Notes and queries

Tunnelling into history

Visiting the Grand Union Canal and the amazing 1.75 mile Blisworth tunnel, I wondered, when was the first tunnel excavated?

The first excavation for the Blisworth tunnel was in the years before 1800, but it failed, so the canal opened in 1800 without a tunnel and the boats arriving at either end had to be unloaded on to horse-drawn tramway wagons, which were pulled over Blisworth Hill and reloaded onto other boats.

The second excavation was successful and opened on March 25 1805. The tunnel was restored in 1984 at a cost of £4.3m.
Les Herbert, Romsey, Hants

The proposal to link Leicester to the Grand Junction Canal, London's Regent Canal and Limehouse Dock through a Grand Union Canal was made in 1810 and opened in 1814. The Blisworth tunnel (south of Northampton), engineered by William Jessop and James Barnes, is 2,813 metres long and was cut from 19 vertical shafts and opened in 1805. It was on the older Grand Junction, which, apart from that tunnel, had been completed in 1800. The other Grand Union tunnel was the 1,867m Braunston.

An early tunnel of 2,634m, on the Grand Trunk Canal (Trent and Mersey) was begun in 1766 and took 11 years to build, while one of the last, the Severn (6,950m) was built between 1873 and 1886. This suggests Blisworth's construction took much longer than expected (accurate predictions were difficult when manual labour dug into the unknown). The Grand Union, later amalgamated with the Grand Junction company, was one of the last three canals begun after 1800. It cost £12,281 a mile to build, and never paid a dividend.
Ralph Gee, Nottingham

The Blisworth tunnel is marvellous, but it is not the longest tunnel on the system. The longest is the Standedge tunnel beneath the Pennines on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, which opened in 1811. It is 5,029m long, and also the deepest (194m underground) and the highest (197m).

Sue Leyland might also be interested in looking at the Pontcysyllte aqueduct, by way of contrast. This amazing structure was built to carry the Llangollen Canal across the valley of the River Dee in 1805, and has been nominated as a World Heritage contender.

Britain's canals are a unique and fascinating network.
Richard Lucas, Ceres, Fife

Valerio Massimo Manfredi, in his novel L'Ultima Legione, refers to a tunnel through the Apennines called the Forulus, started in the reign of Augustus (27BC-AD19) and finished in the reign of Vespasian (AD69-79).

The king of tunnellers was Joseph Williamson in Liverpool.
Brian Robinson, Brentwood, Essex

Skating backwards on one leg

I write with my left hand, and consider myself left-handed, but play tennis with my right hand and kick a ball with my right foot. Why is this? I have a twin brother (I am female) who is right-handed. Could it be that we are a kind of genetic "mirror image" of each other?

In 37 years of teaching I taught many sets of twins. With only two exceptions, one twin was right-handed, the other left-handed.
Richard Reardon, Carlisle

There is a move in skating that involves propelling yourself on one leg with a slalom-like motion. I perform the forward one-legged slalom on my right leg. However, I can only do the backward version on my left leg. I feel neurologists should be able to deduce something interesting about the wiring of the brain from this.

Please do not publish my name, as my professorial credibility with my faculty colleagues will be destroyed if they find out I can skate backwards on one leg.
Name and address supplied

Finger-licking good fufu

Why is it that food eaten with the fingers seems tastier than that eaten with a knife and fork?

An Asante proverb says that fingers were made before forks. A favourite Asante dish, fufu, a pounded starch served in a deep earthenware bowl accompanied by spicy fish or meat soup, is eaten with the fingers. The concentration required to get the soup-drenched fufu into the mouth without spillage cuts out all other considerations, such as table conversation, and augments direct gratification. A tactile experience is added to all the other sensations that also allows for dexterous removal of fish or meat from the bone.

Soap, towel and water are provided for washing hands both before and after eating. Another Ghanaian saying, in praise of eating with fingers, suggests that at least you know where your hand has been.
Pamela Clarkson Kwami, Kumasi, Ghana

Any answers?

Has any country solved the problem of disposing of nuclear waste? How does France, which has a great many nuclear power stations, cope?
John Jarrett, London SE26

Why are some people early birds and others owls?
Ashley Chantler, Chester

I drink tea without milk or sugar. If I use our local (hard) tap water, it forms a skin and stains the inside of the mug. But if I filter the water, the tea is clear and the mug is unstained. Why is this? Is there any nutritional difference?
Roy Grimwood, Market Drayton, Shrops

Why is almost every caravan seen on our roads and in caravan parks either boring white or equally boring cream? Is there a law that says it must be so?
Anne Tritton, Brinklow Nr Rugby, Warks

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