Queen of all our hearts
QUESTION
When did the human heart first appear as a stylised ❤?
The heart symbol is an ideograph, a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept independent of a particular language, specific words or phrases.
It is mostly used to express affection and love. Its widespread use dates from 15th-century playing cards, but it has much older roots.
The earliest depictions of the shape are related to the extinct, once highly prized herb Silphium, a species of giant fennel that grew on the North African coastline near the ancient Greek city of Cyrene.
Its seed pod had a striking resemblance to the ideographic heart. The Greeks and Romans used it as a spice, medicine and birth control. Cyrene, which grew rich from the silphium trade, put the heart shape on its coins. Its popularity was the cause of its demise as over-use appears to have caused its extinction.
In the 2nd century AD, Greek physician Galen, inspired by the work of Aristotle, contributed significantly to the anatomical and physiological knowledge of the heart.
In his treatise On The Usefulness Of The Parts Of The Body, Galen reaffirmed ideas about the heart as the source of the body’s innate heat and as the organ most closely related to the soul.
‘The heart is, as it were, the hearthstone and source of the innate heat by which the animal is governed,’ he said. he also described the heart incorrectly as a three-chambered organ which ‘has in the middle a ditch or a pit’.
The notion of presenting a lover with your heart dates from the 13th century. A decoration of a capital letter in a manuscript of the French romance Le Roman De La Poire depicts a kneeling lover offering his heart to his lady.
This heart shape looks like an inverted pine cone.
In 1305, the Italian painter known as Giotto used the same shape in a depiction of Charity in the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, in which she gives her heart to Jesus. It’s been postulated that the heart shape was created during the Middle Ages by scientists who tried to visualise Galen’s works. The clearest example of this comes from Guido da Vigevano’s Anothomia Philippi Septimi, an illustrated work on dissection from 1345 that features a scalloped heart in anatomical drawings of cadavers.
Over the next two centuries in art, this shape began to supplant the more accurate pine cone. The indented red heart has been widely used on playing cards since the late 15th century. Amelia Craig, Norwich, Norfolk.
QUESTION Why is a key needed to open a tin of corned beef?
FOR 150 years, corned beef has been tightly packed in a tapered trapezoid can. The key is designed to open the larger end of the can to allow the block of corned beef to be extracted whole so it can be sliced neatly. It’s simple and effective.
Just remember to wind the key, don’t pull — unless you want to lose a finger!
In the mid-19th century, there was a race to produce preserved tinned goods. Fish, vegetables and fruit had been preserved in glass jars and primitive tin cans before 1847, but the invention of a tin can making machine, and then from 1853 the availability of condensed milk, popularised the idea. The sale of canned goods began to grow exponentially.
In the 1860s, the U.S. Navy experimented with preserved meat. however, it shrivelled during cooking, leaving an unappetising, greasy mess.
Chicago inventor William J. Wilson came up with a method of packing more meat into the can and cooking it faster.
he could not do this in large quantities until steam-pressure autoclaves came on the market in 1873. With this machine to cook the meat and a pyramidal can that allowed the contents to slide out, Wilson had come up with a superior product.
he incorporated the Wilson Packing Company in 1874 and secured a patent on his Original Corned Beef Can the following year.
In 1875, he was bought out by the meat-packing company Libby, McNeill & Libby. It still trades as Libby’s, though it was bought out by Nestle in 1970.
It was Libby’s who introduced the key-wind strip — the earliest known example dates from 1895. Justin Gower, St Davids, Pembs.
QUESTION Do tennis line judges follow the flight of the ball or stare at the line?
LINE judges are taught to watch the line: ‘While the linesman should follow the play with the greatest keenness, he/she should centre his attention on his line rather than the ball, for it is a well-established principle of optics that in watching a moving object a stationary object is apt to be lost sight of.’
Line judges have the responsibility of calling the ball in or out. In a major tournament, there can be up to nine line judges on court: three at either end looking after the side lines and the centre service line, one judging each baseline and a final one looking after the service line depending on who’s serving.
One of the most experienced Wimbledon line judges, Sharon Worton, wrote: ‘Making the right calls and doing the job in the best way is really all about trusting your instinct, having confidence and the ability to make a decision quickly and not faff about.
‘You have to concentrate and there are techniques we are taught for this. For example, you need to watch the line, not the ball, because if you try to track the ball you’re going to see it take off rather than land.’
If you wish to become a line judge, apply to the Lawn Tennis Association’s training course.
eyesight is important — you must have 20/20 vision, corrected or uncorrected — quick reaction times and know the rules of tennis inside out. Another key factor is a loud voice: it’s surprisingly difficult to shout at volume in front of a crowd. Sharon Jones, former line judge,
Maidenhead, Berks.
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