FACTS & ARGUMENTS

COLLECTED WISDOM
ANSWERS TO ALL MANNER OF QUESTIONS BY PHILIP JACKMAN
Curtain call
After five years of serving your trivia needs,
Collected Wisdom is bowing out. So, by way of saying
goodbye, we're replaying some of CW's greatest hits

YES, it's sad but true: This is the last Collected Wisdom. After five years at the helm of CW, your humble compiler is moving on to pastures new here at The Globe and Mail. Next week, Michael Kesterton's Social Studies column will be running on a Monday-to-Friday schedule.

We've decided to bow out by reprinting answers to the five questions that readers have asked most often, beginning with the most popular, bar none. We originally answered back in June of 1993.

The question: Why, asked Montrealer Pierre Bergeron , do almost all clock faces with Roman numerals depict 4 o'clock as IIII rather than the proper IV?

The answer: This reading of the situation came from Robert Fripp of Toronto.

In the Middle Ages, long-case clocks had no hands and the dial itself revolved behind a painted or carved panel, at the top of which was a small window. Only the number representing the actual hour was visible in this window (rather like the date window on modern watches). Without the whole clock face as a frame of reference, 4 o'clock (IV) was easily confused with 6 o'clock (VI), especially in the bad light of early dusk in a Northern European winter. Furthermore, even the most illiterate peasant could recognize four on his fingers. Thus the convention of IIII.

Oddly, people who are curious about the origin of IIII overlook another, directly related convention. The base of every numeral on a Roman clock face faces the centre of the dial, so that VI is actually upside down. This is a holdover from the days of the little window. In contrast, by the time the "new" Arabic numerals started to appear on clocks in the late 17th century, dials were fixed and all the numbers were visible. So Arabic numerals are oriented up and down.

Michael Idomir Allen , then a student of medieval scripts and writing at the University of Toronto, proposed a simpler answer: IIII was the common form of the numeral used throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, just as nine was written VIIII.

"Perhaps we should ask why IV and IX came to be the norm. I suspect it has to do with printed spatial economy. The arguments for IX are better on this ground, especially on a crowded clock face. IV offers no such advantage and diminishes the balance and charm of the face of time, where the minims (single strokes) on the right balance the V's on the left. Early technology had its esthetic side in addition to drawing on well-grounded tradition."

The question: Why are the numbers on a telephone keypad arranged differently from the numbers on a calculator keypad? Among the many readers who asked this was Jim Mark of Burlington, Ont.

The answer: "When telephone keypads were first developed, they used a series of clicks to dial the number as a way to emulate the old rotary-dial system," wrote Andrew Epstein of Vancouver in July last year in our second kick at this particular can.

"Engineers had problems with the equipment keeping up with quick-fingered diallers who were used to adding up huge stacks of numbers on adding machines. The buttons were reversed to slow down these diallers and give the equipment and relays a chance to catch up."

He tells us that today's digital touch-tone phones can easily keep up with even the fastest dialler, but the numbers remain in the original pattern to avoid confusion.

However, that wasn't the only reason for the current layout, said Graham Parsons of Don Mills, Ont.

"In the 1950s, Bell Laboratories was working on what came to be known as touch-tone dialling. I joined what was then Northern Electric in 1957 as a graduate engineer so was in on its development.

"Bell had two choices: the existing bottom-up layout of a calculator or the top-down version it chose. After a series of tests, Bell concluded that people who didn't use calculators on a regular basis (the vast majority -- this was before everyone had a pocket calculator) found the bottom-up layout awkward and could punch out a telephone number more quickly if the numbers read from left to right, top to bottom, like a printed page.

"Bell made its choice based on what came naturally to most people."

The question: Why is there no Channel 1 on the television dial? asked readers too numerous mention.

The answer: "When the radio spectrum for television broadcasting was first set out for North America, frequency ranges were assigned channel numbers," wrote Dennis E. Souder of Toronto in June of 1993.

"All channels below seven were claimed by the U.S. military, although channels 2 through 6 were later released for civilian broadcast. Other countries do have a Channel 1."

Dana M. Lee , who was then operations supervisor at MuchMusic in Toronto, added: "Actually, there were two channel ones. The first one was removed by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in 1940 to make room for FM radio (between 42 and 50 megaherz). In 1945, the second one was reserved (this time between 44 and 50 MHz) for community stations operating with no more than one kilowatt of power (compared with a maximum of 50 for commercial stations).

"FM broadcasters were given some time to move to 88-108 MHz, but unfortunately the FCC also had agreed to allow land mobile radio a share of the entire TV spectrum. As TV grew, there were interference problems, and the ham operators began clamouring for a primary band of their own.

"So, on June 14, 1948, the FCC gave them Channel 1's frequencies and decided not to renumber the other channels."

The question: Why, wondered Donald Mertens of Newmarket, Ont., back in April of 1995, don't school buses have seat belts?

The answer: One reason, wrote Medina Thorsteinson of Vancouver, "is that in the event of an accident, the bus driver is responsible for the children and would have to make sure they were all unbuckled and out of their seats. In an emergency, this would take too much time."

Another reason is that some of the little darlings have been known to cut off the seat belts and use them as weapons.

The question: Toronto's Michael Lamb asked (in July, 1994) why there is always a skill-testing question on contest entry forms.

David Tang of Toronto told us it's because of laws governing gambling and lotteries, and he provided a bit of historical background.

"In 1898, a British newspaper offered a prize for the correct prediction of the number of male and female deaths in London during a specified week in the future." (Victorians amused themselves in strange ways.)

"The newspaper also set out the death figures for a corresponding week in the previous year. The court presiding over the trial of the newspaper felt that this game could not be considered a lottery because the selection of the numbers did not depend entirely on chance. So it is to avoid the contest being considered a lottery that the organizers place skill-testing questions on their forms."

Unfinished business

Before we sign off, here's the answer to one of last week's queries.

The question: George Christoff of Kelowna, B.C., wrote: How does a song or artist qualify as Canadian content for radio airplay? Does the fact that Eric Clapton is now known to have a Canadian biological father mean his songs would make the grade?

The answer: "Canada's broadcast regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, sets Canadian content requirements for radio," writes Raina Feldman of Toronto.

"Musical selections must meet the requirements of the CRTC's MAPL (music, artist, production, lyrics) system."

A recording qualifies as Canadian content if it falls into at least two of the following categories.
Music: The selection is composed entirely by a Canadian (defined as a Canadian citizen or landed immigrant).
Artist: The music or the lyrics are be performed principally by a Canadian artist.
Production: The musical selection consists of a live performance either recorded wholly in Canada or performed wholly in Canada and broadcast live in Canada.
Lyrics: The words to the song are written entirely by a Canadian.

Alan Marshall of Thornhill, Ont., adds: "Under the MAPL system, if Anne Murray recorded a Gershwin song recorded at a studio in New York, it would not qualify as Canadian content because it matches only one category -- A for artist. However, Whitney Houston recording a song written by Joni Mitchell would be Canadian as it would qualify under the M and L, for music and lyrics."

Therefore, the nationality of Eric Clapton's biological father would be irrelevant in determining whether Mr. Clapton's songs qualify as Canadian content.
So that's it folks. Many, many thanks to all the thousands of readers who have sent in questions and answers over the years, especially stalwart contributors Dr. Eknath V. Marathé of St. Catharines, Ont., Marc A. Schindler of Spruce Grove, Alta., and Fred Kerner of Willowdale, Ont.

It has been a most informative experience.

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