Cool! A party at the Pole
QUESTION
Are there any nuclear-powered cruise ships?
There is one — but it’s not the conventional cruise ship you might imagine bobbing around in the Mediterranean.
The russian nuclear-powered icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy (50 Years Of Victory), which can cut through ice up to 10ft thick, carries up to 124 passengers and 128 crew to the North Pole.
It’s not devoid of luxury: it is equipped with two saunas, a volleyball court, spa, gym and pool. At 90 degrees North, it drops anchor and guests join hands on the frozen sea to ‘dance around the world’ before enjoying a barbecue on the ice. Some brave souls take a freezing dip.
The cost of a 12-night cruise is a cool £24,000 a person, operated through the expedition lines Poseidon and Quark.
Dave Monk, cruise writer, Brighton.
QUESTION
Who was the first person to hold a UK driving licence?
DrIVINg licences were introduced in Britain by the Motor Car Act 1903 as a means of identifying vehicles and their drivers. No driving test was required. holders of the bright yellow coloured document were entitled to ‘drive a motor car or motorcycle’.
Issued by local authorities, the fee for the first driving licence, which was obtained over the counter at Post Offices, was five shillings — equivalent to £25 today. Failure to sign it could lead to a fine of up to £5.
The first member of the public to hold a driving licence was richard Cain, of Bermondsey, South-east London, the chauffeur and bodyguard to the german Prince Francis von hatzfeldt, a cousin of the Kaiser.
his licence was dated December 28, 1903; three days before the Motor Car Act became effective on January 1, 1904.
A red driving licence was introduced in 1930. The highway Code was first published in 1931, setting out the rules of the road in simple terms.
Despite there being only 1.8 million cars
in the country, 1933 saw more than 7,000 people killed on the roads and 200,000 injured. It was decided more regulations were needed to prevent bad driving.
The road Traffic Act 1934 introduced driving tests for the first time. existing drivers did not need to take it, but anyone who started driving from April 1, 1934, had to pass it by June 1935.
The first person to pass the driving test, on March 16, 1935, was r.e.L. Beere of Kensington, West London.
The test cost seven shillings and sixpence — £22 in today’s money — and included reversing, a three-point turn, hill start and emergency braking.
Jim Dann, Sheffield. QUESTION
We have vitamins A to E and K. Why aren’t there vitamins F, G, H, I and J?
Our knowledge of vitamins is relatively new in scientific terms.
In the Twenties, Polish chemist Casimir Funk, who was working in London, came up with the notion of ‘vital amines’ being essential to our health, which became contracted to vitamins. Study into this area flourished.
An amine is derived in nature from ammonia, to which atoms of hydrogen are attached to create organic groups, which have nutritional value.
each vitamin serves a different purpose in our body. Vitamin A helps our immune system to function; Vitamin C maintains blood cells, bone and cartilage.
Vitamin K was named after Koagulante, the Polish word for coagulant, which is its main purpose.
Vitamins were named alphabetically as they were discovered, which started at A and continued as far as u. Some vitamins had two letters, such as MM and PP.
however, it was soon discovered that not all vitamins are amines, but are other chemical compounds.
Then it transpired that Vitamin B isn’t just one, but 12, vitamins. Later it was found that not all 12 B vitamins were essential and so we are left with B1, B2, B3, B6, B7 and B12.
Other vitamins were discovered to play no real part in our health and so they were dropped from the inventory. These ‘ghost vitamins’ account for the missing letters of the alphabet.
There are considerable myths about vitamins. Vitamin C is consumed in vast quantities to ward off colds and flu, but several scientific studies have shown it is no more effective than taking nothing at all. The best way to avoid catching colds and flu is to wash your hands after contact with foreign objects, surfaces and other people.
Supplements are a multi-billion-pound business, but are a generally waste of money. Vitamins are extracted from food very late in the digestive process. Supplements in pill or liquid form are broken down earlier, in the stomach and extracted in the small intestine.
They are sent to the liver, which treats them as a waste product and expels them via the kidneys and bladder.
The best way to make sure we get enough vitamins is to eat a balanced diet or have high-fibre breakfast cereals fortified with vitamins. The fibre is an ideal transport system for vitamins because it isn’t digested.
One vitamin supplement can be helpful. Our main source of vitamin D, essential for good bones and teeth, is sunlight. In winter, taking a supplement helps to compensate for shorter days. But you can also get vitamin D from oily fish, such as salmon, sardines, herring and mackerel, red meat, liver and egg yolks.
Bob Dillon, Edinburgh.
QUESTION
What is the longest word in any language?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, surely the longest word must be ‘smiles’ — which has a ‘mile’ between the first and last letters!
R. Parnell, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.