12 SEPTEMBER 1958, Page 23

SHORTSIGHTED FIRE-LIGHTING

Sta.—Doubtless neither the author nor your re- viewer of Lord of the Flies are men of science, or they would have realised that the substitution of 'short-sighted' spectacles for Ballantyne's spyglass makes this means of fire-lighting useless. This is • because the lenses needed to correct myopia are concave, not convex, and diverge sunlight rather than bringing the rays to a point.—Yours faithfully, The Old Rectory, Sowlon, near Exeter

N. W. ALCOCK