QUESTION Why is a ‘drag race’ so-called?
A drag race refers to the act of driving or racing a vehicle down a straight, flat road.
Drag, meaning ‘broad main street’, originates in the horse-and-cart era because horses dragged the carriages behind them.
The term dates to at least the mid-19th century; Henry Mayhew’s London Labour And The London Poor, 1851, mentions: ‘Another woman… whose husband had got a month for ‘griddling in the main drag’ (singing in the high street)…’Drag racing’ originated in postwar America.
A drag race refers to the act of driving or racing a vehicle down a straight, flat road. Drag, meaning ‘broad main street’, originates in the horse-and-cart era because horses dragged the carriages behind them
A 1950 article in The Southeast Missourian entitled Teenage Crime read: ‘There have been entirely too many hot rod exhibitions of fender tagging and drag racing.’
Around the same time, drag racing became an organised sport. Men in drag, i.e. men dressing up as women, has a separate origin.
In Shakespearean times, only men were allowed to tread the boards and the dresses they wore to play female characters would drag along the floor.
American drag queen RuPaul melded the two concepts together to create RuPaul’s Drag Race, which first aired in 2009.
Pauline Burgess, Hove, East Sussex
QUESTION: Who was the genius who first put wheels on suitcases?
The patent ‘Rolling Luggage’ was granted in 1972 to Bernard Sadow, who was vice president of United States Luggage at the time.
It proposed that ‘luggage made in accordance with this invention has been found to be readily and easily movable. The luggage actually glides.
Further, substantially any person, regardless of size, strength or age, can easily pull the luggage along without effort or strain.
‘While this certainly was wheeled luggage’s main introduction to the travelling public, the idea wasn’t entirely original.
There was a British invention called The Portable Porter, a device consisting of a metal frame, two wheels and a leather handle.
It was invented by British World War II engineer Herbert Mingo in 1948 to help railway porters.
We now know that the Polish-born artist and inventor Alfred Krupa independently invented a wheeled suitcase but failed to get a patent.
In 1943, Krupa, who had been raised by his grandmother after the death of his parents, escaped occupied Poland to Yugoslavia, where he fought as a partisan.
After the war, the restless Krupa was a teacher, boxer, target shooter, fencer, martial artist and inventor.
In 1951 he created skis for walking on water, in 1954 the first suitcase on wheels, and in 1957 he invented a glass-bottomed boat.
Krupa attempted to patent his ideas but failed to get recognition. In 1987, Northwest Airlines pilot Robert Plath revolutionised rolling luggage by adding two wheels and a telescopic handle to a suitcase that could then be rolled upright, and established his company Travelpro.
Andrew Wright, Malvern, Worcs
QUESTION: Why was Bouvines described as ‘the most important battle you’ve never heard of’?
The Battle of Bouvines (1214) was arguably more significant than the famous English victories at Agincourt or Crecy during the Hundred Years’ War.
It was a humiliating defeat for England and her Allies by the French. On his accession to the throne in 1199, King John inherited, through his father Henry II and mother Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Angevin Empire, which encompassed much of Western France.
However, he soon lost Normandy, Anjou and Poitou to his rival Philip II of France. John’s repeated failures made him extremely unpopular at home.
Nevertheless, he was determined to retake the French lands he had lost. Without support from his barons, John allied with his nephew, the German Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV, and the Counts of Flanders and Boulogne.
The hapless John never made the main battlefield. He landed at La Rochelle in February 1214 and advanced into Anjou, aiming to incite a general revolt, but was forced to retreat at La Roche-aux-Moines by forces under Philip’s son Louis on July 2.
This left Philip free to march north and rout Otto and his allies at Bouvines on July 27. This victory affirmed Philip’s dominance over the Angevin Empire.
John was compelled to formally hand over Anjou to Philip in a humiliating settlement. John’s loss of his continental support would lead to the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215, limiting royal power.
Meanwhile, Bouvines established France as a leading power, shaping the future political landscape of Western Europe.
Mr K. L. Watts, Nuneaton, Warwickshire