Things you always wanted to know the answer to [Vol. 5]

Things you always wanted to know the answer to [Vol. 5]

Author
Discussion

aspirin

32 posts

118 months

Saturday 24th October 2020
quotequote all
Dr Jekyll said:
Do residents of the city of Bath pronounce the name to rhyme with grass or with maths?
Generally those of us who live here pronounce it “Baath”. Visitors and newcomers tend to use their local dialect however. We don't hold it against them.

Hope that helps 😊

coppernorks

1,919 posts

46 months

Saturday 24th October 2020
quotequote all
How long will English football continue with The Knee ?

They can't slowly drop it, that would look bad, but on the other hand, they can't do it forever, can they ?


They seem to have foolishly committed themselves wholeheartedly to this gesture
with no agreed face-saving armistice or cancellation.

The Mad Monk

10,474 posts

117 months

Saturday 24th October 2020
quotequote all
coppernorks said:
How long will English football continue with The Knee ?

They can't slowly drop it, that would look bad, but on the other hand, they can't do it forever, can they ?


They seem to have foolishly committed themselves wholeheartedly to this gesture
with no agreed face-saving armistice or cancellation.
I didn't know they were still doing it.

Do they all do it?

steveo3002

10,524 posts

174 months

Sunday 25th October 2020
quotequote all
at what point in history was some sort of instant fire maker available ...you know no longer had to rub sticks etc

johnpsanderson

503 posts

200 months

Sunday 25th October 2020
quotequote all
steveo3002 said:
at what point in history was some sort of instant fire maker available ...you know no longer had to rub sticks etc
Interesting question, so I have Googled briefly and here are my findings:
Iron Age (roughly 1500BC) onwards, people were using a flint/steel type of arrangement to make fires (as well as non instant techniques)
Matches were invented in China c. 900AD, Western world invented them at the start of the 19th century.

Pre 19th century people would want to keep a fire burning constantly, e.g. in a house, because it was not so simple to start one.

glazbagun

14,279 posts

197 months

Sunday 25th October 2020
quotequote all
steveo3002 said:
at what point in history was some sort of instant fire maker available ...you know no longer had to rub sticks etc
Really the invention of the match.

Prior to that you had fire steels, which were really good at giving off sparks if you hit them in the right way with flint or something equally hard. They'd be shaped for this purpose and we used them from (at least) Roman times until matches. Still do use them in some camping contexts!

Plus the more Ray Mears-esque bow drills, wood ploughs etc.

Or you just kept a fire burning all day and transferred it around!

HTP99

22,547 posts

140 months

Sunday 25th October 2020
quotequote all
Why is a nautical mile different to a mile that one would do on a road?

Why is speed on water referred to as "knots" as opposed to MPH or KPH and what relation is a knot to a nautical mile?

Clockwork Cupcake

74,543 posts

272 months

Sunday 25th October 2020
quotequote all
HTP99 said:
what relation is a knot to a nautical mile?
A knot is a nautical mile per hour.

Dr Jekyll

23,820 posts

261 months

Sunday 25th October 2020
quotequote all
HTP99 said:
Why is a nautical mile different to a mile that one would do on a road?

Why is speed on water referred to as "knots" as opposed to MPH or KPH and what relation is a knot to a nautical mile?
The road mile evolved from the Roman mile which was supposed to be a thousand paces. A nautical mile is one minute of latitude so convenient for navigation. Pity really, it would be simpler to use nautical miles on land as well.

StevieBee

12,885 posts

255 months

Sunday 25th October 2020
quotequote all
HTP99 said:
Why is speed on water referred to as "knots"
I think that speed was determined by tying knots at equal distances along a length of rope tethered to a static object and count the number of knots that passed through a marker in a given time.

BrundanBianchi

1,106 posts

45 months

Sunday 25th October 2020
quotequote all
StevieBee said:
I think that speed was determined by tying knots at equal distances along a length of rope tethered to a static object and count the number of knots that passed through a marker in a given time.
https://www.history.com/news/why-is-a-ships-speed-measured-in-knots

The Mad Monk

10,474 posts

117 months

Sunday 25th October 2020
quotequote all
Dr Jekyll said:
The road mile evolved from the Roman mile which was supposed to be a thousand paces.

.
A thousand double paces. It's reasonably accurate. Try it.

davhill

5,263 posts

184 months

Monday 26th October 2020
quotequote all
StevieBee said:
I think that speed was determined by tying knots at equal distances along a length of rope tethered to a static object and count the number of knots that passed through a marker in a given time.
In Nelson's time, the log consisted of a long thin cord with knots at regular internals. This had a triangular board attached. The board would be thrown overboard and a rating would let the cord run out through his fingers, counting the knots during the period a sandglass measured the time.
The rating would then tug a second cord, which pulled out a peg, allowing the log board to drop to the horizontal and lose most its drag in the water.
This activity was called 'casting the log'.

Frank7

6,619 posts

87 months

Monday 26th October 2020
quotequote all
What, if anything, did Bobby Gentry and Billy-Joe McAllister throw off the Tallahatchie Bridge?
Why did Billy-Joe jump off the same bridge?








Fastchas

2,645 posts

121 months

Monday 26th October 2020
quotequote all
When was the 24hr day accepted worldwide? As in, everyone adopted the same method of timekeeping?

nonsequitur

20,083 posts

116 months

Monday 26th October 2020
quotequote all
Frank7 said:
What, if anything, did Bobby Gentry and Billy-Joe McAllister throw off the Tallahatchie Bridge?
Why did Billy-Joe jump off the same bridge?
It's a conundrum, Frank. There have been many theories in the last 50 years, and Bobbie Gentry wasn't spilling the beans over what happened. Billie-Joe did jump off the bridge and was an apparent suicide, but for what reason - there have been many put forward - is not clear.
Also many suggestions offered for what was thrown from the bridge.

So I guess it remains a mystery .musicconfused

coppernorks

1,919 posts

46 months

Monday 26th October 2020
quotequote all
nonsequitur said:
t's a conundrum, Frank. There have been many theories in the last 50 years, and Bobbie Gentry wasn't spilling the beans over what happened. Billie-Joe did jump off the bridge and was an apparent suicide, but for what reason - there have been many put forward - is not clear.
Also many suggestions offered for what was thrown from the bridge.

So I guess it remains a mystery .musicconfused
The miscarried baby of the incestuous coupling of Bobbie and Billy-Joe.

It's all in the lyrics, no mystery.

Hugo a Gogo

23,378 posts

233 months

Monday 26th October 2020
quotequote all
glazbagun said:
steveo3002 said:
at what point in history was some sort of instant fire maker available ...you know no longer had to rub sticks etc
Really the invention of the match.

Prior to that you had fire steels, which were really good at giving off sparks if you hit them in the right way with flint or something equally hard. They'd be shaped for this purpose and we used them from (at least) Roman times until matches. Still do use them in some camping contexts!

Plus the more Ray Mears-esque bow drills, wood ploughs etc.

Or you just kept a fire burning all day and transferred it around!
the first lighters were invented before the first friction matches


Dr Jekyll

23,820 posts

261 months

Monday 26th October 2020
quotequote all
coppernorks said:
The miscarried baby of the incestuous coupling of Bobbie and Billy-Joe.

It's all in the lyrics, no mystery.
I've just read the lyrics and I can't see that at all.

Frank7

6,619 posts

87 months

Monday 26th October 2020
quotequote all
coppernorks said:
The miscarried baby of the incestuous coupling of Bobbie and Billy-Joe.

It's all in the lyrics, no mystery.
I beg to disagree coppernorks, I Googled the complete lyrics to “Ode to Billy-Joe”, and there’s no mention of a miscarried baby, nor of an incestuous relationship between the girl narrating the song, and Billy-Joe, Bobby Gentry said in an interview, that the girl and Billy-Joe were “connected.”
According to Wiki, Billy and the girl were both white, and that Billy jumped after a drunken homosexual encounter.
Bobby Gentry explained that the song was inspired by the 1954 murder of Emmet Till, a 14 y.o. black kid who was shot and thrown over the Black Bayou Bridge in Mississippi, for allegedly offending a white woman in a grocery store.
She went on to say that she was constantly asked what was thrown off the bridge, and suggestions had ranged from drugs, flowers, a baby, a draft card, to an engagement ring, but she said that the real message of the song revolves around the nonchalant way that the family talks about the suicide