How to enjoy the silence
QUESTION In the video for Depeche Mode’s Enjoy The Silence, singer Dave Gahan, dressed as a king, climbs a hill and puts up a deckchair overlooking a beautiful lake. Where was this? Enjoy The Silence was the second single taken from Depeche Mode’s seventh studio album, Violator (1990), which is widely regarded as their best work.
The video was directed by the Dutch photographer, film and music video director Anton Corbijn.
Singer Dave Gahan has described how the video came about:
‘Anton came to me . . . and said: “So Dave, I have an idea. you’re gonna wear a crown. you’re this king walking everywhere, and you’re gonna carry a deckchair . . .”
‘And I didn’t get it at all. But once we started and he showed me the footage, I got what he was doing.’
The video opens in the Grampians before taking in the French Alps and deserted beaches in the Algarve.
Those who have gone walking in Aberdeenshire will recognise Loch Muick (pronounced ‘Mick’), an upland freshwater loch five miles south of Braemar on the Balmoral estate.
It’s a stunning spot where a wide variety of bird and animal life can be found, including red squirrel, red deer, oyster catchers, salmon and trout.
Rising above Loch Muick is the 3,789ft Lochnagar, one of the most celebrated of the Scottish Munros (mountains over 3,000 ft).
It was immortalised in a poem by Lord Byron, ending: ‘Oh! For the crags that are wild
and majestic The steep frowning glories of
dark Lochnagar.’
It also inspired the children’s book, The old Man of Lochnagar, written by Prince Charles.
A prominent feature on the northwestern side of the loch is Glas-allt Shiel, a hunting lodge built for Queen Victoria. She had stayed at a lodge further north in the glen, at Allt-na-giubhsaich, but after the death of Prince Albert, could no longer bear to stay there. The lodge at Glas-allt Shiel thus became known as The Widow’s House.
Alastair Murray, Nairn, Scotland.
QUESTION How do stealth planes avoid leaving a tell-tale contrail?
ConTRAILS are the streamers of white cloud sometimes observed behind an aeroplane flying in clear, cold, humid air. They form upon the condensation of water vapour produced by the combustion of fuel in the engine.
When the ambient relative humidity is high, the resulting ice-crystal plume may last for hours, effectively creating a layer of cirrus cloud.
From a military perspective, such a giant arrow in the sky must be avoided.
The only reliable and effective method used by stealth planes is contrail avoidance — flying low enough that it’s too warm for the streamers to form, or by making smaller modifications in altitude to avoid high humidity.
The Lockheed U-2 spyplane used a remarkably low-tech solution — a rearview mirror that allowed the pilot to see if he was making a contrail.
Modern contrail management systems are more advanced yet work along the same principle.
The pilot alert system on stealth craft uses lidar (light detection and ranging) to differentiate contrails from clouds and tell the pilot to change altitude.
Many alternative systems have been assessed. Because contrails tend to form around condensation derived from soot, sulphur and other engine exhaust fumes, attempts have been made to clean up the emissions. However, because there are condensation nuclei in the air, this has not been successful.
Most efforts have focused on doing the exact opposite: incorporating a hypernucleating solution into the exhaust fumes. The idea is that adding a large number of extra condensation nuclei will create many more tiny ice crystals. If the size can be kept below half a micron, they will be undetectable.
Early experimentation using chlorosulphuric acid was effective, but proved highly corrosive. Subsequent trials using various surfactants, alcohols and soot have had mixed results.
other interesting techniques involve blasting contrails with electromagnetic radiation such as microwaves or ultrasonic sound waves. But contrail avoidance is the preferred method.
D. E. Hinds, Fareham, Hants.
QUESTION Which authors were teachers before they found fame?
RECEnT correspondence could well have included W. j. (john) Burley, who taught at Richmond and East Sheen County Grammar School, London, in the Fifties as head of biology before moving on to newquay Grammar School in Cornwall in the same post.
His creation, Chief Superintendent Wycliffe, appeared in 22 books and inspired a well-received TV crime series in the nineties. When he died in 2002, at the age of 88, Burley was in the middle of writing his 23rd Wycliffe book.
David Richardson, Hanworth, Middx. MEnTIon should be made of Alison Uttley, 1884-1976, the author of more than 100 children’s books, the most famous of which is Little Grey Rabbit.
She taught physics at the LCC Secondary School in Fulham from 1908 to 1911.
Her private, very honest and revealing diary, edited by Denis judd, should be essential reading for aspiring authors feeling depressed at a lack of success.
Richard Healey, Brighton.