what I have learned today.

[Jakob W]

And yet, QG, you're not a fan of the harmless gear inch? 

[cygnet]

Thanks LW&B. A trip to Rochefort seems in order, ideally for its fete.

They went past it on today’s stage.  Not sure if it made the highlights prog.

Would have been ace if they'd gone over it 😀
How far ahead would the break need to be to get a massive time bonus?

[Mr Larrington]

Thanks LW&B. A trip to Rochefort seems in order, ideally for its fete.

They went past it on today’s stage.  Not sure if it made the highlights prog.

Would have been ace if they'd gone over it 😀
How far ahead would the break need to be to get a massive time bonus?

I think the pelican was back together by the time they got there, possibly minus a few crash victims.  Pity.  It'd have been fun watching Crazy P trying to jump the gap as the bridge set off

[quixoticgeek]

And yet, QG, you're not a fan of the harmless gear inch? 

Of course not, it's a bloody stupid system, why would I compare my safety bike with an ordinary?

J

[Cudzoziemiec]

I like to express gearing in cubits of development. 

[Mr Larrington]

What's wrong with furlongs per fortnights at a steady 73 rpm?

[TheLurker]

As a side note on the amusing discussion of measurement systems something I learnt a couple of weeks ago (not  today so OT sorry, not sorry) is that the USAnians have two definitions of the foot. They are almost exactly, but not quite, the same length.  There is the international foot as used by the rest of the world and a *cough* special one that is used by surveyors which is the tiniest fraction longer.  As one might imagine this cause all sorts of fun and games at big (i.e. surveyor) scales.

In a recent(ish) outburst of sanity, it won't last I tell you, the U.S. Survey Foot is to be withdrawn.  Predictably there are groups protesting against this.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/science/foot-surveying-metrology-dennis.html

[citoyen]

something I learnt a couple of weeks ago (not  today so OT sorry, not sorry) is that the USAnians have two definitions of the foot. They are almost exactly, but not quite, the same length.

That's mad. But strangely fascinating.

[ian]

I'd always assumed that all American units varied in some strange way and couldn't be trusted. I'd not assumed they varied amongst themselves. I'm surprised they've not aligned themselves along political boundaries.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The Texan foot is a whole 16 inches. Some of the New England states have a piddling little foot barely 10 inches.

[ian]

Speaking of Texans, proper cowboys traditionally wore a range of hats, most commonly bowler hats*. The iconic Stetson wasn't invented till 1865 (and in its original incarnation looked more like an Amish hat) and didn't gain popularity till the very end of the 19th century.

*Billy the Kid favoured a top hat.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Googling "amish hat" brings up "stetson" as well.

[ian]

Googling "amish hat" brings up "stetson" as well.

They're similar, but the 'modern' Stetson has the exaggerated brim and the big dent in the top. Amish hats are a more conservative affair, as would be expected.

Americans, by the by, call a bowler hat a derby. I'm assuming they pronounce it like they do Kentucky, but I didn't encounter a lot of bowler hats when I lived there, it not being the 19th century, not even in Virginia.

[T42]

And yet, QG, you're not a fan of the harmless gear inch? 

Of course not, it's a bloody stupid system, why would I compare my safety bike with an ordinary?

J

'Ear 'ear!

[TheLurker]

The Texan foot is a whole 16 inches. Some of the New England states have a piddling little foot barely 10 inches.

Not in the least surprised by this.  Do you know if they are statutory measures or merely hang-overs retained because of custom and practice from a less regulated time?

[citoyen]

Speaking of Texans, proper cowboys traditionally wore a range of hats, most commonly bowler hats*. The iconic Stetson wasn't invented till 1865 (and in its original incarnation looked more like an Amish hat) and didn't gain popularity till the very end of the 19th century.

*Billy the Kid favoured a top hat.

In the cowboys & injuns stories I read as a nipper they always wore 10-gallon hats. I just looked up the origin of this term and it appears to be a mistranslation thing. (They were originally 8-gallon hats, but that got metricated to 38-litre hats, and rounded up for the conversion to US gallons.)

Not sure what the difference is between a 10-gallon hat and a Stetson.

I do know, however, that in France a bowler is called a melon hat, as in Chapeau Melon Et Bottes De Cuir, which is what they call The Avengers (as in John Steed and Emma Peel RIP, not Iron Man and co).

[Cudzoziemiec]

Most experts argue that the name “10-gallon hat” is actually an import from south of the border. Cattle drivers and ranchers in Texas and the Southwest often crossed paths with Mexican vaqueros who sported braided hatbands—called “galóns” in Spanish—on their sombreros. A “10 galón” sombrero was a hat with a large enough crown that it could hold 10 hatbands, but American cowboys may have anglicized the word to “gallon” and started referring to their own sombrero-inspired headgear as “10-gallon hats.” Yet another linguistic theory argues that the name is a corruption of the Spanish phrase “tan galán” —roughly translated as “very gallant” or “really handsome”—which may have been used to describe the majestic image of a hat-wearing cowboy in the saddle.

Whatever its origin, the 10-gallon hat wasn’t even the preferred headgear for most people in the Wild West—top hats and bowlers were more common. The nickname didn’t enter the popular lexicon until the 1920s, when silent film stars like Tom Mix and Tim McCoy helped popularize the oversized hat in Hollywood Westerns. The 10-gallon hat went on to earn a place as a quintessential piece of the frontier wardrobe, and presidents like Harry Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson would later use them to cultivate a rustic image while serving as commander in chief.

https://www.history.com/news/why-do-we-call-it-a-10-gallon-hat

A handsome hat. 

[citoyen]

iirc the real life Butch and Sundance wore bowlers, so the film is inaccurate in this sartorial respect. Or maybe they did wear bowlers in the film as well. I can't remember. But my mental image is of Newman and Redford in stetsons.

[Cudzoziemiec]

My mental image is of straw boaters, but that seems unlikely!

[citoyen]

Thinking about it some more, I have a vague feeling they wore a range of different outfits through the film, so it's possible they included straw boaters in their repertoire.

Definitely no bicycle helmets though.

[ian]

The iconic photo of Billy the Kid has him in a large top hat. He does look like the sort of chap you'd cross the street to avoid though.

[citoyen]

The iconic photo of Billy the Kid has him in a large top hat. He does look like the sort of chap you'd cross the street to avoid though.

I know the one you mean. He looks like he's from Swindon.

[Cudzoziemiec]

 

[Cudzoziemiec]

That'd be this one?

If not Swindon, then Devizes.

[Mr Larrington]

The iconic photo of Billy the Kid has him in a large top hat. He does look like the sort of chap you'd cross the street to avoid though.

I have read that Mr The Kid had syphilis and shot most of his victims in the back.  Even by USAnian standards this makes him an unlikely choice for a hero.