Congreve Rolling Ball Clock
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 9, 2019
In the early 19th century, an Englishman named Sir William Congreve invented an unusual clock that kept time using balls rolling down an inc...
China’s Misguided War Against Sparrows
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 8, 2019
These panel of images from the late 1950s China, depicting young boys hunting sparrows for sport, were taken from a poster aimed at school ...
A Short History of Showering
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 8, 2019
Personal hygiene hasn’t always been an integral part of grooming, yet the need to clean oneself easily and quickly was as pressing in ancien...
Cascata delle Marmore: A Man-Made Waterfalls Created by Ancient Romans
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 7, 2019
About 8 kilometers east from the city of Terni, in the Umbria region of Italy, is a beautiful three-tiered waterfalls called Cascata delle M...
Forma Urbis: Rome’s Giant Marble Map
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 7, 2019
A modern illustration of the Temple of Peace with Forma Urbis, the giant map of Rome, on the wall. At the Roman Forum in the center of Rom...
SS Warrimoo: The Ship That Missed New Year’s Eve But Gained Two Centuries
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 4, 2019
The story that follows supposedly happened more than a hundred years ago on the eve of New Year. It spanned two centuries, yet was over in a...
The Photographers Who Braved Mount St. Helens
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 3, 2019
When Mount St. Helens erupted in the morning of May 18, 1980, a freelance photographer named Robert Landsberg was within four miles of the s...
Walt Disney’s Backyard Railway: The Carolwood Pacific Railroad
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 2, 2019
Even before Walt Disney drew up plans for the first Disneyland Park, he knew what to include in it—a rideable miniature railroad. Indeed, he...
Meat-Shaped Stone And Jadeite Cabbage
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 2, 2019
This mouth-watering chunk of stewed pork belly with a gratuitous layer of fat and glistening sheen is actually a piece of rock—jasper to be ...
The Ziggurat of Dur-Kurigalzu
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 2, 2019
This enormous structure rising over the desert sands near the Euphrates River resembles a sandstone butte but is actually made of mud-brick...
Kola Superdeep Borehole
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 24, 2018
It’s hard to imagine that under this small metal cap lies the world’s deepest borehole. Now surrounded by ruins, the Kola Superdeep Borehol...
Atmospheric Railways: The 19th Century Trains That Ran On Air
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 22, 2018
The 19th century ushered in a new form of transport—railways. Journeys that previously took weeks were now completed in days. Distances that...
Devil’s Tramping Ground
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 19, 2018
In the woods just outside of Siler City, North Carolina, lies a bare circle of earth about forty feet across where nothing grows except for ...
Betsiboka: Madagascar’s Red River
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 19, 2018
This image of the Betsiboka River’s estuary in northwest Madagascar provides tantalizing evidence of catastrophic erosion that has been pla...
Nova Scotia’s Christmas Gift to Boston
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 18, 2018
For nearly half a century, the Canadian province of Nova Scotia has been sending a gift to the people of Boston in the form of a Christmas t...
The Biggest Little Railway in the World
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 17, 2018
Last year, a team of British railway enthusiasts got together to engineer the longest miniature railway journey in the world. The tracks tha...
The Sydney Hospital Built By Rum
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 17, 2018
Two hundred years ago, Sydney was little more than a convict camp in desperate need of infrastructure, supplies and a hospital. The long jou...
William Clark’s Expensive Folly
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 14, 2018
In late 19th century New York, on an avenue dubbed the “Millionaire’s Colony”, there stood an insanely ornate house belonging to the wealthy...
Demon Core: How The Third Nuclear Bomb Destined For Japan Killed a Bunch of American Scientists
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 14, 2018
President Harry S. Truman knew that one bomb would not be enough to force Japan to surrender, so he ordered two. What many don’t know is tha...
A Nature Park in an Abandoned Railway Yard in Berlin
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 13, 2018
For more than a century, the Anhalter Bahnhof was the most important railway station in Berlin. Located at the heart of the German capital, ...
