oxbridgeup

When I first saw this episode I (being an American) wondered just what they were playing at. He may fool non-Americans but I doubt that any of us would be taken in. (In a way it's like the phoney Aussie accents on Month Python; people that weren't familiar with authentic Aussie accents were probably fooled; real Aussies weren't.

I notice from his credits that he made a career of playing Americans, which says something for British production values.

The only Brit I can recall who would have fooled me completely had I not known better was Sid James in "Orders Are Orders" in which he played a big-mouthed movie producer.

There are many things historically wrong with this series; for starters, the longbow (think Robin Hood) didn't come into use until the 13th century or thereabouts, whilst it's generally conceded that if Arthur were a historical person, he lived about the 8th century. The costumes are all wrong --- again more close to those of Robin's time. Knights in armour didn't just "mount up"; they needed a hoist to get on a horse. The writings of Euclid were unknown to the Arthurian age; so Merlin's lever was an anachronism. In several scenes men remained seated when women (even the Queen) were standing -- definitely a no-no until the 20th century. There are other, lesser faults, but, in general, this was a Robin Hood setting with "men in armour" instead of tights.

In one scene a character lights a candle using a match. Unfortunately, at the time of the French revolution (1789ish), flint and steel with a tinder box and sulphur-tipped tapers--- called "spunks"--- were the usual means of obtaining fire.

Sparks, made by striking the flint and steel, were made to fall upon the tinder (usually charred cotton or linen) which then took on enough of a glow to ignite the sulphur on the spunk.

In 1805, a chap named Chancel, an assistant to Professor L.J. Thenard of Paris, came up with a process of dipping a stick coated with sulphur and tipped with a mixture of potassium chlorate and sugar, into a bottle containing asbestos fibres soaked with sulphuric acid. The sulphuric acid reacted with the potassium chlorate to produce a flame.

The first practical friction matches --- the "Congreves" , named after Sir William COngreve, the inventor of the Congreve rocket, were invented in England in 1827 by John Walker, a druggist of Stockton-on-Tees. These consisted of a stick coated with sulphur and tipped with antimony sulphide, potassium chlorate and gum. With each box (which sold for a shilling, a not insubstantial sum at the time) came a piece of glass-coated paper. To light the Congreve you folded the paper and drew the stick between the folds.

Sorry for the long diversion, but there is a, to my mind, rather silly requirement that at least ten lines be submitted. I wonder what Julius "Veni, Vidi, Vici" Caesar would have said to that.