No kilts for Braveheart
QUESTION What is the worst anachronism in film or TV?
Mel Gibson’s 1995 film braveheart portrays William Wallace and his fellow lowland scots wearing kilts — 300 years before they were invented. scottish knights and feudal lords such as Wallace would have worn a long-sleeved tunic and hose, just like their english foes.
Braveheart is a film so stuffed with factual inaccuracies that perhaps this doesn’t matter. not even the title makes sense as the term ‘brave Heart’ should apply to Robert the bruce, not Wallace.
Steven spielberg’s Raiders of The lost Ark has a map depicting indiana Jones’ flight passing near Thailand on his way to nepal. Raiders is set in 1936, but Thailand was called siam until 1939.
In back To The Future, Marty McFly is stuck in 1955. He plays a Gibson es-345 guitar for his rendition of Johnny b. Goode at Hill Valley High’s enchantment Under The sea dance, but this instrument didn’t exist until 1959.
In Good Morning, Vietnam, louis Armstrong’s What A Wonderful World is broadcast. The film is supposed to take place in 1965 while the song was not recorded until 1967.
In Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Azeem (Morgan Freeman) chides Robin (Kevin Costner) for not knowing what a telescope is, asking: ‘How did your uneducated kind ever take Jerusalem?’ Yet telescopes weren’t invented until 400 years after the film is set.
Alan Rickman’s sheriff of nottingham uses the phrase ‘hired thugs’, which was not used until the 19th century.
Quadrophenia is set in 1965, but there is a cinema advertising Grease, which was released in 1978. The film also features a man in a Motorhead T-shirt — the band was not formed until 1975 — and cars from the 1970s, including a 1972 ivory Mercedes benz 200.
There was an infamous promotional shot for Downton Abbey showing a plastic water bottle perched on the mantlepiece behind the earl of Grantham and lady edith, in a TV series set in the 1920s. Mistakes spotted on the show include a TV aerial on top of a house and double yellow lines on a road.
Edward Forsyth, Lampeter, Ceredigion.
QUESTION Is there a lunar crater named Hell?
THE lunar crater Hell is not named after the eternal afterlife of suffering and punishment, but the astronomer and Jesuit priest Maximilian Hell.
Born in Hungary in 1720, he was director of the Vienna observatory, published astronomical tables and travelled to norway to observe the transit of Venus.
He was a member of the Royal Danish Academy of science and letters and the Royal swedish Academy of sciences.
His many interests included the healing power of magnets and the sami, Finnish and Hungarian languages.
Lunar craters are often named in honour of astronomers, astronauts, scientists and explorers.
It has been regulated since 1919 by the international Astronomical Union. it recognises 9,317 craters caused by asteroids or meteors hitting the Moon.
Small craters are often given first names, such as louise and Robert, while satellite craters are given the parent crater’s name with the addition of A, b, C, etc to indicate proximity. one of the biggest craters was named Apollo after the U.s. lunar missions.
Ian MacDonald, Billericay, Essex.
QUESTION Have any a cappella songs been big chart hits?
DURING the 1980s, there were three a cappella hit records.
The Flying Pickets had the 1983 Christmas no. 1 with a brilliant cover of Yazoo’s only You. in 1988, bobby McFerrin sang Don’t Worry, be Happy in which the only instrument used was his own body. it scored a billboard no. 1 hit.
The Housemartins, featuring Paul Heaton and norman ‘Fatboy slim’ Cook, reached no.1 in December 1986 with a beautiful a cappella cover of the isley brother’s Caravan of love.
Jill Harkin, Droitwich, Worcs.
QUESTION Who were the Wright Brothers’ main competitors?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, which mentioned pioneers such as brazil’s Alberto santos-Dumont, credit should be given for the first recorded unmanned powered flight.
In 1842, John stringfellow, an engineer in Chard, somerset, and inventor William Henson were awarded patent 9478 for an aerial steam carriage. However, the weight of the engine made it unviable and the project was abandoned.
Working on his own, stringfellow built a monoplane with a 10ft wingspan and 6.5lb engine that powered two large propellers.
In 1848, it was launched in a disused lace mill and flew the length of a 60ft room until it made contact with a canvas sheet placed to stop it.
It was demonstrated before many witnesses at Cremorne Gardens in london, where it flew 120ft before its flight was arrested by the canvas sheet.
Stringfellow’s flying machine can be viewed in london’s science Museum. A bronze replica is in Fore street, Chard, the West Country town that can proudly lay claim to being the birthplace of powered flight.
Rick Taylor, Witney, Oxon.
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