The hotline to Moscow
QUESTION Did the hotline between Washington and Moscow, instituted after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, actually use a red telephone? thE idea for a hotline between the u.S. and the uSSR dates from the Fifties, when it was realised good communications might prevent a nuclear war.
Matters reached a head during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. the highly tense diplomatic exchange that followed was plagued by delays caused by slow communication systems.
Encrypted messages had to be relayed by telegraph or radioed between the Kremlin and the Pentagon. In an attempt to prevent an unintentional nuclear war, the two countries signed the hot Line Agreement in June 1963.
In popular culture, the WashingtonMoscow hotline is often called the Red Phone, because many people think it is a telephone line, with a red phone on the president’s desk.
however, the hotline was never a phone, but set up as a teletype connection. In 1988, it was replaced by fax units. Since 2008, the hotline is a secure email link.
harvard professor thomas Schelling, an early proponent of the system, credited the 1958 novel Red Alert, by Peter Bryant, with making superpowers more aware of the benefit of direct communication.
It was the underlying inspiration for Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 film Dr Strangelove or: how I Learned to Stop Worrying And Love the Bomb. Both featured telephones and are probably the source of the popular misconception.
Larry Bolde, London SE23.
QUESTION Do any churches in Britain still practise ‘lining-out’ when singing hymns? IN LININg-out, or precenting the line in Scotland, a leader reads or sings out a line of a hymn or a psalm to the other members of a choir or congregation, allowing them to follow.
the practice first appeared in the 17th century, when literacy rates were low and psalters expensive, but increased access to songbooks and growing literacy decreased the popularity of lining- out from the 18th century onward.
over time, the sound become a tradition of sacred music. In the u.S., some AfricanAmerican churches maintained liningout, as did many Primitive Baptist and Regular Baptist congregations.
the practice became associated with gaelic congregations and psalm-singing. No gaelic psalters were produced until the end of the 17th century, and the English and French psalters had a strongly metrical rhythm that didn’t fit with gaelic musical traditions.
As a result, the tradition arose of giving these foreign psalm-tunes line-by-line to the congregation, which allowed them the freedom to ornament.
Some churches in the Western Isles still maintain the practice. the best known is the Back Free Church on the Isle of Lewis where the precentor is church elder Calum Martin, who has produced solo and psalm singing gaelic albums. the Back Free Church appeared at the Edinburgh fringe in 2009.
Jacob Saunders, Ullapool, Ross-shire.
QUESTION How long have there been Artificers in the Royal Navy and in the Army? Are there any in the RAF or in the Royal Marines?
FuRthER to the earlier answer, although steam propulsion was being used in the Royal Navy as early as the 1820s, an Engineering Branch of the Royal Navy was not created until July 10, 1837.
Because steam-powered ships were being built faster than engineers could be trained, a new Rate known as an ‘Artificer’ was introduced on March 28, 1868.
his title was Engine Room Artificer and had the rate of Petty officer. on April 30, 1877, the new Rate of Chief Engine Room Artificer was introduced.
then other trades emerged, including Electrical Artificer, ordinance Artificer, Shipwright Artificer and Fleet Air Arm Artificer — an elite bunch of men.
Regrettably, the last class of Artificers finished their training on February 12, 2010, and today there are no longer Artificers in the Royal Navy.
David Eaton, Fleet Chief Electrical Artificer (RN Rtd), Waterlooville, Hants.
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