Power of a mega storm
QUESTION What is the most intense hurricane ever recorded? A HURRICANE is a tropical storm with winds above 74 mph.
In the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific oceans, they are called hurricanes. In the Indian Ocean and South Pacific, they are known as cyclones, while in the north- western Pacific they are called typhoons.
In terms of wind speed, Hurricane Patricia was the most intense tropical cyclone recorded. On October 23, 2015, it achieved its record peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 215 mph.
Patricia packed sustained winds of 165 mph when it made landfall off southwestern Mexico at 6.15pm local time. By the following day, its winds had weakened to about 75 mph.
Since measurements of the most extreme winds are difficult to obtain, intensity is calculated by lowest central pressure, which is related to wind speed. Generally, the lower the pressure in a hurricane, the stronger its winds.
Typhoon Tip, which hit Japan in 1979, holds the record for the most powerful tropical cyclone on record based on low pressure measurements.
On October 12, 1979, it reached a low of 870 millibars at sea level where normal atmospheric pressure is about 1,000 mbar. Its strongest recorded wind speed was 190mph. Hurricane Patricia’s minimum atmospheric pressure was 872 mbar, the second lowest on record.
The deadliest is thought to have been the Great Hurricane of October 1780, which blasted its way through the Caribbean islands of Barbados, Martinique and St Lucia over six days, killing 22,000 people. Among the dead were British and French soldiers who were in warships in the region as part of the American Revolutionary War.
While no precise measurements exist, one eyewitness account described the wind stripping the bark from trees. It has been calculated that winds of around 200 mph would be needed to do this.
Dr Ian Smith, Cambridge. QUESTION How did the tally stick system of money used in England work. Was it free from corruption? TALLY sticks were introduced to England by Henry I when he came to the throne in 1100. Needing a supply of money, he declared that rods of wood, issued by his Treasury, would serve as currency.
Tally sticks were narrow shafts, originally hazel, but subsequently willow, varying in length from 8 in to as long as 3 ft, flattened with a knife.
Higher denominations were indicated by deep notches on the face of one side of the stick, lower denominations were represented by smaller notches.
After the stick had been notched, it was split lengthways, with one piece slightly longer than the other — that piece was ‘the stock’ (a term still used in banking), while the debtor’s piece was ‘the foil’.
The system is described in the 12thcentury Dialogus de Scaccario (The Dialogue Concerning The Exchequer): ‘At the top of the tally a cut is made, the thickness of the palm of the hand, to represent a thousand pounds; then a hundred pounds by a cut the breadth of a thumb; twenty pounds, the breadth of the little finger; a single pound, the width of a swollen barleycorn; a shilling rather narrower; then a penny is marked by a single cut without removing any wood.’
The debt’s details were printed in ink on the wood, for instance: ‘From the hamlet of Huntingdon for transgressions and contempt. In the 22nd year of King Edward I. Easter, 1294. Amount 3.6.8.’
Tally sticks were used as currency in their own right, where the seller would be pleased to accept the tally stock as a safe and convenient form of payment.
The tally system was almost impossible to grain, inscriptionsmatch.come counterfeit.about notchesThis if both couldall The and had pieceswood onlyinkto came stick.fraud from wereAll the attempts punishablesame tally at by by The death. paper system ledgerswas replacedin 1834 afterto modernise. decades Toof attemptsmark the occasion, it was decided to burn the sticks, six centuries of irreplaceable monetary records, in a stove in the House of Lords. So it was that the
House of Lords, then the House of Commons, and almost the entire Palace of Westminster — a building as old as the tally stick system itself — was burned to the ground. Jim Coles, London SW19. QUESTION Has the French government ever challenged Great Britain over sovereignty of the Channel Islands? FURTHER to the earlier answer, in 1993 and 1994, the French invaded Les Ecrehous (a group of rocks and islands) off the coast of Jersey.
These are administered by the Parish of St Martin and are part of Jersey. The French replaced the Jersey flag with the Tricolour.
The ‘invasion’ was to protest over fishing rights and as a bid for the islands to be recognised as part of France.
The States of Jersey Police were dispatched, and the problem was resolved over lunch. There are no full-time residents on Les Ecrehous, but fisherman’s huts and holiday homes. It is also popular with motor boats and yachts.
Veronica Filleul, St Brelade, Jersey. I CAN assure readers the Channel Islands are not neutral. The UK is responsible for foreign affairs and defence. Jersey has its own British Army unit — The Royal Militia of the Island of Jersey. Many locals serve the Crown in the Armed Forces. Neutral we most certainly are not!
James B. Sinclair, St Helier, Jersey.
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