His Master’s Voice
THE EMBLEM OF HMV is this dog – his name is Nipper – who was painted posthumously by his owner, Francis Barraud, in 1898. He called his painting His Master’s Voice and it was adopted as the trademark of The Gramophone Company in 1899. (Barraud had previously offered the painting to the Edison-Bell Company, who […]
Decus et Tutamen
IT’S THE LEGEND that appears around the edge of the British pound coin. Previously, high-value coins, especially those made of silver or other precious metals, were simply ‘milled’ – inscribed with vertical lines which would immediately show if the edges of the coin had been shaved off. Decus et Tutamen means, in Latin, ‘an ornament […]
Fingerless luvvies
WHAT LINKS all these actors and musicians? It’s rather surprising. They all have a finger missing. Gary Burghoff (Radar in MASH) James Doohan (Scotty in Star Trek) Jerry Garcia Darryl Hannah Rahm Emmanuel Boris Yeltsin Christian Bale Alex Comfort Buster Keaton Harold Lloyd Jesse James Telly Savalas Lee Van Cleef Matthew Perry Django Reinhardt
Sugar free? Not
SUGAR-FREE TIC TACS contain the nutritional information that they contain 0 grams of sugar per serving. As you might expect. Except that’s not the full story. In fact, Tic Tacs are almost entirely made of sugar. 94.5%, to be precise. In America, the FDA rules that any product that contains less than half a gram […]
Miscellany
THE SALARY OF the Garter King of Arms is £49.07, unchanged since 1830. King George V gave the first royal Christmas speech in 1932. It was written by Rudyard Kipling. British royals are buried in lead-lined coffins. Queen Elizabeth’s coffin weighed a quarter of a ton. Lego makes more tyres than any other company in […]
Why is a wicket 22 yards long?
AN ACRE IS THE SIZE of field a medieval ploughman, with a team of eight oxen, was able to plough in a day. His field was 220 yards long – a ‘furrowlong’, which became abbreviated to a ‘furlong’. This was the distance a team of oxen could till before they needed a rest. The ploughman […]
Don’t be afrit
WHAT’S THE POINT of those black dots around the edge of your car windscreen? Every car has them. And they’re called ‘frit’. The windscreen is fixed in place by a sealant, which also keeps the rain out. The black frit paint is rougher than the glass, so it makes a more secure bond between the […]
The width of an horse’s bum
THE BOOSTER ROCKETS that lift the Space Shuttle off its launchpad – those twin bright red cylinders either side of the shuttle – are significantly taller than the shuttle itself. The reason why is surprising. The rockets are built at a plant some distance from the launchpad, and as they’re much too big to go […]
Forensic entomology
IT WAS PROBABLY The Silence of the Lambs that brought the knowledge of forensic entomology to the wider world: it’s the art of making scientific deductions from insects. But the science dates back to the 13th century. In 1235 a farmer in a small village in China had been killed with a sickle, and lawyer […]
Oak planning
WESTMINSTER HALL, at the entrance to the Houses of Parliament, was built in 1097. A new hammerbeam roof, make of oak, was added in 1393. By 1913 some of the oak timbers needed to be replaced. But due largely to the construction of the English fleet required to fight the Spanish Armada, oak was increasingly […]