Project HARP: The Space Cannon
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 16, 2022
When Jules Verne sent three men to the moon in his 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon , he did so in a projectile fired from a massive gu...
The Curse of King Casimir IV Jagiellonian
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 13, 2022
Casimir IV Andrew Jagiellonian was one of the most successful rulers of Poland, who, having defeated the Teutonic Knights in the Thirteen Ye...
How The Pressure Cooker Inspired The Steam Engine
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 12, 2022
For nearly 200 years, the steam engine powered the world’s machineries, but its origins were very humble. It began with the pressure cooker,...
The Gimli Glider
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 8, 2022
The American system of measurement and its units—feet, miles, pounds, and gallons—are quite bizarre. They are random, unintuitive and have n...
Khian Sea: The Wandering Garbage Barge
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 6, 2022
Every year, millions of tons of garbage are shipped out by wealthy countries to poorer countries in Africa, Asia and South America to be rec...
The Forgeries of Denis Vrain-Lucas
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 2, 2022
One Monday morning in July 1867, eminent French mathematician Michel Chasles stormed into the building of the French Academy of Sciences in ...
Thomas Parr, The Man Who Lived to 152 Years
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 30, 2022
On 15 November 1635, Thomas Parr was laid to rest at a grave in old Westminster Abbey. Tradition insist that this man was born around the ye...
The Mechanical Turk: An 18th Century Chess Playing Robot
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 29, 2022
In the late 18th century, a Hungarian inventor named Wolfgang von Kempelen presented to Empress Maria Theresa of Austria a sensational mecha...
Marie Lafarge: The Arsenic Poisoner
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 26, 2022
In the early 19th century, arsenic was most widely used to kill rats and insufferable husbands alike. The chemical element was odorless and ...
Biertan’s Matrimonial Prison
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 22, 2022
Tucked away in the church grounds of a quiet village in Romania, there is a small cottage known as the ‘matrimonial prison’. It was here tha...
The Miraculous Resurrection of Anne Greene
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 21, 2022
Anne Greene is one of the reasons why some people used to have a morbid fear of premature burial . In December 1650, Anne Green, an English ...
Charles Domery, The Glutton
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 19, 2022
In 1799, Doctor Thomas Cochrane, a surgeon at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, found in his care a man with the most unusual ea...
Stompie The Tank
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 17, 2022
For the 1995 movie Richard III , director Richard Loncraine towed an old Soviet T-34 tank to the center of London and had it drive through a...
Elephant Memorial in Teluk Intan
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 16, 2022
Elephants are reputed to have a great memory. They are also reputed to never forgive. There have been tales where elephants have sought re...
The First Aircraft Accident Investigation
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 15, 2022
On 13 May 1912, a two-seater aircraft piloted by Edward Victor Beauchamp Fisher crashed at Brooklands, in England, killing both the pilot an...
Mokomokai: Tattooed Maori Heads And The Musket Wars
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 11, 2022
In the early 19th century, a deplorable trade developed in New Zealand between the indigenous Maori people and the European merchants. The w...
The Bottle Conjuror Hoax
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 9, 2022
In January 1749, an advertisement appeared on London papers for a new magical performance at the New Theater in Haymarket. An anonymous perf...
Cotswold Olimpick Games
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 8, 2022
The town of Chipping Campden, in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England, has been holding their own “Olympic” games since the 17t...
Ryōunkaku: Japan’s First Skyscraper
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 4, 2022
For more than thirty years, the Ryōunkaku—Japan's first Western-style skyscraper—was a popular sight in the urban landscape of modern To...
Albrecht Berblinger: The Flying Tailor of Ulm
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 3, 2022
Albrecht Berblinger was an early aviation pioneer who is best known for designing a hang glider, nearly four decades before British inventor...
