Photophone: How Alexander Graham Bell Transmitted Sound by Sunlight
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 3, 2022
Alexander Graham Bell’s greatest invention was the telephone. But if you told that to Mr. Bell, he would have disagreed. On June 3, 1880, ...
The Man Who Bought Stonehenge And Gave it Away
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 2, 2022
On 21 September 1915, a barrister named Cecil Chubb was sent to an auction by his wife to buy some curtains. According to some accounts, she...
The Angel Makers of Nagyrév
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 1, 2022
About sixty miles southeast of Budapest, on the River Tisza, lies a quiet little village with a horrible past. It was here in Nagyrev, a cen...
Australia’s First Tour of England in 1868 Was Made by an Aboriginal Cricket Team
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 29, 2022
Sports has been an important way to bridge different cultures. For the aboriginal Australians and their colonial settlers, it was cricket. ...
Painless Parker: The Showman Dentist
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 27, 2022
At the Temple University's dental museum in Philadelphia, there is a small section dedicated to one of the most notorious dentist of Ame...
The Band of Holes
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 25, 2022
In Peru’s Pisco Valley, there is a strange alignment of thousands of shallow pits. The pits are arranged in a narrow band about 14 to 20 met...
The Diary of Merer: A 4,500-Year-Old Papyrus That Details The Construction of The Great Pyramid
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 22, 2022
The Great Pyramids of Giza has been one of the world’s greatest enigmas—how did an ancient society build such massive monuments without the ...
Dr. Gustav Zander's Victorian-Era Exercise Machines
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 20, 2022
Dr. Gustav Zander's institute in Stockholm, founded in 1865, could be called the world’s first gym. It was equipped with twenty-seven cu...
Princess Caraboo: The Imposter That Fooled a Nation
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 19, 2022
On 3 April 1817, a mysterious woman in her mid-twenties walked into the small English village of Almondsbury in Gloucestershire. She was dre...
Grace Darling's Daring Rescue of Shipwreck Survivors
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 18, 2022
In 1838, a young woman pulled off a heroic rescue saving several survivors from a wrecked merchant ship off the coast of Northumberland in n...
Gol Gumbaz: The Taj Mahal of South India
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 8, 2022
In the city of Bijapur, in the south Indian state of Karnataka, stands one of the grandest royal tombs to be ever constructed in India. Aptl...
Code of Ur-Nammu: The Oldest Law in History
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 7, 2022
Some of the earliest legal codes concerning crimes and offenses and their punishment were formulated in the ancient Middle East. The Sumeria...
Simeon Stylites: The Ascetic Who Lived Atop a Pillar For 37 Years
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 6, 2022
Many monks and hermits go to great lengths to deny themselves of simple pleasures in order to atone their sins and pursue spiritual goals. S...
Carlton Tavern: The Pub That Was Reborn From Rubble
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 2, 2022
Carlton Tavern in Kilburn, London, was the heart of the community for nearly a hundred years until it ceased to exist one spring morning in ...
The Talking Stamps of Bhutan
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 30, 2022
Bhutan, a small landlocked country sandwiched between India and China, barely attracts attention in the international arena. Its postage sta...
The Two-Headed Boy of Bengal
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 29, 2022
In May 1783, in a small village named Mundul Gaut, in Bengal, India, a strange child was born. He had two heads. The midwife assisting the...
The Vanishing of Flannan’s Lighthouse Keepers
Ria Gupta
Jun 27, 2022
During the cold December days of 1900, three men disappeared off a remote island in the Outer Hebrides. They left no trace or trail, save fo...
Watson’s Hotel: India’s Oldest Cast Iron Building
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 24, 2022
Early one morning In 1867, a traveler walking through the familiar streets of Kala Ghoda district in Bombay noticed something strange “like ...
The Trilingual Inscriptions of Darius and Xerxes at Ganj Nameh
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 22, 2022
About 12 kilometers southwest of the ancient city of Ecbatana (modern Hamadan) in western Iran, and 2,000 meters above sea level on Mount Al...
George Lawrence’s Mammoth Camera
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 21, 2022
In 1899, the Chicago & Alton Railway introduced a new intercity rail service between Chicago and St. Louis. Pulled by a 4-6-2 steam loco...
