ITEMS OF INTEREST September 8, 1906 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

The Simplified Spelling Board has announced that two distinguished British scholars have just accepted membership to testify their sympathy with the new movement to improve English orthography,—Dr. J. A. H. Murray, the senior editor of the great Oxford Dictionary of the English Language, of which the associate editor is Henry Bradley, who joined the Simplified Spelling Board some weeks ago, and Professor Joseph Wright, editor of the English Dialect Dictionary. In announcing these elections the chairman of the Board said: "Professor Skeat, the editor of the English Etymological Dictionary, became a member two months ago. The Simplifed Spelling Board now has as members the editors of the three chief American dictionaries, Webster, the Century, and the Standard. The adhesion of the foremost linguist authorities of both branches of the English-speaking race ought to be reassuring to those who have dreaded that the recommendations of the Simplified Spelling Board might work harm to our noble tongue or to its etymology. It serves to show that those who know most about English spelling believe that it ought to be improved."

A despatch received at Hammerfest, Norway, from Walter Wellman, leader of the Wellman and Chicago Record-Herald polar expedition at Spitzbergen, says: "I have decided not to attempt a voyage northward this year on account of defects in the mechanical equipment of my airship. According to the announcement made last winter in anticipation of such possibilities, the expedition will continue next year. My party is now completing a great balloon house and other features of the plant and making experiments with a view to the campaign of 1907. This year will be one of preparation and the next will be one of action. Our confidence of success in 1907 has been increased by this summer's work and by our weather observations. The motors work well and the balloon is in good condition, but the car and mechanical equipment will be entirely rebuilt in Paris during the winter."

Automobiles may be substituted for one-horse wagons in the collection of mail from letter-boxes in large cities. Baltimore is the first city in which the experiment will be tried. The First Assistant Postmaster General has just completed arrangements by which two specially constructed automobiles will be leased to make experiments there, beginning Oct, 1. These automobiles will do away with four wagons and will compete with fifteen wagons to be retained, so that the relative advantages of the horse and motor-car in this service will be clearly shown.

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