Tuesday, December 09, 2014

Another anniversary -- maple leaf flag at fifty


Bob Harper draws my attention to the upcoming (February 15, 2015) fiftieth anniversary of the Canadian flag, and to his website exploring its history.
Matheson had refined the flag design, taking out a bend in the leaf’s stem. He insisted on the whitest white and the purest red (not tending toward the Union Jack’s orange or the Stars and Stripes’ purple). He tested the flag in a wind tunnel to be sure that even when flapping in a strong breeze, the flag’s stylized 11-pointed maple leaf would be recognizable. In fact, the number of points visually multiplies as wind speed increases.
 Image: The Flag Store
 
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