One of the things many visitors to Britain are confused by is the working system of weights and measures. Although these islands officially went metric some decades ago, much is still sold in the old imperial measures. I grew up in Australia, and when we went metric, we went metric. End of story. But then, … Continue reading »
I keep stumbling into fans of Nikola Tessla(1846-1943) , and my latest collidee(?) told me the story of this incredible structure. It was built in 1905 to tap into wifi electricity. The theory had been tested as a lightning machine at Crook’s Peake in Colorado which had shown promising results as well as collapsing the … Continue reading »
I have at last got to the end of this tome, and want to share with you some of the line drawings from it. Some are too strange for even me to make sense out of, but here goe with some of the rest: Some strange animals – a 6 legged ram, and a unicorn … Continue reading »
I have been doing a web search for my endless obsession with Henry Bridges and his Microcosm, the giant musical clock which I believe to have been instrumental in creating the Industrial Revolution and much more. Well, are you sitting comfortably? Then try to get your summer addled brains around the following coincidence. I have … Continue reading »
Pop songs are primarily based on the notion of a person singing to you. Yes, you in particular, so are generally in the first person. That helps them sell, because the song becomes your special song. They can tell stories, they can just be a load of nonsense, but sometimes they ask the listener questions, … Continue reading »
This seems to be a straightforward term, but only as we know it in the modern useage. It is a children’s toy, specifically a female, or, in earlier times, it was a term of endearment. But in the past there has been some confusion, especially in England in the late 17th/early 18th century, when at … Continue reading »
Mountebanks made their livings as travellers who sold their own special cures and treatments, so had to be great orators and manipulators of crowds. About the year 1690 a book was published “The Harrangues or Speeches of Several Famous Mountebanks in town and Country”. This is from that book, by Tom Jones. GENTLEMEN AND LADIES, … Continue reading »
Sir Robert Southwell (1635-1702) was a wealthy diplomat and President of the Royal Society who for a time owned Kingsweston House, a mansion built by John Van Brugh to the north of Bristol. In 1685 his son the Hon. Edward Southwell, was in London with his tutor when he received a letter from his father. … Continue reading »
The years 1665 and 1666 are two of the most devastating London ever saw, being the dates of the Great Plague followed by the Great Fire. But plagues don’t come out of nowhere. Like any disease that affects large numbers of people, they have their cycles and – since they are now largely wiped out, … Continue reading »
“Picture galleries should be the townsman’s paradise of refreshment… There in the space of a single room, the townsman can take his country walk – a walk beneath mountain peaks, blushing sunsets with broad woodlands spreading out below. walk thorough green meadows… by rushing brooks where he watches and watches till he seems to hear … Continue reading »
