Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2012 March 11

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March 11

When has the leukoplast (TYPE) published?

I reserch which is the year this Type has published. thank you 46.210.173.72 (talk) 00:24, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

I guess you are asking when leucoplasts were first identified and named, but unfortunately that article has no references. If nobody answers here, you might have more luck on the science reference desk.--ColinFine (talk) 11:43, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

no, I'm not. I mean about the Leukoplast Plaster of Smith & Nephew company. Thanks 109.253.139.178 (talk) 18:58, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

According to the German WP, Leukoplast was first marketed by Beiersdorf, a German medical firm near Hamburg, in 1921. In 2001, Beiersdorf and Smith & Nephew created a joint venture, BSN medical, again located in Hamburg. This company was acquired in 2006 by Montagu Private Equity, who are based in London. --178.191.228.164 (talk) 21:37, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

thank you; your information has helped me. 176.13.128.122 (talk) 12:36, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

Printing newspapers

How are newspapers printed? I'm guessing that they're printed in a way that if the presses were to stop and you were standing in front of them, you could read the page that was being printed. In other words, you wouldn't have to cock your head to the side. The reason I ask is because I'm curious as to what the puncture marks are for along the outer edges of the pages of most newspapers are for or what makes them. I think it's a bit like the holes on the side of dot matrix printer paper. I can't find a suitable image to better describe what puncture marks I'm referring to but imagine you have a paper laid out in front of you and it's closed. On the left you'd have the fold or "spine" (if a newspaper can be said to have a spine since it's not as rigid as a book) and on the right would be the edges of all the pages. Along this edge, which is often jagged, there are a number of puncture marks about the size a thumbtack might make. I'm guessing they're for aligning the pages as they are collated and cut but I'd like to confirm that. Anyone? Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 07:37, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

You could try reading Printing press, and following some of the many links at the bottom. HiLo48 (talk) 09:31, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure they are the marks left behind by the spikes that are used to keep the pages together during folding once they have been collated, nothing to do with the printing as such. Sorry I don't have time to find a reference for that at the moment.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 09:55, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

Modern newspapers are made with some kind of offset printing. It looks like this. It isn't like a dot matrix printer at all. The spikes are not part of the printing stage. This video shows the entire process. It's rather large and complicated, these days. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:47, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

I don't know how the news papers are printed were you are but let get a better idea of what you're describing. Open the paper out on the centre fold and on one side the are holes which get gradually large on each sheet. If this is so, then that's the 'griper edge'. When the 'sheet' (singular) has been printed on both sides it is spit, folded and collated. See fig 2.1-110. Then cut into individual copies. See: 2.1-111. A pin gripper then pulls the collated and cut newspaper copy through to the next process leaving its holes. [1] page 287 & 288. On magazines etc this area it gets trimed off. --Aspro (talk) 14:44, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

introduction of business organisation

introduction of business organisation — Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.84.150.197 (talk) 13:09, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, I don't understand what you're asking. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:47, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

Worth of a sixpence in London in 1898

Greetings! For a comparative in a WP-article I would like a literature reference of the worth ("buying power") of a sixpence in London in the year 1898 (+/- 3 years). Reference in food could be interesting. Sincerely Grey Geezer 13:56, 11 March 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Grey Geezer (talk • contribs)

This http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/default0.asp#mid might help (for 1900 it says 6d is the same as £1.43 in 2005). MilborneOne (talk) 14:06, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

According to Sir James Marchant Rebuilding Family Life in the Post-War World (1945) p. 41, a 4lb loaf cost sixpence in 1900. --Antiquary (talk) 15:45, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

And Louis Coltman Parkes The Elements of Health (1895) p. 170 gives sixpence as the price of a pound of cheese. --Antiquary (talk) 16:23, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

Standard "mousetrap" cheddar is now £7.96 per kg = £3.61 per lb at Tesco[2]. Of course, diary farming and cheese manufacture are much more efficient than in 1896. In 1914 (I couldn't find any earlier), the average price of a pint of beer was 3d.[3] It's now over £3[4] but a large part of this is duty. Alansplodge (talk) 17:20, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

The Lancet gave the price of beer as 1½d. or 2d. a half in 1901, which agrees very well with your figure. In 1900 bread and cheese was the archetypal poor man's food, whereas now trapping mice is a luxury beyond the dreams of my sort. I agree, it all goes to show that single commodities aren't a reliable way of measuring the value of money. --Antiquary (talk) 17:57, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

The Bank of England has a very flashy UK Inflation 1790-2005 chart which shows that there was very little inflation in the decades either side of 1900, followed by a massive jump at the start of WWI. Alansplodge (talk) 20:38, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the useful comments! It was the price for the official Post Office Guide of the Royal Mail in London. Now I have a better understanding "what it cost." Thanks again! Grey Geezer 22:48, 11 March 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Grey Geezer (talk • contribs)

(edit conflict) My reprint of the 1900 edition of Whitaker's Almanack gives the daily pay of a private in the infantry and Army Service Corps as one shilling (twelve pence) a day, up to 1/9 d. (one shilling and ninepence) for a gunner, sapper or trooper in the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers and cavalry (page 217). One shilling also the daily pension of a retired troop sergeant-major in Rudyard Kipling's poem Shillin' a Day from Barrack Room Ballads (1892), little enough that the speaker says his wife must go out charring (housecleaning) and he working as a hotel commissionaire. ["But I'm old and I'm nervis,/ I'm cast from the Service,/ And all I deserve is a shillin' a day./(Chorus) Shillin' a day,/ Bloomin' good pay -- /Lucky to touch it, a shillin' a day!"] Navy pay for the lowest rating or boy started at £9 a year, which would equate to 15 shillings (3/4 of a pound) a month or sixpence (half a shilling) a day (page 233). ¶ I looked at the advertisements in the back of Whitaker's for something that cost sixpence, and found the single-issue price of The Windsor Magazine (120 pages, illustrated, monthly) or Literature ("A Weekly Journal devoted to international literature", published by The Times), also the Epistle of St Clement published by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. The weekly editions of The Times and The Staffordshire Advertiser cost twopence. Approved School Books from T. Fisher Unwin such as Arithmetic, Grammar, Poetry or Spelling for Beginners cost a shilling. But most books are advertised for considerably more, around five shillings hard-bound. George Rowney advertised patent ring-bound sketch books from sixpence to four shillings with paintboxes starting at five shillings. ¶ Imperial Penny Postage would deliver half an ounce anywhere in the Empire save Australasia, but it cost 2 1/2 d. (twopence halfpenny) to deliver that half-ounce to Australasia or foreign countries. For the same penny, four ounces would be delivered domestically, plus two ounces for every additional halfpenny. Parcel Post cost threepence (3 d.) for the first pound of weight (pp. 435-440). —— Shakescene (talk) 23:05, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

Worth of a sixpence in London in the 1950s and 1960s

Not really relevant, but in my 1960s childhood, 6d (= 2.5p) would buy: a portion of chips in proper newspaper - now £1.30 - you used to ask for "six pen'orth o' chips please", a Mars bar (now 50 or 60p but they've got smaller[5]) or 24 blackjacks now about 4.5p each if you could still buy them singly and (quite rightly) they don't have a golly on the wrapper anymore[6]. Apologies for the nostalgia attack. 19:35, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

In my late 1950's to 1960 London childhood (before emigration to the U.S.), I seem to remember that The Eagle cost 6d. and then they raised the price to a stiffer 7d. Domestic postage, as all good schoolboy philatelists knew, was 3d. (purple stamp) for a letter and 2 1/2d. (red) for a postcard. You could get a good but modest stamp album or book for about 5 shillings, which was also the price of a small set of toy soldiers or of one or two mounted officers or knights with horses. Individual toy foot soldiers cost significantly less than shilling each. Most plastic model-building kits cost less than 5/- (five shillings). Despite the official rates of exchange (£1 = $2.80), something that cost a schoolboy $1 in the U.S. would have cost him about 5/- in London (£1 = $4). But my memory is fallible. —— Shakescene (talk) 20:05, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

Yes, people used to call a half crown (2 shillings and sixpence or 12.5p) "half-a-dollar"[7] for some reason, but it does match your rate-of-exchange. I think you could buy a Ladybird book for a 2/6d. I was a Lion reader myself - I actually remember reading this 1970 issue which is marked 7d. Alansplodge (talk) 20:31, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

I just saw that my 1958 copy of The Happy Warrior (collected Eagle comics on the life of Winston Churchill), in hard boards, cost 6 s., and Methuen's 1958 hard-covered edition of Tintin in translation (64 pp.) cost 8s. 6d. —— Shakescene (talk) 20:59, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

No-one has mentioned yet, that in Edwardian England six pence could bring you two loads of happiness ( or 'appiness as they pronounced at the time) Half a Sixpence. Ah. Black Jacks – at just a farthing each !. --Aspro (talk) 02:58, 13 March 2012 (UTC)

Farthings went out of circulatiuon in 1960, but Blackjacks and Fruit Salad remained at four-a-penny for another decade, if memory serves me aright. Alansplodge (talk) 19:02, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

4th grade ( age 9-10 learner)

could wiki please include in their '4th Grade" article whether this age groups has class teaching (i.e. one main teacher teaching all or most subjects), or they have subject teaching (i.e. being taught by different teachers for different subjects) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.151.96.98 (talk) 14:07, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

A fourth grade class might stay together with the same teacher, might have different teachers for different subjects, or might split up into different groupings for each subject. Which situation it is, will depend on the school, the relevant education authority, and the country in which the school is located. Astronaut (talk) 14:20, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

In many cases at that level it is a combination of both methods. One main teacher provides instruction in core subjects such as mathematics, social studies, science and English, while other teachers are brought in for what are called "specials," such as music and art.   → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 17:15, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

In my elementary school days, we were shuffled between different a few teachers for math, science, "language arts," social studies and homeroom, with a single gym teacher for the whole school. There were different "tracks" for students based on their supposed level within each grade, so one teacher might teach math for the top track, language arts for the middle track and social studies for the bottom track, while another teacher might teach math for the middle track, language arts for the bottom track and social studies for the top track. Why they did it this way I don't know -- maybe it was just to keep the same kids and teachers from having to deal with each other all day long. Some other schools did it differently, with the kids staying in the same classroom most of the day. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 01:31, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

In my school we always had a different teacher for French (even as early as grade 1), but in grade 4 we still had just the one teacher for everything else. It wasn't until grade 7 and 8 that we started having different teachers (and in that case it was just math, and it was just one of the other teachers - and our teacher taught math to the other teacher's class, not like there was a special teacher or something). Adam Bishop (talk) 10:20, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

In my school we stayed in a single class room but generally had a different teacher for each subject, with the exception of having the same teacher for Chinese and Communist propaganda. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 17:54, 15 March 2012 (UTC)