Éolienne Bollée: An Unusual Windmill
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 10, 2026
The design and working principle of a windmill or a wind powered machine haven’t changed much since they first appeared in Persia some 1,20...
Showing posts with the label History
The Double Life of William Brodie
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 8, 2026
In the late 18th century, no man in Edinburgh seemed more respectable than William Brodie. By day, he was a successful cabinetmaker, a membe...
Gjøa: The Little Ship That Conquered the Arctic
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 1, 2026
On October 19, 1906, a modest 70-foot sailing vessel slipped into San Francisco Bay. Compared with the large steamships and ocean-going vess...
Breadalbane: The Shipwreck at The Top of The World
Kaushik Patowary
May 27, 2026
In the frigid waters of the Canadian Arctic, nearly 100 meters beneath the surface, lies a ship seemingly untouched by time. Despite the pas...
Christopher Hutton's Clever Inventions That Helped Allied PoW Escape
Kaushik Patowary
May 25, 2026
When Britain entered the Second World War in September 1939, military planners understood that thousands of Allied servicemen would inevitab...
The Impeccable Counterfeits of Ceslaw Bojarski
Kaushik Patowary
May 19, 2026
On November 9, 1963, two investigators from France’s Central Office for Counterfeit Currency Control (OCRFM) arrived at the post office on R...
Edinburgh Seven And The Surgeons' Hall Riot
Kaushik Patowary
May 14, 2026
On 18 November 1870, a crowd gathered outside the Surgeons’ Hall in Edinburgh. Inside, seven young women sat for an anatomy examination alon...
Schiehallion Experiment: How Astronomers Weighed The Earth
Kaushik Patowary
May 11, 2026
In the summer of 1774, a team of British astronomers working under the patronage of the Royal Society established camp at the foot of a lone...
Emerich Juettner: The One Dollar Counterfeiter
Kaushik Patowary
May 4, 2026
In fiction as well as in real life, counterfeiters have always been portrayed as master forgers and artists who reproduced banknotes with as...
SN 1006: The Brightest Supernova Ever Witnessed
Kaushik Patowary
May 1, 2026
In the spring of 1006, people across Asia and Europe looked up into the night sky and saw something astonishing: a brilliant new star blazin...
The Halifax Explosion
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 29, 2026
On 6 December 1917, in the harbour of Halifax, in Nova Scotia, Canada, two ships collided. One of them was a munitions ship loaded with expl...
Warships Wrapped in Cotton
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 27, 2026
During the American Civil War, naval warfare underwent rapid transformation. The famous ironclads such as the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia ...
Thiess of Kaltenbrun, The Benevolent Werewolf
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 23, 2026
In the year 1692, an 86-year-old man who lived in the town of Mālpils in Latvia stood before a judge and calmly proclaimed that he was a wer...
The Fertility Drug Derived From Nuns' Urine
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 21, 2026
Many medical therapies, from cancer treatments to the management of infertility, are now so routine that their origins are easily overlooked...
Filles du Roi: The King's Daughters
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 18, 2026
In the mid-17th century, the French colony of New France faced a crisis that threatened its very survival. Despite fertile land and a steady...
Winfried Freudenberg: The Berlin Wall's Last Victim
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 14, 2026
During the years the Berlin Wall stood, roughly 5,000 people managed to escape across it into West Berlin. Before the wall was constructed, ...
OGAS: The Soviet Internet That Failed
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 9, 2026
In the early 1960s, a Soviet mathematician and cyberneticist named Viktor Glushkov floated a remarkable idea. He proposed that the Soviet Un...
The Burning of The Parliament, 1834
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 6, 2026
On the evening of 16 October 1834, the ancient Palace of Westminster, the seat of the British Parliament for centuries, was consumed by one ...
How Dorando Pietri Turned an Olympic Defeat Into Success
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 3, 2026
While most athletes competing at the Olympic Games are remembered for their triumphs, victory is not always the reason they endure. At the 1...
Covering of The Senne
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 28, 2026
In the mid-19th century, the river Senne, which was once the lifeblood of Brussels, had become its greatest liability. It had become pollute...
