Sept. 25, 1885.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



DOUBLE HEAKING. 

 [1937]— I do not remember to have seen 



Knowledge any 



1 Iv half a tone. 



) tlie'left, the 

 C. H. 



" ' Thut's it ; and ii good time them 'ere kebriolays 'ad of it. In 

 '.')! there warn't no 'busses, you see, nor no hunderground railway, 



Ev.Tv sinijli" stntr-nii^nt above is false. [Even about nndergroimd 



ouiiiiii, .; i liar object. Were we before i'cimL.ii .' 



lii.l:i-. 1^17, u-i! I went to sell. H,l (in tlie -.unr [.lacO, I found 



class, wa.s called f'<A///«.v, in alhiNi.ii ■' - ', fnr a private 



Bridge near midnight (the engin.' lia\iii;.j l.n'rri, ,nid tlic company 

 being too nigg.ardly to felcgr.aph for a fro'^h one). I had some 

 difficulty in getting a cab (I should have expected to be taken for a 

 " fogy "had I even seemed to /;ji07V the word " cabriolet "). A driver 

 said'^ " Will a coa<-li do. sir ? " I rememhcr it w.ns nothing like the 



^"rX.: ■ ''■' -. . ■, ' now. Idonot 



are from '-Cabby," P„l/ MaV Jludgrt, Sept. 

 r an interviewer, apparently, and on the staff. 



nistake of ten years in the Fall M.ill IhuJgft. 



A jMAON'ETIC T'MTSRET.L 



he held his umbrella for a considerable time in an upright position 

 directly (or nearly) over the condnctor which conveys the elec- 

 tricity from the rail to the car, and that, consequently, that was 

 how it got magnetised. 



^'''■"" "■' i- ' lii,. in its teens, r asked you whether 



lites of Cranus can be accounted 

 I ; : L^ rowed so.— R. 1'.) W. A. 



When Kno 



,S.AX GRE.AL. 



[19-iO]-In letter 1931 "San Greal" (Holy diet) should be "San 

 Greal " (Holy di.sh). " Grail " is derived from Low Latin cratella 

 (not cratclta), diminution of crater, a bowl. The sentence pre- 

 ceding (" Icel. Dictionary ") requires quotation marks. 



There is no need of a far-fetched et}-molog>- for "Grail"; its 

 derivation follows a rule to which there are no real exceptions 

 in the French langnnge. "The Latin medial t undergoes two 



sucee-^-^i' lein-'f- • ( 1 ) it becomes d in old French ; (2) this d dis- 



appi'.ii- :i~ il' u -rir niMjriginal Latin rfv and then the two vowels 



whirli .111 together are contracted Medial 



Latin ' ■ ! I rich up to about the middle of the eleventh 



df of that century this d is softened into a 



ering to the two English tk sounds 



exceptions." (Introduction to Brachet's 

 "Etymological French Dictionary.") 



The following are a few examples : — 

 Grail (holy dish) from cratella. i Noel from natalis. 

 Grail (service-book) from gradale. ' Jloelle „ medulla. 

 " '" ticula. ' Vielle 





■udelis. 



, Fouiller „ fodiculare. 



patella. 



T. Common. 

 [I was unable to correct Mr. Common's former letter, proof of 

 which unfortunately reached me too late. — K. P.l 



TWO-SPEED GEARING. 

 [1941]— I rep-et that I was not able to reply immediately to 

 "G. W. G.'s " inquiry respecting the Crypto Dynamic two-speed 

 gear. I have had several opportunities of trying this gear, and 

 think so highly of it tliat I am having a machine made especially to 

 apply it to— one of the new front-steering tandems by Starley i: 



I shall also V 



neutralised. 



a Humber 



front-steerer 



: r to any other two-speed gearing 



' ity with which it can be changed 



1 c , o,. This is a very strong point, as 



; lost tliat the advantage gained is almost 

 John Beowning. 



LETTERS RECEIVED AND .'^HORT .ANSWERS. 



