Boot Scrapers

Mar 1, 2021

In the days before automobiles, when streets were meant for horses and their carts mostly, walking through mud and excrement was an unavoida...

Hitler’s Monster Railway

Feb 27, 2021

Hitler’s megalomaniac plans for Germany included a monumental new railway. This railway was supposed to connect the most important cities i...

The Great Smog of 1952

Feb 24, 2021

Londoners are no stranger to the cold, but on the morning of December 5, 1952, the sting of winter was felt worse than ever. The cold had th...

Johann Josef Loschmidt And Avogadro’s Number

Feb 22, 2021

Johann Josef Loschmidt is a name that might not ring many bells, yet everyone who took chemistry in junior college had surely come across Lo...

The Mad World of Hat Making

Feb 19, 2021

Hat-making in the 18th and 19th centuries was a hazardous business, because it involved the use of many chemicals, one of which was the toxi...

The Ingenuity of The ‘Ha-Ha’

Feb 17, 2021

What’s in a wall but a simple structure to keep intruders out, you might say. But a surprising amount of thought goes behind the constructio...

Flettner Rotor: Sailing Ships Without Sails

Feb 16, 2021

In 1926, a 2,000-ton steel-hulled schooner named Buckau made an extraordinary crossing across the Atlantic. Although the Buckau was techni...

Citizens! During Shelling This Side of The Street is The Most Dangerous

Feb 15, 2021

The city of Saint Petersburg is one of the most beautiful cities in Russia and in eastern Europe, with a great ensemble of historic building...

The Curious Tale of The Laocoön And His Sons’ Missing Arm

Feb 12, 2021

The story of Laocoön, the Trojan priest who was attacked and killed along with his two sons by giant serpents for attempting to expose the r...

The Largest War Memorial in The World is a 243 Kilometer Highway

Feb 11, 2021

When the First World War ended, the soldiers who had participated in it and were lucky enough to survive, returned to their homes. As in all...