It’s a fashion revolution!
QUESTION Why is the French revolutionary hat called a Phrygian cap?
A PHRYGIAN cap is a soft felt or wool conical hat fitting closely around the head and characterised by a pointed crown that curls forward.
It originated in Phrygia, an ancient kingdom in what is now Turkey, and was represented in ancient Greek art as the head-dress worn not only by Phrygians, but by everyone in that part of the world. During the French Revolution, the
bonnet rouge (red hat) was adopted as the sign of freedom.
This was an ancient symbol of liberty: when a slave was freed by the Romans, a small red cap was placed on his head.
When the senator Saturnius revolted against Emperor Domitian and took Rome in 100 BC, he hoisted a red cap on the top of his spear to indicate all slaves who joined him would be free.
The Roman cap was called a pileus, but its similarity to the Phrygian cap led to that name being adopted during the French Revolution.
France’s national symbol Marianne is often depicted wearing a Phrygian cap.
Sue Alderman, King’s Lynn, Norfolk.
QUESTION Why were early French fighter planes called Jockeys?
IN 1927, the French air force, concerned about the cost and weight of new fighter planes, announced a Jockey competition, a challenge to aviation companies to produce a fast, lightweight single-seater (hence the name jockey) made of metal.
The aim was to take advantage of newly developed engines with a high power-to-weight ratio, but low power output.
Two companies, Nieuport Delage and Amiot, responded to the challenge.
Nieuport Delage produced the NiD 48, an early monoplane, with its wing mounted over the fuselage in what is known as a parasol configuration.
Powered by the 400hp Hispano-Suiza 12Jb engine, the NiD 48 weighed in at under 2,300lb.
A prototype was submitted for trials in March 1928. Despite the advantage of its high rate of climb, it was rejected because it could be flown for only an hour. The competitor, Amiot’s model 110, was another parasol monoplane, but at 2,500lb was heavier than the NiD 48.
To make up for this, Amiot used a more powerful Hispano-Suiza 12Mb engine that produced 500hp. The French air force decided it didn’t offer enough performance to warrant production.
Subsequently, the British firm Vickers attempted to make a low-wing monoplane interceptor fighter powered by a radial engine, the Vickers Type 151, which was designated as a Jockey.
The 151 Jockey was lost in a flat spin on July 5, 1932, crashing at Woodbridge, Suffolk, the pilot bailing out at 5,000 ft.
Despite this, the tests had been sufficiently good to refine the design into the Vickers Venom (which, in the end, did not go into full production).
Ian Walley, St Ives, Cornwall.
QUESTION Who claimed ‘everything that can be invented has been invented’?
THIS remark was supposedly made by Charles H. Duell, director of the U.S. Patent Office in 1899.
He is said to have urged President William McKinley to abolish the Patent Office on the grounds that the flow of new inventions was drying up and, therefore, it was no longer needed.
However, this quote seems to have spurious origins, given that the number of patents granted actually rose each year to 25,000 by 1899. In fact, Duell said in 1902: ‘In my opinion, all previous advances in the various lines of invention will appear totally insignificant when compared with those which the present century will witness. I almost wish that I might live my life over again to see the wonders which are at the threshold.’
C. D. Allan, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs.
QUESTION The opening credits of Call The Midwife show a street of terrace houses with a huge ocean liner in view. Is this a genuine picture?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, I remember Dominion Monarch, the ship pictured on Call The Midwife, because it gave many Hong Kong and Singapore evacuees like me a safe return home during World War II.
I was living on the small island of Pulau Brani close to Singapore harbour from 1939 to 1942. There had been Japanese raids for six weeks and we were close to surrender when my father put my mother and me on board the ship Narkunda.
This ship carried more than 300 women and children to Fremantle in Western Australia, but because of an outbreak of disease, we were transferred to the Oranji, a Dutch ship, which was later taken over by the Royal Australian Navy.
We were put ashore at Adelaide and I lived in the small town of Balaklava until 1945 when we were taken to Sydney by train to board the Dominion Monarch for the six-week voyage to Britain.
This ship was of superior class and gave us a grand cruise home. We visited Wellington in New Zealand, Panama City and New York, where we joined a convoy of tankers and Liberty cargo ships.
It brushed off the storm that buffeted the convoy halfway across the Atlantic.
Arriving at Southampton, the evacuees were put on various trains never to meet again, in a country which we youngsters had no knowledge of apart from our history and geography lessons.
We had arrived to wait, like many others, in the hope our fathers would return.
Arthur Ward, Shoeburyness, Essex.
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