Last witch’s spell in prison
QUESTION Who is the last known person to have been convicted of witchcraft in Britain?
PERSECUTIONS for witchcraft in Britain began during the late 1400s, like the rest of Europe, when a panic of the malevolent exercise of supernatural powers resulted in up to 40,000 people, mostly women, being put to death across the Continent by 1700.
After the 1600s saw the peak of convictions, decline in superstition predated what is known as the Age of Reason (or Enlightenment – the historical term for developments in European thought and culture) and the last known executions took place in England in 1685 and during the 1720s in Scotland (Wales had been relatively unaffected by witch persecutions).
Despite this, Britain’s last convicted witch was as recent as the Second World War: Scottish housewife and spiritualist Helen Duncan (1897-1956).
She was paid by people to act as a medium – a spiritual intermediary between the dead and the living – and caught the attention of the authorities in 1941 when, during a seance in the naval town of Portsmouth, she allegedly revealed wartime secrets – telling everyone present that the HMS Barham, a Royal Navy Queen Elizabeth-class battleship, had been sunk by the Nazis. Though the families of the dead would have already been told (which is presumably how Helen found out), this was a military secret and so the Navy kept a close eye on her until 1944, when she was arrested by two seamen.
She was initially held under the Vagrancy Act of 1924, but later the authorities charged her under the Witchcraft Act of 1735 in order for her ‘crimes’ to be given a more serious sentence and hushed up.
Helen Duncan was convicted at what was Britain’s last witch trial. When sentenced to nine months in prison, she is said to have cried out: ‘I have done nothing! Is there no God?’
Winston Churchill referred to the case as ‘obsolete tomfoolery’.
Emilie Lamplough, Wiltshire.
QUESTION Moeen Ali reached 2,000 runs and 100 wickets on the same day at Lord’s. Has any player completed this double in cricket in less time?
WHEN Moeen Ali reached the milestone of 2,000 runs and 100 wickets, he became the fifth cricketer on the list of quickest times in terms of Test matches played, achieving the feat for England against South Africa at Lord’s on the second day of the first Test on Friday, July 7. His first innings score of 87 and his ten-wicket haul in the match, helped England to a convincing 211-run victory.
Ali scored his 2,000th run at an average of 35.03, with five centuries, including a best of 155 not out against Sri Lanka, while his century of wickets came at an average of just over 39 with a best return of 6-53.
Of all the other England cricketers, only Tony Greig has achieved the feat in fewer Tests than Ali.
Here are the top five all-rounders who have achieved the 2,000 runs/100 wickets double in the fastest time: 31 Tests, Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh); 36, Trevor Goddard (South Africa); 37, Tony Greig (England) and Keith Miller (Australia); and 38, Moeen Ali (England).
England star Ian Botham took 42 Tests to complete the double; West Indian Garfield Sobers, 48; Indian Kapel Dev, 50; South African Jacques Kallis, 53; and Richard Hadlee of New Zealand, 54. Tony Matthews, sports historian/ statistician, Almeria, Spain.
QUESTION How do furry animals get enough Vitamin D?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, birds have an uropygial or ‘preen’ gland above thretes oil.
As a bird grooms, it spreads this oil over its feathers – it contains a compound that produces vitamin D when exposed to the sun’s ultraviolet rays.
As a bird re-grooms its feathers coated in oil, it ingests the vitamin D, which will then be converted by the kidneys and liver to active vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol).
Another way a bird absorbs vitamin D is through its eyes. Unlike human eyes, the lens of a bird’s eye absorbs not only red, blue and green spectrums, but also UVA and UVB rays. This type of vision is called pentachromatic.
Diane Reeve, Staffordshire.
QUESTION The derrick, a type of lifting device, is named after a man called Derrick. What other pieces of equipment are named after people?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, the Allen key is named after William G Allen of the Allen Manufacturing company of Hartford, Connecticut. While patents for similar devices were filed under other names, his company was the first to produce them under the name of the ‘hex key’ in 1910.
Henry F Phillips (1890-1958), a US businessman from Portland, Oregon, has the Phillips head screw and screwdriver named after him. The inventor was actually John P Thompson. Phillips’s contribution was in driving the concept to the point where it was adopted by screwmakers.
The Plimsoll line on ships was devised by English politician and social reformer Samuel Plimsoll (1824-1898). The painted lines on the hull of ships show the maximum lower depth that is allowed when fully loaded.
Joseph Cyril Bamford started making tipper trailers in 1945. He expanded into construction and agricultural machinery, and today, with the JCB, he is one of the world’s leaders in his field. Tony Levy, Wednesfield, West Midlands. FURTHER to the earlier answer, in Japan, the office stapler is called a Hotchikisu because the first examples imported into Japan from the US in 1903 were made by the EH Hotchkiss Company and bore the name ‘Hotchkiss No 1’ in large letters. Graham Healey, School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield.