The Doctor Who Surprised a Cow
In 1977, a Dutch doctor had to go to see a sick cow. He
needed to study the gases in the cow’s stomach. He had
to
put a
tube
into the back end of the animal and light a
match. But as soon as he did this, fire shot out of the tube
and hit some dry grass, which started to burn. Soon all of
the farm was one great fire.
It cost ,£45,000 to build it
again. The cow was all right but she was a little shaky.
The Most Useless Post Box
In
1979, workmen at Ballymacra, County Atrim in
Ireland
were taking down old
telegraph poles
and
putting up new ones. One of the old poles had a post box
on it. The workers did not have the key to unlock the
metal ring that tied the post box to the pole. So they
lifted the box and the metal ring over the top of the old
pole and dropped it down the new one.
But the new pole
was thicker than the old one and so the post box did not
fall all the way down. Instead, it stopped nine feet above
the ground.
It stayed there for three weeks. During that time some
people were able to post letters. ‘I have heard,’ said Mr
Ernie McDermott, the postman, ‘that
someone left a
ladder there,’
8