Hands up
Police mug shots of New Zealanders in the 1880s were posed with the subjects' hands displayed on their chest. New Zealand was still two decades away from being introduced to the technology of fingerprinting. The inclusion of hands in the photographs was an additional point of identification
for police: missing fingers, scars, and the general shape and condition of the prisoner's hands could all help in the identification of a suspect.
Cost-cutting the arts
An engineer with a sense of humour submitted this report on how to reduce costs at the Royal Festival Hall in London: "For considerable periods the four oboe players had nothing to do. Their numbers should be reduced, and the work spread more evenly over the whole of the concert, thus eliminating peaks of activity. All the twelve violins were playing identical notes. This seems unnecessary multiplication. The staff of this section should be drastically cut; if a large volume of sound is required, it could be obtained by means of electronic amplifiers.
"There seems to be too much repetition of some musical passages. Scores should be drastically pruned. No useful purpose is served by repeating on the horns a passage which has already been handled by the strings. It is estimated that if all redundant passages were eliminated, the whole concert time of two hours could be reduced to twenty minutes, and there would be no need for an interval. The conductor agrees generally with these recommendations, but expresses the opinion that there might be some falling-off in box-office receipts. In that unlikely event it should be possible to close sections of the auditorium entirely, with a consequential saving of overhead expenses — lighting, attendants. (Futility Closet - NPL News 1969)
Knitted pupils
