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The Arch enemies(Daily Mail Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)QUESTION Is the Euston Arch ever likely to be restored? THE Euston Arch was an imposing granite structure that formed the original entrance to Euston Station in London. the Euston Arch ever likely to The Victorians took great pride in their engineering achievements, and following the completion of the 112-mile London to Birmingham railway in 1837, the architect Philip Hardwick was commissioned to build suitably grand entrance ways to both Euston and Birmingham's Curzon Street stations. At Euston, Hardwick, a student of classical architecture, created the largest Greek propylaeum, or Doric archway, ever built. More than 70ft high, it became the first and most dramatic monument of the railway age. The arch was only part of a collection of classically ornate waiting rooms, train sheds and ticket halls that made up the once elegant Euston Station. In 1962, the government undertook one of the greatest acts of cultural vandalism when it decided to modernise the station and build a series of midrise modernist towers remarkable for nothing except their blandness. Unfortunately, this left no place for the Arch and it was duly demolished. There was only muted protest at the time, led by Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman, who fronted the Victorian Society's 'Save The Arch' campaign. More recently, there was a campaign by The Euston Arch Trust to have the arch rebuilt, but this never took off. Furthermore, there would not be the room, nor the will to accept the disruption caused by constructing the giant edifice again. Curzon Street Station was too far from the centre of Birmingham to be of any long-term use to commuters and fell out of passenger use in 1954, though it remained a goods station until 1966. However, Hardwick's entrance building, based on a similar design to Euston Arch, can still be seen today. PAUL BLUNT, Birmingham. QUESTION My atlas shows a place in New Zealand called Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu. Does this name have a meaning? THIS 57-letter placename is actually a shortened form. The full name contains 84 letters and is the world's longest placename - Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoro- nukupokaiwhenuaktanatahu. While touring New Zealand in 2004, we spotted this name on the map and made a point of visiting the place, near Porangahau in the Hawkes Bay area of North Island. Although the guidebooks state that the AA road sign is on private property, we found a new sign, built for tourists complete with a coach stop, at the side of the road. The adjoining board says: 'Tamatea was a well-known chief, warrior and explorer of his time. He is the ancestor of the Ngati Kahungunu people of the Porangahau and acquired many names to commemorate his prowess. 'While passing through the island district of Porangahau, Tamatea encountered the Ngati people and had to fight them to get past. In the battle known as Matanui, his brother was killed. 'Tamatea was so grieved at his loss that he stayed for some time at that place and each morning he would sit on the knoll to play a lament on his koauau. 'Hence the name, indicating the hill on which Tamatea, the chief of great physical stature and renown, played a lament on his flute to the memory of his brother.' FRED WAITE, Lichfield, Staffs. QUESTION Is there a way to clean the outside of uPVC window frames to bring them back to 'as new' condition? I USE a lemon cream cleanser which is readily available in supermarkets. It goes on like a cream but can be powdery when dry. I apply the cleanser with a clean, dry cloth, rubbing the marks off, then I allow it to dry and polish with another cloth or duster - do not rinse off with water. This should bring it up with quite a shine. I find that when I clean windows, I always manage to get the black from the glass surrounds onto the white uPVC, which is quite annoying, but the cream takes it off very easily. I was given this information about cleaning the frames by one of the fitters who installed the windows for us. JUDITH COOK, Saltburn, N. Yorks . WE SELL various products, in our shop or via mail order, made just for the job. Dow Corning PVC-U Cleaner is GBP2.12 for 500ml, Thompson's uPVC Handy Wipes are GBP4.81 for 36, and Thompson's uPVC Restorer is GBP4.98 for 480ml. Drews Ltd, Reading, Berks. NIC DREW, QUESTION If I roll out a length of ordinary household electric cable for 25 miles and fit a plug to one end and a light fitting to the other, and plug it into my socket at home, would the bulb light up? Would it be instant? FURTHER to the earlier answer, it is possible to operate a lamp connected to a 25-mile length of cable from a 230-volt supply, although depending on the cable and lamp size, the light will be dim. Using a cable size of 1.5 sq mm and a 100-watt lamp as assumed in the previous answer, 25 miles of cable will have a resistance of about 1,000 ohms. The 'cold' resistance of a 100-watt tungsten filament lamp is approximately 40 ohms, thus giving a total circuit resistance of 1,040 ohms. This results in an initial current of about 0.22 amps, with a supply of 230 volts. The current will cause the lamp's tungsten filament to heat and its resistance to increase, therefore the current through the lamp will fall. (The resistance of the 25-mile copper wire will be virtually unaffected.) It is not easy to predict by calculation the steady- state conditions as the filament resistance increases and the current falls, so an experimental set-up can be used to test the theory, observe the lamp and take any necessary measurements. For the test, a suitable resistance of 1,000 ohms (to represent the cable) is connected in series with a 100-watt lamp. The circuit is then connected to a stabilised 230-volt supply. From the test, the final current and the voltage-drop across the lamp is measured. The final voltage across the lamp is about 50 volts. By calculation, the power dissipated in the lamp is 8.5 watts. The filament glows orange and so the normal light output is much reduced. It is possible, however, to use a lower voltage lamp to obtain a whiter light. To answer the question of speed, the light output would be almost instantaneous, allowing for the heating time of the lamp's filament. JOHN FULLER, electrical installation technician, Sheerness, Kent. QUESTION My surname is Holmes and while working in Manchester in 1959 two fellow employees were called Watson and Moriarty. Can anyone match that? FURTHER to earlier answers, in the Seventies, a teenage friend of mine, Michael Deacon, was arrested with two accomplices, Philip Pope and Steve Priest, for the theft of several hundredweight of potatoes. The headline for the story of their court case in the Chipping Sodbury Gazette was: 'Deacon, Priest and Pope in potato theft!' LESLIE ORAM, Bristol. MY SURNAME is Wild and my former partner's surname was Oates. It is probably not surprising we are no longer together. DANIEL WILD, Prestwich, Manchester. QUESTIONS Q: What are the current theories as to what happened to Victor Grayson MP, who disappeared in the Twenties? C. L. MADDEN, Buckingham. Q: During the Forties, I was stationed at RAF Weston, Zoyland, Somerset. On the other side of the airfield was the village of Middlezoy. What does 'zoy' mean? ALBERT KITCHEN, Sale, Cheshire. Q: Which country has the most domesticated dogs per head of population? J. M. CHATBURN, Belper, Derbys. |