The Monkey Signalman

For a time in the 1880s, a baboon named Jack was employed as a railroad signalman in South Africa. He was working, apparently successfully, as a voorloper, or ox driver, in the Eastern Cape when he was discovered by James Erwin Wide, a Uitenhage signalman who had recently lost his legs in an accident.

Impressed and needing a helper, Wide bought the baboon and trained him to operate his junction. When a train approached it would identify itself with a whistle; Jack would get the keys, head into the signal box and pull the correct lever to change tracks. Alarmed riders complained, but railway management investigated and were so impressed that they actually put the baboon on a railway allowance and rations, including a small amount of brandy per day.

I know this sounds preposterous, but there are photographs of Jack at work and eyewitness accounts of his abilities. His skull can be seen today in the Albany Museum in Grahamstown.

| Oddities

Poser

Q: What is the difference between a rhododendron and a cold apple-dumpling?

A: The one is a rhododendron and the other is a cold apple-dumpling.

— Angelo Lewis, Drawing-Room Amusements, 1879

He adds, “You surely wouldn’t wish for a greater difference than that.”

| Humor

Wrist Compass

If you wear an analog watch, you can use it as a compass:

Hold it flat in the palm of your hand, with the hour hand pointing in the direction of the sun. The point midway between the hour hand and the figure 12 is due south.

(In the Southern Hemisphere, point the figure 12 toward the sun. The midpoint between the 12 and the hour hand points north.)

| Science & Math

Decibel Levels

Decibel levels:

  • 0 – Threshold of human hearing (with good ears)
  • 10 – Human breathing at 3 meters
  • 30 – Theater, with no talking
  • 40 – Residential area at night
  • 50 – Quiet restaurant
  • 60 – Office or restaurant
  • 70 – Busy traffic at 5 meters
  • 80 – Vacuum cleaner at 1 meter; curbside of busy street
  • 90 – Loud factory, heavy truck at 1 meter
  • 100 – Pneumatic hammer at 2 meters; inside a disco
  • 110 – Accelerating motorcycle at 5 meters; chainsaw at 1 meter
  • 120 – Rock concert; jet aircraft taking off at 100 meters
  • 130 – Threshold of pain; train horn at 10 meters
  • 140 – Rifle being fired at 1 meter
  • 150 – Jet engine at 30 meters
  • 180 – Rocket engine at 30 meters
  • 250 – Inside a tornado
  • 1,000 – Eruption of Krakatoa

Schopenhauer wrote, “The amount of noise which anyone can bear undisturbed stands in inverse proportion to his mental capacity.”

| Science & Math