Gettysburg – what happened?
One important thing about this battle, in fact it is extraordinary, is that even though the battle was fought in and around the town only one citizen of Gettysburg was killed, Jennie Wade. However, she didn’t become famous just because she was the only citizen of the town to be killed in the battle, but […]
The History of Recorded Music
Every school that puts on a History Portal Musical used to use a CD with both with backing track and show tracks. Today we all accept this as part of our lives, even though we have now moved on to downloading our songs. However, until November 1877, when Thomas Edison invented the Phonograph, you couldn’t […]
Can you work out how big the world is?
Can your children work out how big the world is? They can. You see 2,000 years ago Eratosthenes actually worked it out. It would be a superb exercise to see if he was correct, which, of course, he was! Well, nearly. He was a clever guy who lived in Egypt around 240BC. To him it […]
1908 New York to Paris Race
The 1908 New York to Paris Race was a bizarre car race with the drivers attempting to drive from New York to Paris, westward! This meant they had to drive from New York City to San Francisco, then up to Valdez, Alaska. The race had been started so that when they reached the Bering Strait, […]
The 1910 London to Manchester air race
In 1910 there was an air race between an Englishman and a French man. Why? It was all because in 1906 the Daily Mail issued a £10,000 challenge. However, it took until 1910 before anyone decided to accept the challenge, when two people did, and an English man and a French man: The race […]
The story of Hunley, the first Submarine
This is an interesting story. It is about the first submarine that ever sank a ship. On February 17th, 1864 during the American Civil War “The Hunley”, a Confederate submarine, sank the “USS Housatonic”. A date that started a new kind of warfare, one which over the next century caused havoc in two World Wars. […]
Why did the first horse drawn tram fail?
The first horse drawn tram ran along Victoria Street in London on rails. It was popular with its passengers, but not with officialdom, so inevitably it ran into trouble. It was the brainchild of an amazing American entrepreneur, George Francis Train. George organised the first clipper to sail around the Horne, was involved in setting […]
The story of the Humble Stamp
The man who came up with the adhesive stamp was given a knighthood, just because he thought of the stamp! It all goes back to “letter carriers”, they took letters around London and there were all sorts of delays and other problems. Therefore, in 1660 Charles II decided to solve the problem, he introduced the […]
The Tin Can’s journey from France to Bermondsey, England
Would you believe it, the tin can’s journey started in France! Napoleon’s Challenge! Napoleon was losing more troops from hunger and scurvy than in combat, he therefore offered a prize of 12,000 francs (£250,000 today) to anyone who could invent a method of preserving food for his armies. Coincidently, a Frenchman, Nicholas Appert, had for […]
Who invented the Wheel?
The wheel, something we take for advantage, it seems so logical, but somebody had to invented it. I imagine the idea of the wheel came the first time someone saw a rock roll down a hillside. The step that made the wheel useful was when someone came up with the idea of attaching it to […]