- Is there a question to which you want to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question here?
- Write to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY; or email charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk
QUESTION: When were hens’ eggs first put in boxes of six to be sold?
From as early as Anglo-Saxon times until 1965, the number 12 was important to our currency system. There were 12 pennies to a shilling – and you could buy a dozen eggs at a penny each for a shilling without the need for change.
The number 12 has had significance since ancient times, from the 12 apostles of Jesus to 12 full moons per year. Plus it is also convenient as it has many divisors: one, two, three, four, six and 12.
So, when the egg box was invented in the early 20th century, it was natural to sell eggs in batches of 12 or six.
Mary White, York
There were 12 pennies to a shilling – and you could buy a dozen eggs at a penny each for a shilling without the need for change (stock photo)
When the egg box was invented in the early 20th century, it was natural to sell eggs in batches of 12 or six (stock photo)
QUESTION: When was the first car phone introduced? How did it work?
Further to the earlier answer, back in the 1980s, my boss had one of the early car phones.
He was notorious for driving at high speed with the phone in one hand and a cigar in the other.
On one much talked-about occasion, the office junior was going somewhere with the boss and had to ask him to stop the car so he could leap out and be sick at the side of the road. Those were the days!
Barry Saunders, Watford, Herts
QUESTION Living in the Scottish Highlands, I’m always taking ticks off our dog. Occasionally there are two in tandem. What causes this?
Once they have mated, female ticks remain receptive, so males often stay on the engorged female and guard her (stock photo)
This is very common. In the case of hard ticks, such as the common sheep tick, Ixodes ricinus, mating often occurs while the female is feeding on a host.
As males need blood in order for their sperm to mature, they take small feeds while they wait for a suitable mate.
When a female arrives, males mount the engorging female to mate. The process of mating involves the smaller male tick attaching itself to the underside of the bloated female tick and inserting its mouthpiece into an opening on the female where it deposits its sperm.
Once they have mated, female ticks remain receptive, so males often stay on the engorged female and guard her.
After engorgement, which can take a number of days, females drop off the host to the ground in order to lay their eggs.
It takes around another four to eight weeks for the eggs to mature, after which the female lays about 2,000 eggs in one sitting before dying.
The male may mate one or two times before it too dies.
Simon Foulds, Perth
