will haul a dozen loads of gravel just as quickly.
• The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner.
• The judicious advocate will never forget that a good cause may be quickly lost by too much zeal.
• Dazzling jewels, pendant from her neck were thrown quite in the shadow by exceeding wit, which ever flashed from her brilliant mind.
• Old and quaint maxims filled the pages of that very curious book, on which, with quiet joy, he gazed for hours together.

The incredibly lifelike scenes are actually huge works of art, painted on the side of perfectly intact buildings.

Even that woman peering into the ruin above is not real. The paintings, which have fooled many, were created by John Pugh, who specialises in trompe l’oeil — or ‘trick of the eye’ — art.

Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale, using audience participation, at the event “Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus”, from the 2009 World Science Festival, June 12, 2009.

(Part of an advertising campaign for Comics Museum Lucca.)