Consuming Interest
On Draught
By LESLIE ADRIAN Draught excluders come in many forms. Strip plastic foam, about a quarter of an inch in sec- tion on a sticky backing, is very effective for the tops and sides of doors, and around hinged windows also. 'Cling' costs 3s. 6d. for 20 feet, and 'Stick-a-Seal' 4s. 6d.; 'Limpet' is 2s. lid. for 161 feet. Card should be 't ken to clean the surface first to get good adhesion. The strips I put up last year are still effective. They have die great advantage of being unobtrusive.
The bottoms of doors are another problem, for here you haven't got one surface closing home against another, and the gap is often a wide one. I have a stiffened felt strip here, attached to wooden beading which is tacked to the bottom of the door, on the side it closes. The edge of the flannel is against the carpet, and, as it bends one way or the other as the door opc.ts and closes, it doesn't take on a permanent 'set' and start gaping (Feltite' strip from Timothy Whites, is. 3d. for 311 inches). .
An alternative is phosphor bronze strip ('Easy-' to-fit,' one inch wide, 7s. 6d. for 20 feet or 18s. 9d. for 50 feet). This makes closing doors a bit of an effort, and it is somewhat unsightly. It is, however, about the only way of draught- proofing sliding sash-type windows.
'Nail Kwik' (ugh) is grey vinyl strip which is tacked to the floor under the door. At 15s. for three feet thl is more expensive. Then there are mechanical devices which by a system of hinges and springs lower a rubber strip against the floor as the door closes, and raise it when you open it. 'Jay-Bee' (ugh, again), 5s. 11d. for 30 inches, 6s. 6d. for 33 inches, 6s. 11d. for 36 inches. A little cumbersome, 14ut all right for the gadget-minded. The same people make a rubber strip with a wooden backing, five strips 3 feet 6 inches long for 7s. 6d.
All that remains to be done for a real fug is to replace the, gas fire with an electric one and seal up the chimney, for draughts need Out as well as In.
A final tip: When you've finished, check the effectiveness of the sealing with a lighted match.
Last week Peter Forster asked whether some- thing could not be done about exchange rates charged on tourists' travellers' cheques. Thomas Cook's told me that official exchange rates are those applying to large-scale government trans- actions, where costs are low; small deals come more expensive. Three shillings in the £, they agreed, was ridiculous; even with taxes you should never be charged more than 5 per cent. for encashment. Stick to banks rather than hotels and bureaux de change for the best deal in en- cashment, they advised, and change larger rather than smaller amounts.
A colleague who flew back to London Airport the other evening from Manchester is still sim- mering about what happened—not for the first time, he claims—on arrival at Heath Row. The aircraft came to rest at the wrong end of the building—presumably because space beside the arrival end was full. The passengers walked up the nearest ramp, intending to use the exit at the top. But at the top they were met by an excitable hostess, who informed them not merely that they could not use the nearest exit; they were not even allowed to use the internal passageway that runs the length of the building—they must go back the way they had come, and walk the length of the building outside.
The passengers had already been delayed some five hours at Manchester waiting for the take- off. It was well after midnight : and it was rain- ing. It says much for their docility, and little for their spirit, that some of them actually obeyed. Most refused to go out into the rain; they walked along the internal passageway, the hostess clucking beside them, as far as they were let. Only two mutinied; took the nearest en- trance; and marched through. They easily con- vinced the immigration authorities of their innocence on the way. It can be done.
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