Many years ago I was watching a WWII documentary about B-17 bombers. The narrator had what appeared to be an English accent. At one point he was talking about the armament on the bombers and said the B-17 had as many as twelve 50mm guns. I thought I had misheard him but a few minutes later he again said the bombers had as many as twelve 50mm guns.
The B-17 had .50 caliber guns which are 12.7mm, not 50mm. It annoyed me to no end that a documentary film could have such a glaring mistake in it.
A few days later I was watching another documentary about the history of agriculture in Europe. The English sounding narrator mentioned that the Iron Age farmers migrated to Great Britain and took their corn with them. I was annoyed again because corn is a New World crop and did not exist in Europe during the Iron Age. Not wanting to believe that someone could make such a glaring mistake I did some checking and realised that the corn in question was barley or barleycorn and "corn" is what is used in some places in Europe to designate that grain.
Reading The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne I came across the section where one grain of corn was discovered in someone's pocket and the conversation turned to how in a few years, by planting that one grain of corn, they could have acres of corn to make food with.
Since the original was written by a Frenchman I wondered if the corn mentioned was corn as in what we call it in the USA or if it was barley. Knowing that my corn is called maize in other places I wondered what word the original French text used and if it was indeed corn (maize) or barley. Looking through an edition in French I found the following:
"Un grain de blé!"
What lead me to believe that he was using my corn (maize) in the story was the fact that the stranded occupants of the island escaped by balloon from a Confederate POW camp in Virginia. However "blé" seems to be "wheat" so it seems the translator made a substitution. "Un grain de blé" translates to "A grain of wheat".
That makes me wonder what Verne was thinking of when he wrote the story, wheat, barley, or maize.:confused:
The B-17 had .50 caliber guns which are 12.7mm, not 50mm. It annoyed me to no end that a documentary film could have such a glaring mistake in it.
A few days later I was watching another documentary about the history of agriculture in Europe. The English sounding narrator mentioned that the Iron Age farmers migrated to Great Britain and took their corn with them. I was annoyed again because corn is a New World crop and did not exist in Europe during the Iron Age. Not wanting to believe that someone could make such a glaring mistake I did some checking and realised that the corn in question was barley or barleycorn and "corn" is what is used in some places in Europe to designate that grain.
Reading The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne I came across the section where one grain of corn was discovered in someone's pocket and the conversation turned to how in a few years, by planting that one grain of corn, they could have acres of corn to make food with.
Since the original was written by a Frenchman I wondered if the corn mentioned was corn as in what we call it in the USA or if it was barley. Knowing that my corn is called maize in other places I wondered what word the original French text used and if it was indeed corn (maize) or barley. Looking through an edition in French I found the following:
"Un grain de blé!"
What lead me to believe that he was using my corn (maize) in the story was the fact that the stranded occupants of the island escaped by balloon from a Confederate POW camp in Virginia. However "blé" seems to be "wheat" so it seems the translator made a substitution. "Un grain de blé" translates to "A grain of wheat".
That makes me wonder what Verne was thinking of when he wrote the story, wheat, barley, or maize.:confused:
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