Barry’s simply beastly album
QUESTION Did Barry White release an album with a real fur cover? Barry White (1944-2003), born in Galveston, texas, is remembered for his soulful baritone voice and prodigious size, which earned him the affectionate nickname ‘the Walrus of Love’.
his 1977 album Barry White Sings For Someone you Love is generally considered one of his best, and the U.S. version did have a customised cover, but it wasn’t real fur — simply photographs of mink coats (i thought it looked like his hairy chest).
three different artwork mink furs were used. the first featured a light-brown and white mink coat, second editions featured a dark-brown mink coat, and the final and substituted editions featured a dark-gold and tan mink coat.
the U.S. editions did have one unusual feature — they were die-cut and featured a locket that opened up to reveal Barry White’s image. the British edition used the dark fur mink coat, but this was a cheaper version; the album was not die-cut and the locket didn’t open.
Kerry Wilson, Stafford. QUESTION Was Charles Darwin aware of the coming and going of Ice Ages, which had a huge effect on the development of life on Earth? DarWin was a pioneering g geologist. in 1859, just months s before the publication of On the e Origin Of Species, he won the e Wollaston Medal, the highest t honour of the Geological Society y of London ‘for his numerous conntributions to geological science’.
his work ranged from physical al geology on volcanoes, coral reefs fs and the upheaval and subsidence of land to palaeontology — collecting fossils on the Beagle voyage and studying fossil barnacles in his home in Downe, Kent.
his work on geology was integral to forming his theories of evolution, and he was well able to assimilate the work of others into his.
after losing interest in his medical degree at edinburgh University, he studied theology at Cambridge, graduating early in 1831. restless to learn more about nature, he volunteered in august 1831 to assist adam Sedgwick, self- educated naturalist and professor for geology and botany at Cambridge University, on a geological tour of north Wales.
‘i am now mad about geology,’ he wrote at the time in one of his notebooks.
Sedgwick was looking for evidence of older rocks under the limestone that outcrops across several parts of north Wales. as part of the tour, Darwin visited the impressive giant bowl-shape of Cwm idwal, while Sedgwick went elsewhere.
Darwin failed to recognise the glaciercarved features there because he was unaware of the processes involved. For hundreds of years, naturalists had been aware of great lumps of rock lying around in places where they didn’t belong, far from the strata where such material originated.
they became known as erratic boulders, shortened to ‘erratics’ and, until late in the 18th century, were thought to have been dumped by the great Biblical flood.
it wasn’t until 1840 that Swiss palaeontologist Louis agassiz presented his eiszeit theories to a meeting of the British association for the advancement of Science. the great geologist Charles Lyell, Darwin’s friend and mentor, was in the audience and, like most who heard the ice age theory, was unconvinced.
Lyell chose to test the theory and headed into the highlands to look for evidence. he found it in the form of terminal moraines (heaps of boulders and ground-up rock dumped as a glacier melts).
Before the year was out, the ice age theory had been presented to the Geological Society in London, endorsed by Lyell, and established as fact.
this inspired Darwin to return to Cwm idwal in 1842. Commenting on his previous visit, unassuming as ever, Darwin wrote: ‘neither of us saw a trace of the wonderful glacial phenomena all around us; we did not notice the plainly scored rocks, the perched boulders and the moraines.
‘yet these phenomena are so conspicuous that a house burnt down by fire did not tell its story more plainly than did this valley.’
J. B. Willis, St Andrews, Fife. QUESTION When was HMS first used in the names of Royal Navy ships? the British navy became the royal navy after the restoration of the monarchy under Charles ii.
in 1661, Sir William Penn and Samuel Pepys established the naval Discipline act, which founded the royal navy by statute. the term ‘his Majesty’s Ship’ was also introduced to distinguish its ships.
the abbreviation hMS came into common use around the 1790s. according to most sources, the earliest example of the abbreviation being used officially occurs in 1789, when it was used for hMS Phoenix.
Some earlier uses have been identified, for instance the Captain’s log of the Fortunee refers to ‘hMS Barfleur’ as early as 1782. this may simply have been an affectation of the Captain, rather than an official use.
in logs and musters of the era, you more often see ‘h M Ship’ than ‘hMS’, but ‘hMS’ is not unusual. another common form uses the definite article: a naval gold medal from 1794 has hMS the ramillies, while an 1805 medal has hMS Victory. During that time, you also sometimes see hBMS for his Britannic Majesty’s Ship. Simon Reid, Marchwood, Hants.
QUESTION Are there any official memorials in Britain to the personnel of UXB (unexploded bomb) units, many of whom lost their lives in the pursuit of saving others? FUrther to earlier answers, i did my national service in the royal engineers (1953-55) at the headquarters bomb disposal unit at Broadbridge heath, near horsham, Sussex. the re was responsible for the disposal of German bombs and minefield clearance in Britain. Fairlight Glen near hastings was cleared, as was the cliff-top minefield at Mundesley in norfolk.
there is a memorial at Mundesley that honours the 26 royal engineer bomb disposal personnel who lost their lives during the clear-up. the mines were put on the beaches in 1939-40 when Britain faced the threat of a German invasion.
the memorial is a 10ft high, 500kg German bomb casing, supplied with a granite base by the royal engineers bomb disposal unit at Wimbish, essex.
G. R. Graham, Newark, Notts.