Friday, November 3, 1967
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
1
Professor makes brass rubbings Paper, black crayons, knee-pads - all that's needed
A six-foot likeness of a 14th-century English knight and a collection of books on finance might be thought strange partners, but Kent I. Tool, placement director of the KU School of Business, counts them both as part of his life.
Tool, a candidate for a Ph.D. degree in business, spends part of each year in the British Isles making the likenesses, called monumental brass rubbings.
Monumental brasses are medieval English tombstones and are found in village churches all over the British Isles. The metal pictures are inlaid in the marble floors of these churches, and when covered with white paper and rubbed with a black crayon, the impressions of the brass design show up and a wall hanging—or brass rubbing—has been made.
Three trips. 49 rubbings
Three trips, 43 rubbings In three trips to England, Tool has made 49 such rubbings, varying in size from 10 inches to 10 feet and in complexity from single figures to huge elaborate figures of a husband, wife and children.
The monuments themselves were stylish from 1277 to the early 1600's.
"Most figures in the brasses are well-to-do people," Tool said. "They range from Knights of the Garter to noted citizens, wealthy wool merchants, and members of the various religious orders.
Accurate picture of styles
"These brasses are the most accurate portrayal of the change in style of armor and women's fashion." Tool said. "Most figures are dressed in the clothing of their station of life and wealth, although some brasses show the person as a skeleton or wrapped in a shroud."
Although most of the brasses on the European continent have been destroyed by war or by new churches being built over old foundations, about 4,000 brasses remain in Great Britain, Tool said.
Most which remain are of civilians or knights, since Henry VIII after the establishment of the Church of England as the official church, and Oliver Cromwell in the Puritan Revolution, destroyed many of the very religious or Catholic brasses.
Not likenesses
"The brasses are not likenesses of the person buried beneath them." Tool pointed out. "Occasionally though, if a person had some unique feature such as a mustache, this was included.
"The people were supposed to
Record even for beer 'chugging'
We all know the record for home runs for a single baseball season is 61 set by Roger Maris in 1961.
This, however, isn't the only major sports feat on record.
Did you know that the longest tug-of-war in history lasted two hours and 41 minutes? It occurred in Jubbulpore, India, between "E" and "H" companies of the Second Derbvshire Regiment.
An Australian, T. Morris, managed to skip for 1,000 miles from Melbourne to Adelaide and back in October and November of 1835. This is the longest skip on record.
The record for one minute of typing 170 words set by Margaret Owen in 1918. Slowest would probably be a Chinese secretary who has to choose from 1,500 characters, good for only three or four words per minute.
Everyone must have seen a beer-chugging contest at one time. The record for this is a yard of ale ($2\frac{1}{2}$ pints) in 10 seconds flat by Peter Edwards, 31, at the White Lion in Portway, Wythall, Worcestershire, England.
The most-consumed drinking record is held by a Frenchman,
Auguste Maffrey, who consumed 24 pints in 52 minutes in 1950.
Overindulgence continues in the eating records. Philip Yazdzik, Chicago, ate 77 hamburgers at a sitting April 25, 1955.
Joe Garcia of Melbourne, Australia, downed 480 oysters in one hour in 1955. The record for opening oysters is 100 in two minutes, 21 seconds held by a restaurateur in Biarritz, France.
Roger McEwan, 15, of Upminster, Essex, England, ate thirty bags of potato chips in 59 minutes without a drink in November 1959.
Local drummers take note. The world record for durmaging endurance was set by Raye Du-Val at the Top Ten Club, Soho, London, in 1959. Du-Val kept the sticks going for 82 hours 10 minutes, September 25, 1959.
Grows Up
HOLLYWOOD — (UPI) — Pamela Franklin, England's 17-year-old star of little girl roles, will play the feminine lead in "Sinful Davey" which John Huston will direct in Ireland and Scotland.
look as if they were lying in state, but the artists got the perspective wrong and instead they look as if they are standing," he said. "Almost all show the hands praying."
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Tool became interested in monumental brass rubbing in 1963 when he was a member of a wedding party in an English parish church. The vicar learned of his interest in collecting art and suggested he watch someone make a rubbing. Following the ceremony, a woman and her son came in to do that and noticing Tool's interest, gave him enough paper and crayon to make a rubbing.
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Went to England in '65
"Brass rubbing has become so popular in the last two years that churches are frowning upon people making them for resale, and are trying to discourage this by charging a fee to rub them. Many are not allowing any further rubbings to be made." Tool explained.
"Churches normally allow brass rubbing any time services are not in progress," Tool said. "Some, however, set aside only a couple hours during the day when people are allowed to rub them. In West-minister Abbey, London, rubbings are not allowed during the tourist season.
He returned to England in 1965 and made 20 rubbings in the counties of Surrey and Sussex. This past summer he made 28 rubbings in 12 village churches in counties Kent, Sussex, Wiltshire, and Gloucestershire.
NIX ON SPEED TRAPS
"An average of $1.50 is charged by most churches," he said.
"However, some with famous rubbings charge up to $75.
"A brass plate which is five feet tall takes one person about one and a half hours to complete," he said. "It may take anywhere from 20 minutes to eight hours to complete other rubbings, depending on the size and complexity."
ATLANTA—(UPI)—The state of Georgia has taken a new step in its continuing war on speed traps.
Average cost of $1.50
Gov. Lester Maddox says all complaints will be forwarded to sheriffs, town officials and newspapers in the affected areas.
"We're almost going to eliminate speed traps completely," Maddox said.