Nowe Ateny: Poland’s Eccentric First Encyclopedia
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 14, 2025
In 1745, a Polish parish priest named Benedykt Joachim Chmielowski published Nowe Ateny (New Athens), the first encyclopedia ever written...
Showing posts with the label History
The Invincible Bramah Lock
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 12, 2025
It is 1790, and you find yourself at 124 Piccadilly, London. As you stroll past the rows of shops, one window in particular catches your eye...
Project Diana: Bouncing Radio Waves Off The Moon
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 8, 2025
Around noon on January 10, 1946, a powerful pulse of radio waves shot skyward from a massive radar installation at Camp Evans in Wall Townsh...
The Phantom of Heilbronn: How Contaminated DNA Sent The German Police On A Wild Goose Chase
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 6, 2025
On the afternoon of April 25, 2007, Michele Kiesewetter , a 22-year-old police officer in the German city of Heilbronn, was shot dead in a p...
The Knife Makers of Thiers
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 31, 2025
In the Puy-de-Dôme department of Auvergne, in the heart of France, lies Thiers—a city renowned throughout the country as the historic capita...
Hua Tuo And The Mysterious Mafeisan
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 30, 2025
During the late Eastern Han dynasty, a brilliant Chinese physician named Hua Tuo —renowned for his pioneering medical techniques, surgical s...
St. Elizabeth's Flood of 1421
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 21, 2025
On the night of November 18–19, 1421, a powerful storm surge from the North Sea broke through poorly maintained dikes in the County of Holla...
Henry Gunther: The Last Soldier To Be Killed During World War 1
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 15, 2025
Just after 5 o’clock on the morning of 11 November 1918, British, French, and German officials gathered in a railway carriage in the Compièg...
IctÃneo II: The World’s First Powered Submarine That Ran On Chemicals
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 9, 2025
Before the age of steam, all early submarines relied on human muscle for propulsion. The first functional submarine, built by Dutch inventor...
Pecunia Non Olet: The Urine Tax of Ancient Rome
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 7, 2025
A Roman-era latrine in Timgad in Algeria . Credit: Wikimedia Commons Throughout history, governments have found creative ways to raise...
Abraham Crijnssen: The Ship That Disguised Itself As An Island
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 3, 2025
Camouflage is a vital strategy in warfare—whether on land, at sea, or in the air. During the First and Second World Wars, many Allied ships—...
Robert Coates: The Greatest Bad Actor
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 30, 2025
In the glittering world of 19th-century theatre, where talent was prized and ridicule could end a career, one man defied convention and beca...
The Iron Hand of Götz von Berlichingen
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 25, 2025
Gottfried "Götz" von Berlichingen was no ordinary knight. A formidable figure in 16th-century Germany, he earned both fame and in...
The Jumping Frenchmen of Maine
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 16, 2025
In the late 19th century, a rare and highly unusual neuropsychiatric condition was observed among a group of French-Canadian lumberjacks li...
Salomon Andrée's Ill-Fated Arctic Balloon Expedition
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 9, 2025
By the late 19th century, the North Pole remained one of the last great geographic mysteries. The quest to reach the inhospitable and danger...
Timothy Dexter’s Curious Business Ventures
Kaushik Patowary
May 30, 2025
Timothy Dexter was businessman, but he had few business sense. He attempted to sell coal to Newcastle and bed warmers to the tropics. Yet, d...
Johann Bessler’s Mysterious Rotating Wheel
Kaushik Patowary
May 26, 2025
For centuries, inventors have sought to create machines that could run forever without any external source of energy. These so-called “perpe...
Paige Compositor: The Invention That Bankrupted Mark Twain
Kaushik Patowary
May 19, 2025
Movabale letter types in a type case. This centuries-old method of type setting, although largely displaced by newer technologies, is s...
James Lind And The First Clinical Trial
Kaushik Patowary
May 12, 2025
In the mid-18th century, the British Royal Navy was the most powerful maritime force in the world, but its dominance came at a high cost. Am...
The Poyais Scam: A Nation That Never Was
Kaushik Patowary
May 7, 2025
A panoramic view of Black River in the fictional territory of Poyais. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons In the early 19th century, a Sc...
