paper

I read with great interest in The Times yesterday about Ernest Shackleton's expedition to the South Pole - a well documented tale of incredible bravery the like of which could only be matched or surpassed today by extended space travel.

In common with space exploration, Shackleton had to carry everything he needed to reach his destination.  Clothing, food (calculated meticulously so they carried just enough to survive and not have to pull too much weight) and their dogs that would be used for the task.

But one surprising inclusion aboard his ship, The Endurance, was a complete and up to date Encyclopaedia Britannica.  Every single volume - 29 of them to be precise containing information on over 40,000 subjects.

But perhaps even more surprisingly were the uses the pages were put to.  No doubt during the long journey the volumes were read to brush up on knowledge and to pass the time.  But once there, all that changed.  While the entries on scurvey and the like were perhaps unsurprisingly kept safely, other pages were used for smoking tobacco, burning for warmth and, incredibly, as emergency toilet paper.

Now, the only paper our future explorers travelling in their nuclear fusion powered, titanium and not yet invented metal alloy space craft are likely to carry is an emergency instruction manual.  they certainly won't have a small library.  Well they will but it'll be in the form of a Kindle or iPad type device.

Try wiping your backside with one of those.