The drunk staggered up to the hotel reception and demanded his room be changed.
"But sir," said the clerk, "you have the best room in the hotel."
"I insist on another room!!" said the drunk.
"Very good, sir. I`ll change you from 502 to 555. Would you mind telling me why you don't like 502?" asked the clerk.
"Well, for one thing," said the drunk, "it's on fire."
Sir Henry Christopher ManceDied 21 Apr 1926 (born 1840).British scientist and engineer whose invention of a heliograph provided a portable signaling device that used a tripod with a mirror to reflect sunlight (British patent Feb 1876). A second mirror could direct sunlight onto the first which was tilted using a telegraph-type finger key to transmit a coded series of short and long flashes to a distant station, up to 100 miles away. After its successful use in the second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-80), it became an important part of British military communications. Mance worked for the Persian Gulf Telegraph Department in India from 1863, and helped lay the first submarine telegraph cables in the Persian Gulf. He invented the Mance method to detect defects in submarine cables and locate their position.« |
