Fly the flag for saltires
QUESTION Is there a connection between the Jamaican flag and the Scottish saltire?
A SALTIRE is a diagonal cross on a flag. Scotland is famous for its blue flag with a white saltire (right), while the Jamaican flag consists of a gold saltire with green for the top and bottom quarters and black for the hoist (the edge nearest the flagpole) and fly (the far end that flaps in the wind).
The saltire derives its shape from the cross upon which St Andrew was crucified. According to legend, it was adopted as Scotland’s flag in 832 AD, following a battle near Athelstaneford, in East Lothian.
A joint force of Picts and Scots under Angus MacFergus, High King of Alba, was invading Northumbrian territory and faced an Anglo Saxon king, Athelstan.
Before the battle, Angus led prayers for assistance. St Andrew appeared to him and assured him of victory. The next morning, they were greeted by the cross of St Andrew in the blue sky. Upon their victory, the saltire became Scotland’s flag.
On August 6, 1962, Jamaica achieved independence. The public was invited to enter a competition to design the country’s new flag, but none of the entries was suitable. Instead, a design was put forward by a committee of the Jamaican House of Representatives, which had horizontal stripes of green, black and green with narrow yellow fimbriations — in heraldry and vexillology (the study of flags), these are small stripes of a contrasting colour.
However, it was soon realised that this would make it too similar to the flag of Tanganyika. So Jamaica adopted the gold saltire — only for the Tanganyikan flag to be replaced less than two years later.
Edward Carrington, Stroud, Gloucs. THE inclusion of the saltire in the Jamaican flag was at the suggestion of the Rev William McGhie (1914-1968), a Presbyterian missionary from Scotland who was a friend of the Jamaican Prime Minister, Alexander Bustamante. He suggested that, as a Christian country, the flag should include a cross. At Bustamante’s suggestion, Rev McGhie sketched out the design with the green, black and gold colours of Jamaica.
The colours symbolise ‘ hardships [black] there are, but the land is green and the sun [gold] shineth’.
It is the only current national flag in the world that does not feature any of the colours red, white or blue.
Jim Murray, Inverness.
QUESTION In a TV series about gold hunters in Australia, the precious metal is obtained from many tons of soil by a machine, turned into a liquid and stored in tanks to be reconstituted into solid gold. How is this possible?
A SYSTEM of treating ores (not only gold) to separate them into their constituent elements was developed by British scientist William Crookes (1832-1919).
The mined ore, mixed with the soil around it, is milled to reduce it to a sand before being mixed with water to create a slurry. This is then fed into large settling tanks. The lighter elements in the slurry are allowed to overflow and are fed away to waste tanks.
The heavier elements, such as gold, sink to the bottom, where they are extracted. About 70 per cent of the waste mixture, known as tailings, is removed in this way. The remainder is fed into another tank, where the process is repeated until only fine granules of gold are left.
It is an industrial version of panning for gold, which is the washing of the gravel found in rivers to separate the metal from the tailings. In the industrial version of the process, the tailings sit in leaching tanks where a 0.25 to 0.3 per cent mixture of cyanide of potassium is used as a catalyst to leach the precious metal from the finer sands.
This is why waste from goldmines is toxic.
Gold granules are melted in crucibles and turned into ingots before being sent to manufacturers or banks. At the current price of gold, this would be worth between £ 150 and £1,500 per ton of soil.
Gold was discovered in New South Wales in Australia in 1823, but when major finds were made in 1851, it sparked a gold rush that lasted until the early 20th century.
The reality TV series Aussie Gold Hunters follows three teams of prospectors in the Outback.
Bob Cubitt, Northampton.
QUESTION Listening to The Who’s Roger Daltrey belt out Love Reign O’er Me made me wonder if rock singers with untrained voices suffer damaged vocal cords?
THE earlier answer omitted the most famous case of damaged vocal cords.
In 1997, Julie Andrews, the star of The Sound Of Music and Mary Poppins, checked into Mount Sinai Hospital, New york, to have non- cancerous nodules removed from her vocal cords.
The surgery left her once effervescent voice scratchy and irreparable, which the Oscar and Tony award-winning actress described as ‘devastating’.
Her speaking voice was unaffected, but she was left unable to hold notes and it limited her range to a lower register. She says she is only able to ‘speak-sing’.
Andrews filed a medical malpractice lawsuit in 1999 against two doctors and Mount Sinai. It was settled in 2000 — the terms were not disclosed.
Rather than indulge in self- pity, Andrews decided to move on in life. She has since co-authored several books, including The Very Fairy Princess children’s series with her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton.
She has also starred in a number of hit movies, including The Princess Diaries and Despicable Me.
Tina Coleman, Colchester, Essex.