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 Blowing Up Of Hell Gate
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 28, 2021
As ships from across the Atlantic sail up East River and into Manhattan, they pass through a narrow tidal strait called Hell Gate situated b...
Disposing Sodium in Lake Lenore
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 27, 2021
At the end of World War 2, the United States Army had an excess of metallic sodium left over from the war, which was used in the manufacture...
The First Mars Rover
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 26, 2021
In May 1971, the Soviet Union sent to Mars two robotic space probes launched within nine days of each other—Mars 2 and Mars 3. Neither space...
Micrarium: The Museum of Microscopic Animals
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 23, 2021
It is said that more than 95 percent of animal species are smaller than your thumb, yet the vast majority of the creatures that are displaye...
Horse-Powered Locomotives
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 22, 2021
Before steam locomotives became mainstream, railways were driven solely by muscle power, usually horses. These beasts of burden pulled wagon...
World’s First 3D-Printed Steel Bridge
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 21, 2021
A 12-meter long steel pedestrian bridge opened last week in Amsterdam. Unlike other steel bridges around the world, this was not forged in a...
The Colors of Hormuz Island
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 21, 2021
Off the Iranian coast in the Persian Gulf, about 8 km from the mainland, lies Hormuz Island, a small, teardrop shaped mound of rock salt, gy...
Mercury 13: The Women Who Almost Became Astronauts
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 20, 2021
If everything goes as planned, a few hours from now, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos would blast off into space aboard the suborbital space vehicl...
Japan’s Acrobatic Noodle Delivery Cyclists
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 19, 2021
These photographs taken in the middle of the 20th century on the streets of Tokyo show how food delivery looked like before the onslaught of...
The Wenlock Olympian Games That Inspired Modern Olympics
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 17, 2021
The first modern Olympic Games was held in Athens in 1896, but it was the small British town of Much Wenlock in Shropshire where the Olympic...
Bharat Mata Temple: A Shrine Dedicated to Mother India
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 15, 2021
The ancient city of Varanasi, in central India, draws pilgrims from all around the world. One of the most important religious hubs and the h...
46 BC: The 445-Day Year
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 14, 2021
For the past four hundred years, much of the modern world has been using the Gregorian calendar. As we are all familiar, this calendar has 1...
The Most Beautiful Sewage Plant
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 13, 2021
Situated on the banks of River Thames, about 9 km east of Greenwich, is a two-story brick building housing one of the most beautiful Victori...
The Deepest Hand-Dug Well
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 13, 2021
Sitting outside the Nuffield Hospital in Woodingdean, near Brighton and Hove, is a small, inconspicuous-looking covered well. But despite it...
Zheltuga: The Illegal Russian Gold Mining Town That Sprang Up in China
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 10, 2021
In the spring of 1883, gold was discovered on a branch of the river Albazikha, in northern Heilongjiang province in China near the border wi...
Why 1972 Was The Longest Year in History
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 8, 2021
Some years seem longer than others, especially when you are passing through a bad phase in life such as being stuck at home because a pandem...
The Oldest Orbiting Satellite
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 7, 2021
When a satellite is launched into space it is not expected to last forever. The satellite carries on board a limited amount of fuel which wi...
The Accidental Bombing of Bezuidenhout
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 5, 2021
At eight o’clock in the morning of 3 March 1945, the air-raid sirens were heard for the first time over Hague. A short while later a wave of...
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...
