27 August: Ladders

In the French Revolutionary Calendar, today was Echelle, or Day of the Ladder, Here are 10 things you might not know about ladders:

1. The first image of a ladder is in a Mesolithic rock painting dating back at least 10,000 years, found in the Spider Caves in Valencia, Spain. The picture shows two people using a ladder to reach a Honey Bee nest to harvest Honey.

2. The world’s longest ladder is made of wood and measures 135 feet long. It has 120 rungs and was designed by the Handwerks Museum in Austria in 2005.

3. When using a ladder, the angle against the wall is very important to get right. If it is too shallow, the bottom of the ladder is at risk of sliding, and if it is too steep, the ladder may fall backwards. The safest angle for a ladder is 75.5°. The rule of thumb for achieving that angle is for every four feet of vertical height, the ladder foot should move one foot from the wall.

4. Trying to carry something while climbing a ladder is the reason for over 50% of ladder related injuries.

5. There are two types of ladder: rigid ladders are self-supporting or that may be leaned against a vertical surface such as a wall, and rollable ladders, such as those made of rope or Aluminium, usually hung from the top.

6. Rigid ladders were originally made of wood, but in the 20th century aluminium became more common because of its lighter weight.

7. The correct term for the rungs of a rigid ladder are stringers or rails (US) or stiles (UK).

8. Ladders are mentioned in the Bible. Jacob's Ladder is a ladder leading to heaven that was featured in a dream the biblical Patriarch Jacob had during his flight from his brother Esau in the Book of Genesis.

9. Jacob's Ladder is depicted on the facade of Bath Abbey in England, with Angels climbing up and down ladders on either side of the main window on the west front.

10. That walking under a ladder is bad luck is a common superstition. The origin of this is uncertain but theories include: a ladder leaning against a wall resembles a gallows; an ancient Egyptian belief in the sacred trinity of triangles and walking through one was a desecration; the belief that a ladder rested against the crucifix that Christ hung from, making it a symbol of wickedness, betrayal and death.

Character birthday

Musca Australis, member of the cosmic force known as The Constellations. His powers are flight and night vision.

Griffin Dawson was born with a genetic variant disfigurement – compound eyes like those of a fly. He grew up in care. On leaving care he was taken in by Captain Cricket and the Swarm where he found acceptance for the first time. They helped him learn to fly with artificial wings.

However, as he grew older, he began to question the Swarm's goal of a world with insects in charge. He was not insectoid, nor delusional that he was an insect in a human body like many of them were.

The Constellations were bitter enemies of the Swarm – during a battle, Dawson defected and was teleported to safety, to start a new life on Constellation Station as the Southern Fly.