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Cb~ Bacup~ Rawt~nstall GrammarScboolJournal. VOL.2. JANUARY,1930. No.4. tHE School Journal, on beginning' its fourth year of life, can now be considered firmly established. Its features are well marked without being too stereotyped. It is not by any means above criticism, and its limitations are recognised. It aims at being a record of School activities, mostly those outside the class- room. It is neither" Tit-Bits" nor" The Rag-Rag." It aims at answering the question" What did happen at School in 1930 besides lessons? " We believe that this in the long run will serve a more useful purpose than devoting many of our pages to original detective stories, facetious comments, conundrums, puzzles, and the like. Last Speech Day witnessed an innovation. Formerly, we believe, we tried to do too much in the short time between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m :-speeches, prize distribution, votes of thanks, concert. "Crush and rush" might almost have been taken as the motto, . crush' for space and' rush' for time. Under the circumstances the arrangements have worked admirably and to the general enjoyment. But to avoid disabilities Speech Day has been divided into two parts, Speech Day proper, held in the School Hall on Monday, November 18th, and Concert to be held in the School Hall on Saturday, February 8th. By using the School Hall, there is a certain elasticity in arranging the date and the day of the week, so that there is a greater facility in accom- modating busy and illustrious persons who come to distribute the prizes. Then, too, where better could the prizes be distri- buted than within the walls where thay have been worked for and won? The School Concert should be a great success. A selection from Gilbert and SuIlivan's comic opera" Ruddigore" is being performed, together with AIlan Monkhouse's one-act play, .. The Grand Cham's Diamond," other playlets, dancesand songs. Much hammering, sawing, fitting and painting are going on in the pre- paration of scenery. There is to be a new and enlarged School platform, though it is doubtful whether this will be ready in time. We congratulate Mr. Owen on his election to the Council of the Incorporated Associationof Assistant Masters in Secondary Schools,.which meets at Bristol from December 31st to January 4th. He is one of five representing the East Lancashire Branch of the Association, and his appointment is the result of service, keen interest, and grasp of policy. The staff and pupils on Armistice Day contributed £3/6/2 to Rawtenstalland £2/5/3 to Bacup, for the British Legion Appeal Funds. We wishto thank the followingfor giftsof booksto the School Library :-Mrs. Beswick, BA, J. Gray (1923-1929);Jenny Grim- shaw (1924-1927); Margaret Hobson (1922-1929); Winston L. Marshall, B.Sc. (1917-1923); Harry Pickup (1922-1929). Easter Term begins Wednesday,January 15th, ends Thurs- day, April 10th. - THE NOMADS. tHISintoyearSwitzerland.we went acrossWe thediscardedbattlefieldsthe tentof Northernand stayedFrancein hotels, which was better for mileage but worse for the exchequer. The weather, especially at first, was not up to its usual standard, and the waters of the Mediterranean were neither so blue nor so inviting for swimming as last year. Our most memorable day was the one we spent at Lauter- brunnen, near Interlaken. Lauterbrunnen itself is magnificently situated in a deep valley leading up to the Jungfrau massif, and we stayed two nights in a characteristic wooden chalet near to the foot of the waterfall called Staubbach, which has a sheer drop of nearly a thousand feet. A mountain railway from Interlaken passes through Lauterbrunnen, then starts immediately to climb the steep hillside, first to the village of Wengen, then right on up through tunnels to the station Jungfrau;och, nearly at the summit of the Jungfrau, the highest station and hotel in Europe (11,340 ft.) The fare from Lauterbrunnen to Jungfrau;och is about £2, so economising we went up as far as Little Scheidegg (6770 ft.), where, roped together and accompanied by a guide we traversed the Eiger glacier to the Ice Grotto. There are crevasses in this glacier which, though not wide, seem almost bottomless. Not without difficulty we crossed one of these crevasses, our guid~ cuttin~ steps in the i~e wit!) hi~ axe, '. Even at this heightit was very warm,and the air was so clear that the summit of the Jungfrau (13,670ft.) seemed much nearer than the top of Cribden from Rawtenstall. Other Alps sat round us in a broken semicircle, their snowy summits clean, white and dazzling in the strong sunshine. Everything in Switzerland is clean and wholesome and homely. In the evening we visited the Trummelbach Falls. Do not miss them if ever you go to Interlaken. Unlike the Staub- bach you can see nothing of them as you approach the place where you expect to find them: they are internal falls. In one place the water flashes past an opening in its rocky channel as if it was discharged through the nozzle of a giant's hosepipe. Standing against the rail provided for sightseers we were soaked to the skin in five seconds. After this we were taken up into the bowels of the mountain in a lift. We have a confused recollection of rush- ing, foaming water; of deafening noise; of wild turmoil; of eerie red lights. We stood dazed yet fascinated: a dreadful fascination which would probably impel a person there alone to partake of the frenzy of the waters and to cast himself into the midst of their furious turmoil. What a contrast to emerge into the quiet peacefulness of the darkening valley! INVISIBLE RAYS. Lecture by Dr. Fairbrother, Wednesday, October 30th, 1929, (HE Educationfourth ofCommitteea series of inlecturesconjunctionarrangedwithby thethe LancashireUniversity of Manchester was held in the school on Wednesday, October 15th. The lecturer was Dr. Fairbrother, and his subjeect .. Invisible Rays," The primary object of the lecture was to outline the various invisible parts of general radiation which are undetectable by the eye. In a general survey the lecturer showed how all types of wave motion, are members of one family. They range from the extreme wireless waves, of length some thousands of metres, down to the newly discovered cosmic rays, of length three ten-thousand-millionths of a millimetre, passing in turn through the Hertzian waves, extreme infra-red, near infra-red, visible light, ultra-violet, X-rays and gamma rays, differing only in frequency and wave length. The detection of the "invisible .. portions of this scale depends on special methods, some of which the lecturer mentioned, 80 He showed how the various rays play their part in nature, in making the sky red at sunset, the blue sky in daytime, the pene- trating powers of certain lights in fogs; also how in the hands of the scientist they have been utilised in a new kind of burglar alarm and in automatic train-signalling. With regard to the ultra-violet he indicated its use in thera- peutics, its application to the cure of lupus, and how necessary is an adequate supply of ultra-violet light for health and for im- munity from disease; also the various methods of applying it to the detection of forgeries, the examination of jewels, and for night signalling. The lecturer showed experimentally the fluorescent action of ultra-violet light on substances such as anthraGene, teeth, and uranium glass. Realizing at the end of the lecture that it is possible to .. see" in many different ways from the commonly accepted method, one wonders if Milton was anticipating modern developments of science when he speah of the light surrounding Satan and his fallen angels as being" darkness visible." SPEECH DAY. NOVEMBER 18TH, 1929. Address and Distribution of Prizes by the Right Honourable Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, P.c., K.T., D.C.L., FR.IBA., FR.S., Chancel/or of the University of Manchester. SPEECH Day this year was held in the School Hall. Forms and chairs filled the ground floor, a passage being left down the centre. The Hall was well crowded as the girls, in white dresses, filed to their seats, followed shortly afterwards by the Earl of Craw- ford, the Governors, the Mayor and Mayoress of Rawtenstall, the Mayor of Bacup and the Headmaster. The boys were assembled round the balcony. The Chairman of the Governors congratulated the Head- master, the Staff, and the Scholars on the examination results of the last year, and welcomed the Earl of CrawfQrdto distribut~ the prizes, 81 The Earl offered his congratulations to the prize winners. It was a custom (he said) upon those occasions to congratulate those who had not won prizes, for in nine cases out of ten the person who gave away the prizes never won a prize himself. However, in life. let there be no mistake about it, they were all trying to win prizes, and the prize winners merited congratulation. There were many disadvantages about the examination system but until they could devise a better, it must stand as it was. The parents of the scholars deserved congratulation also. He often wondered who was the most indispensable part of the School-the parent, scholar or teacher. There would be very few scholars without the interest of the parents, and without parents and staff the teachers would be living in Elysium. The School had to be a unity in which the Staff was concerned in the welfare of the children only in one degree less than the parents themselves. The School Library and the pictures round the Hall deserved special mention as showing the trend of education to-day.