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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology

SHOCKING: Power lines curves and accidental verse - What They Never Told You

John Prescott
Electricity pylons near Edinburgh
‘Vital lifelines with their graceful catenaries.’ Electricity pylons near Edinburgh Photograph: David Cheskin/PA

Re pylons (Letters, 12 August), as an admirer of these vital lifelines with their graceful catenaries, I often recall the words of Dr William Whewell (1794-1866), in his Elementary Treatise on Mechanics: “Hence no force however great can stretch a cord however fine into an horizontal line which is accurately straight: there will always be a bending downwards.”
Ian Forman
Bishopthorpe, North Yorkshire

• Your report (English councils poised to get powers to buy greenbelt land without overpaying, 12 August) brought to mind the words of the MP John Prescott in a 1998 interview: “The green belt is a Labour achievement – and we mean to build on it.”
Anne J Palmer
Shillington, Hertfordshire

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