Did you know that Fax machines came before Telephones!
Did you anyone tell you that they had Fax Machines before there were telephones? This fascinating story that starts with Alexander Bain, who invented the Electric Clock, unfortunately he had no money, another example of an inventor who didn’t make money from his inventions! Desperate for money the editor of the Mechanics Magazine arranged for […]
The history of Glasses
The picture above shows the first depiction of someone wearing glasses. That was in 1352, however, well before this, the Romans were using a glass tube of water as a magnifier to read books. Then in the Middle Ages it is said that monks used a glass full of water to magnify what they were […]
The birth of the printing press
Imagine a world without the printing press and no internet, how would we learn about things? An inventor was needed. That person was Johannes Gutenberg who in 1452 invented the printing press. So, was he the most famous inventor ever? Who was he and how did he invent the printing press? Well, he was […]
Who invented the telephone, was it ….?
You would think this was a silly question because we all know that it was Alexander Graham Bell who invented the telephone, but did you know that in fact there was a dispute because Elisha Gray also claimed to have invented the telephone, and he wasn’t the only one! It appears that there are regularly […]
April 1, 1960: First Weather Satellite Launched
No, no, it wasn’t an April fool! Yes, it was only just over 60 years ago, when something that we today take for granted first happened. On that day the first ever television picture, the one above, was sent from space. It started a revolution in television journalism. A revolution that three years later allowed […]
Who invented the Compass?
Well, we do know that the Chinese were known to use a magnetic compass during the Han Dynasty between the 2nd century BC and 1st century AD. Like the one on the left. It wasn’t for navigation, no, they used them for fortune-telling! Then for divination, a way of finding the unknown by supernatural means. […]
Who was the first man to fly over the North Pole?
You would have thought that there wouldn’t have been any dispute over who the first man was to fly over the North Pole, but there was! They all claimed to be the first! They all claimed to have done it and are all disputed as being either of dubious accuracy or outright fraudulent. Frederick Cook […]
Ancient Rome’s Financial Crisis
Did you know that in 2008 they used 2000-year-old solution to save our economy! The 33AD Finacial Crisis It was in 33 AD that a financial crisis hit Ancient Rome and the solution Emperor Tiberius used was “quantitative easing”, a phrase you may have recently, as this is what they did in 2008. It all […]
‘Oh no it isn’t, oh yes it is’.
Pantomime grew out of Music Hall and by the late 19th and early 20th centuries they became the home of pantomime. When you think of our current world of TV, DVDs and computers it is probably difficult to understand that the only popular entertainment of the time was Music Halls, which were hugely popular. Pantomime […]
Where did the Circus Come From?
This is disputed, as people say that circus started in the 18th century. However, they did have what they called circus in Ancient Rome. Ancient Rome circus The problem is that the Ancient Rome’s circuses weren’t the enjoyable and fun things that we all love today. They were held in large stadiums with horse and […]