Leonardo da Vinci’s Ostrich Egg Globe
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 8, 2021
If the first map to represent the American continent is that of Juan de la Cosa, made in the year 1500, and the first in which the name Amer...
Showing posts with the label Curious Objects
The Arrow Stork
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 3, 2021
Many birds fly extraordinarily great distances in search of warmer climate, food and favorable breeding grounds, a seasonal phenomenon we no...
Fire Grenades: Victorian Fire Extinguishers
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 30, 2021
An early form of fire extinguisher popular in the late 1800s was the fire grenade. The grenade resembled a regular glass bottle or a modern ...
The Tiara of Saitapharnes
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 2, 2021
For the better part of a decade, the widely celebrated and esteemed Louvre Museum of Paris proudly displayed a supposedly ancient tiara made...
The Anatomical Machines of Raimondo di Sangro
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 22, 2021
Housed in glass cases in the basement of Sansevero Chapel in Naples, Italy, are two extraordinary exhibits. Called “anatomical machines”, th...
What Happened to Napoleon’s Penis?
Kaushik Patowary
May 18, 2021
The diminutive French military leader Napoléon Bonaparte lies buried in a crypt under the dome at Les Invalides, in Paris, sans many vital b...
Boot Scrapers
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 1, 2021
In the days before automobiles, when streets were meant for horses and their carts mostly, walking through mud and excrement was an unavoida...
The Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab
Kaushik Patowary
Feb 1, 2021
The 1950s were exciting times. There was much enthusiasm and optimism around the use of atomic energy, which was seen as the solution to all...
The Great Glass Slab at Beth Shearim
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 26, 2020
In a cave adjacent to an ancient cemetery near Beit She'arim, an old Jewish town in northern Israel, there lies a huge slab of glass app...
The Great Bed of Ware
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 25, 2020
For much of human history, sleeping arrangements were very informal. You heaped a pile of straw or leaves on the floor, covered it with anim...
The Turin Erotic Papyrus
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 5, 2020
The Turin Erotic Papyrus is an ancient Egyptian papyrus scroll-painting that has long been a subject of intense interest among Egyptologists...
The Shirt Collar Mail
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 1, 2020
On April 21, 1906, three days after the terrible San Francisco earthquake, James Graves Jones dispatched a letter to his family in New York,...
Chinese Magic Mirrors
Kaushik Patowary
Sep 11, 2020
For over a thousand years, a rare type of Chinese artifact has been baffling researchers. It’s a polished bronze mirror with a pattern cast ...
A 16th Century Math Book With Pop-Up Models
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 9, 2020
Euclid’s Elements , first published in 300 BC, was one of the most important and influential textbooks ever written in the history of scie...
The Bayeux Tapestry
Kaushik Patowary
May 7, 2020
History is not always written. Sometimes it’s carved . Sometimes it’s embroidered. In a museum in Bayeux, in Normandy, is such a piece o...
Glass Flowers And Sea Creatures: Leopold And Rudolf Blaschka’s Ultra Realistic Glass Models
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 7, 2020
A glass flower at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. It is nearly impossible to preserve a dead specimen in a pristine manner. Larg...
Theremin: The Musical Instrument That You Can Play Without Touching
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 6, 2020
The theremin is probably the world's strangest and spookiest musical instrument ever made. It has no keys, no strings, just two metal ro...
Child Birth by Centrifugal Force
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 28, 2019
In 1965, George and Charlotte Blonsky, a childless New York couple were granted patent for a peculiarly weird invention—an ”Apparatus for F...
Creepy Victorian Christmas Cards
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 24, 2019
Victorian Christmas cards were a mixed bag of iconography, ranging from religious to everyday things. But one theme common in these season...
Inuit Snow Goggles
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 5, 2019
This man, wearing a pair of strange goggles is not trying to make a fashion statement. He is just getting ready for a trek across the froze...
