Questions for our American friends - Page 153

**Greenman** · September 11th, 2013, 04:05 PM

One thing has always puzzled me. Why do you call your fire brigades(as we call ours here) Ladder 49 or the like? On this day in particular when we remember the 11/9 (or 9/11 as you say it) tragedy of the Twin Towers, and when fire departments came into their own and saved many lives, I just wondered why you call them 'ladder'?

**richardoe** · September 11th, 2013, 04:19 PM

And on the subject of the empire, don't forget that the largest of Britains remaining terretories is British Antartic territory which is 660,000 square miles. So uniquely Britain had both poles as part of its empire.

tafkab · September 11th, 2013, 04:22 PM

Hello !

So it shall say:
Rule Britania ,
Britania rule the ice(bear) ?

[SCNR]

**bombermouse** · September 11th, 2013, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greenman

One thing has always puzzled me. Why do you call your fire brigades(as we call ours here) Ladder 49 or the like? On this day in particular when we remember the 11/9 (or 9/11 as you say it) tragedy of the Twin Towers, and when fire departments came into their own and saved many lives, I just wondered why you call them 'ladder'?

I believe it's shortened from hook and ladder company. The ladder part explains itself, the hook is beyond my knowledge, perhaps a firefighter can explain that part.

**Mal Hombre** · September 11th, 2013, 07:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bombermouse

I believe it's shortened from hook and ladder company. The ladder part explains itself, the hook is beyond my knowledge, perhaps a firefighter can explain that part.

I'm no Firefighter but I believe this is a Fireman's Hook

It's used to pull down walls and break windows.

**MrInBetween** · September 11th, 2013, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bombermouse

I believe it's shortened from hook and ladder company. The ladder part explains itself, the hook is beyond my knowledge, perhaps a firefighter can explain that part.

In the days of thatched roofs, firefighters used to use long hooks to pull down burning thatch and stop the fire spreading. Could that be the origin?

**MrInBetween** · September 11th, 2013, 09:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by richardoe

To finally settle the debate on the largest empire Ive looked on wiki to see what they say. They say the following "the mongol empire was the largest contiguous land empire the world has ever seen, it stretched from eastern Europe to the sea of Japan". Now that is a large area, but the British empire was bigger.

Quote:

Originally Posted by palo5

It's not true, richard. The British Empire was about 30% smaller

I posted this on another thread

Quote:

Wiki gives the Mongol Empire 44.000.000 km2. I gasped when I read that - I knew it was big, but I didn't realize it was almost twice as big as the USSR!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_Empire

Wiki gives the British Empire 33.000.000 km2. Which is still frigging enormous. But if wiki is right, they'd need another Canada and another South Africa to match the Mongols

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire

Quote:

Originally Posted by richardoe

Why therefore does wiki say the British empire was the largest empire???

Where is the figure of 44,000,000 km2 for the Mongol Empire coming from? The Wikipedia entry linked to doesn't give a land area at all - perhaps it's been edited recently?

The only place I've found this figure in Wikipedia is where it says that Chambers World Gazetteer rounds off the area of Asia to it; probably not relevant, because the Mongol empire neither covered the whole of Asia, nor was confined to it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_empire gives the Mongol Empire's area as 33,000,000 km2, second only to the British at 33,700,000 km2.

**Greenman** · September 11th, 2013, 09:47 PM

Just on a point about Fire Engines, I was watching the opening sequence of an old Murder, She Wrote with Angela Lansbury(Jessica Fletcher) and it was supposedly set in London. They showed a scene with British bobbies in helmets, cars etc - but the only thing they got wrong were showing a fire engine with the old-fashioned ladder with a big wheel on the back. This went out of use in the mid 80s, yet this programme is supposed to be set in the 90s! Not so much a whodunnit more whydyadoit!

**scoundrel** · September 11th, 2013, 11:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greenman

Just on a point about Fire Engines, I was watching the opening sequence of an old Murder, She Wrote with Angela Lansbury(Jessica Fletcher) and it was supposedly set in London. They showed a scene with British bobbies in helmets, cars etc - but the only thing they got wrong were showing a fire engine with the old-fashioned ladder with a big wheel on the back. This went out of use in the mid 80s, yet this programme is supposed to be set in the 90s! Not so much a whodunnit more whydyadoit!

Hugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grubb.

Elvis16/03/14 · September 12th, 2013, 07:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scoundrel

Hugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grubb.

How many at Trumpton had 2nd job`s washing windows.

September 11th, 2013, 04:05 PM	#1521
Greenman Live Legend of VEF Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Underground lair somewhere in the world Posts: 20,353 Thanks: 30,936 Thanked 383,529 Times in 19,356 Posts	One thing has always puzzled me. Why do you call your fire brigades(as we call ours here) Ladder 49 or the like? On this day in particular when we remember the 11/9 (or 9/11 as you say it) tragedy of the Twin Towers, and when fire departments came into their own and saved many lives, I just wondered why you call them 'ladder'? __________________ There was only ONE Greenman, and you accepted no substitutes! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Rest in peace MaxJoker-you will be sorely missed. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. 20,000: Milestone reached!

September 11th, 2013, 04:19 PM	#1522
richardoe Vintage Member Join Date: Jan 2013 Posts: 2,812 Thanks: 1,424 Thanked 24,132 Times in 2,726 Posts	And on the subject of the empire, don't forget that the largest of Britains remaining terretories is British Antartic territory which is 660,000 square miles. So uniquely Britain had both poles as part of its empire. __________________ Richardoe To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

September 11th, 2013, 09:47 PM	#1528
Greenman Live Legend of VEF Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Underground lair somewhere in the world Posts: 20,353 Thanks: 30,936 Thanked 383,529 Times in 19,356 Posts	Just on a point about Fire Engines, I was watching the opening sequence of an old Murder, She Wrote with Angela Lansbury(Jessica Fletcher) and it was supposedly set in London. They showed a scene with British bobbies in helmets, cars etc - but the only thing they got wrong were showing a fire engine with the old-fashioned ladder with a big wheel on the back. This went out of use in the mid 80s, yet this programme is supposed to be set in the 90s! Not so much a whodunnit more whydyadoit! __________________ There was only ONE Greenman, and you accepted no substitutes! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Rest in peace MaxJoker-you will be sorely missed. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. 20,000: Milestone reached!

September 11th, 2013, 04:22 PM	#1523
tafkab Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 86 Thanks: 221 Thanked 381 Times in 65 Posts	Hello ! So it shall say: Rule Britania , Britania rule the ice(bear) ? [SCNR]