Thursday March 30 1843 saw the auctioning off of a London landmark just for its building materials. The wildly misnamed and deeply corrupt government department, the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, had bought the site at number 74 St Martin’s Lane. There was not a wood nor forest in sight, but Woods and Forests was conducting… Continue reading Old Slaughter’s Coffee House; ‘Now among the things that were…’
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a watched pot.
The chance discovery of penicillin, Newton’s apple and Galileo’s pendulum all over again…
E Pur Si Muove, numero due
Whether Galileo did actually mutter under his breath that phrase about the earth still moving or not, there is a contrarian streak in some people that defies plagiarising ‘accepted’ wisdom and using it as their own. As the Christian philosopher, Wink Martindale, spoke, “Friends, the story is true. I know, I was that soldier.” Anyhoo… There… Continue reading E Pur Si Muove, numero due
Fracking is as old as oil
The Evansville Daily Journal of March 9 1865 has this report from the dawn of the oil and gas industry.
Bad deeds from bad seed
Previously on Acton Books:- Doc Davison of Hawesville, Kentucky took involvement in local government too far when he broke into jail to kill an opponent. Still free and harbouring a grudge against another prominent citizen of his little town in Kentucky, he became America’s first suicide bomber. Nature or nurture? The Davison children were no… Continue reading Bad deeds from bad seed
America’s first suicide bomber
It’s going to be an intriguing story when the 1860 news report from the Ohio River port town of Hawesville, Kentucky begins “Dr H.A. Davison, it will be remembered, was one of the persons who entered the jail and shot Thomas S. Lowe about a year ago…” First up, murdering Lowe in his cell did not… Continue reading America’s first suicide bomber
Nor any drop to drink
A day does not pass when you do not encounter a millennial drunkard. There he is, shamelessly clutching a container of liquid in public; there she goes, sucking on her bottle in plain sight. They are the water drinkers. They are unlike other animals, which drink when, and only when, they are thirsty. Humankind has… Continue reading Nor any drop to drink
Just a graze…
Once upon a time the uncertainty and certainty of death hung over everybody, everywhere, all the time, as this brief report from the London Evening Standard in 1840 shows…