The speedy aristocrat
QUESTION What was the first official land speed record? What’s the biggest margin by which a record beat a previous one?
The first speed record for a car is usually credited to Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat achieving 39 mph in his electricpowered Jeantaud Duc in 1898.
In 1902, the Automobile Club of France marked out an officially measured kilometre on a stretch of road near Dourdan and provided a mechanised timing apparatus.
Frenchman henri Fournier, winner of the Paris-Bordeaux and Paris-Berlin races of 1901, took the record with a speed of 76.6 mph in his 60 hp chain-driven Mors Z Paris-Vienne.
The Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus became recognised as the authority on land speed r ecords. Its regulations required two passes in opposite directions to rule out wind assistance. Initially, these had to be completed within 30 minutes, later changed to an hour.
The first time the record was set under these rules was also the first time a Briton claimed the title. Lydston hornsted achieved 124 mph in his Benz No.3 in June 1914 at Brooklands race track.
From 1924 to 1935, the land speed record was dominated by Sir Malcolm Campbell. he set his first record at Pendine in Carmarthenshire, achieving 146 mph in his 350hp Sunbeam.
On September 3, 1935, he became the first man to top 300 mph — 301.13 mph — in his Campbell-Railton Blue Bird at Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
In 1964, his son Donald clocked 403 mph in Australia in his Bluebird CN7, the last wheel- driven speed record before turbojet-powered vehicles usurped the record-breaking attempts.
Between the 1960s and 1980s, the record reached dizzying new heights.
The land speed record has remained unbeaten since 1997 when Briton Andy Green broke the sound barrier at 763 mph i n his Thrust SSC i n Black Rock Desert, Nevada.
The previous month he had achieved the biggest step forward in land speed records when he achieved 714 mph, beating Richard Noble’s 634 mph.
Ian MacDonald, Billericay, Essex.
QUESTION Why are trite, placatory statements called bromides?
The soothing or calming nature of medicines containing potassium bromide is what gives us its placatory meaning.
This usage dates from World War I. In the trenches, a rumour started that the Army was putting bromide in tea to suppress libido, which had none of the usual outlets available in civilian society.
In other words, it was intended to calm them down. The soldiers declared it was having no effect.
This rumour was still doing the rounds when I joined the RAF in 1968.
however, the use of bromide would have been counter-productive in a war. An army needs its soldiers to be aggressive, not calm.
Potassium bromide is known to work as a mild sedative and it is perhaps from this origin that the rumour emerged.
It was sometimes used as an alternative to iodine as an antiseptic and as a salve after minor surgery, such as circumcision. In France in the 19th century, it was prescribed as a treatment for syphilis.
Robert Sutherland, Edinburgh.
QUESTION Is there evidence that the U.S. government was aware of an imminent attack on Pearl Harbor, but allowed it to happen?
ON DECEMBER 7, 1941, Japanese forces launched a surprise attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl harbor, hawaii. It happened without a declaration of war or warning, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared it ‘a date that will live in infamy’. The sinking of a substantial portion of the fleet and the slaughter of 2,400 troops drew the U.S. into World War II and changed its course.
Various conspiracy theorists have claimed that Roosevelt had ignored intelligence of a forthcoming attack because he was looking for a reason to sway public and political opinion, which was mostly against entering another european war. Attention has focused on a memo dated December 4, 1941 — three days before the attack — entitled Japanese Intelligence And Propaganda In The United States. Prepared by the Counter Subversion Section, Office of Naval Intelligence, it highlighted Japan’s ongoing surveillance of hawaii.
Under a section headlined Methods Of Operation And Points Of Attack, it noted that Japanese dual citizens constituted 35 per cent of the population of hawaii and there was an ongoing Japanese espionage effort directed at determining the strength of the U.S.
‘In anticipation of possible open conflict with this country, Japan is vigorously utilising every available agency to secure military, naval and commercial information, paying particular attention to the West Coast, the Panama Canal and the Territory of hawaii.’
Pearl harbor was only explicitly mentioned in relation to post: ‘Registered mail for the fleet stationed in hawaiian waters is routed directly to the Pearl harbor Navy Yard as a security measure.’ This was because onethird of workers in the honolulu sorting office were of Japanese extraction.
In reality, the U.S. command didn’t suspect an audacious attack.
Between 1941 and 1946, there were nine official inquiries into the attack on Pearl harbor, and a tenth in 1995.
They reported incompetence, poor communication between army and navy, i nadequate i ntelligence and underestimation and misapprehension of Japanese capabilities and intentions.
A. B. Beddoes, Hull.
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