Prodigal comparison

SIR – Tim Barnsley (Letters, December 20) wonders how useful it is to compare the weight of plastic thrown away to that of three million emperor penguins.

It reminded me of a comparison in the weekly Cornish Guardian from 1904, when it attempted to inform its readers about radium and “the properties and value of this wonderful product”, which came from uranium mined near St Stephen-in-brannel.

The paper left the reader in no doubt about its energy by stating: “So prodigious is the velocity of the electrons which radium emits, that if the total energy of one gramme were converted into weight-raising power, it would be able to raise the whole of the British Navy to the top of Ben Nevis.” Courtenay Smale

Newquay, Cornwall