Britain’s Secret Fuel Pipelines
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 2, 2021
How do airline companies procure fuel for their fleet? In the UK at least, the fuel comes through pipelines delivered directly at the airpor...
Clarence E. Willard: The Man of Could Grow at Will
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 1, 2021
In 1913, while in England, Clarence E. Willard had to renew his passport in order to travel, and most importantly, in order for him to retur...
Propeller Driven Railways
Kaushik Patowary
May 31, 2021
A locomotive can derive power from many different sources. The earliest locomotives were driven by steam. Then came electric trains powered ...
The Ni'ihau Incident
Kaushik Patowary
May 28, 2021
Ni'ihau is the smallest of the inhabited islands in the Hawaiian archipelago, privately owned since the 19th century and which would hav...
The Richest Ancient Shipwreck
Kaushik Patowary
May 26, 2021
In 1975, a fishing boat working in the southwestern sea of Korean peninsula, near the Shinan Islands, caught six pieces of Chinese ceramic w...
The Air Conditioned Village
Kaushik Patowary
May 26, 2021
Air conditioning is ubiquitous these days, but not too long ago cool air was considered a luxury available only in commercial businesses. Th...
Mr. Bean’s Failed Assassination Attempt of The Queen
Kaushik Patowary
May 25, 2021
The closest Mr. Bean came to killing the Queen was when he headbutted the head of the British Royal family. The Queen was hurt but survived...
Why Apollo Astronauts Lobbed Grenades on The Moon
Kaushik Patowary
May 24, 2021
The Apollo missions of the 1960s and 70s provided scientists with an exciting playground upon which to conduct experiments never performed i...
Canal of the Pharaohs: The Forerunner to The Suez Canal
Kaushik Patowary
May 21, 2021
The Suez Canal may be a marvel of modern engineering, but there is nothing modern about digging canals. Navigable waterways have been dug si...
Goodyear’s Illuminated Tires
Kaushik Patowary
May 20, 2021
In the late 1930s, a German chemist named Otto Bayer synthesized a new organic polymer called polyurethane. Over the decades polyurethane fo...
Brennan’s Gyro Monorail
Kaushik Patowary
May 19, 2021
In the early 20th century, at least two different engineers working independently in different parts of the world, put forward a unique conc...
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...
The Underwater Mine of Silver Islet
Kaushik Patowary
May 17, 2021
The small rocky reef at the tip of the Sibley Peninsula in northwestern Ontario, Canada, is rich in silver, but mining this precious metal i...
Anschlussdenkmal: The Forbidden Nazi Memorial
Kaushik Patowary
May 14, 2021
The Anschlussdenkmal, or Anschluss Monument, in the Austrian town of Oberschützen, is a Nazi monument erected to commemorate the bloodless c...
Pilâtre de Rozier And The World’s First Aviation Accident
Kaushik Patowary
May 13, 2021
In 1783, French professor Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier created history by becoming the first man to fly in a balloon untethered. Two year...
How Ancient Romans Kept Time
Kaushik Patowary
May 12, 2021
That days have 24 hours is a long-established convention, which is also related to the rotational motion of the Earth. Pliny the Elder expre...
Gnomonic Blocks, or Multi-faceted Sundials
Kaushik Patowary
May 11, 2021
In the park of the Abbey of Epau, in Yvré-l'Evêque in France, you can admire a curious monument in the shape of an obelisk. Built by the...
The Great Seal Bug: How The Soviets Spied The US For 7 Years Via a Children’s Gift
Kaushik Patowary
May 10, 2021
In 1946, a group of Soviet school children from the Young Pioneer organization presented to the American ambassador to the Soviet Union, Wil...
Fonthill Abbey And Its Eccentric Creators
Kaushik Patowary
May 7, 2021
At Fonthill Gifford in Wiltshire, England, where now stands a small four-story tower with an attached two-story wing, there once stood one o...
Le Jamais Contente: The First Car To Go 100kmph
Kaushik Patowary
May 5, 2021
Imagine a metal cylinder less than 4 meters long, on four wheels, with the driver mounted on top like one rides a horse. No seat belts, no r...
