Arts
Postcard from Lille, Part 3
After a gap of many decades I’m setting off by train to visit the near continent. Some of my family are coming with me and as a special surprise treat I’ve booked first class seats [more…]
Hobbies
19th Century
Milestones in Nineteenth Century Firearms Development, Part Three
Introduction Although the flintlock ignition system was technically advanced for its time, it wasn’t without its shortcomings. Flintlocks require careful setting-up and constant maintenance and adjustment to be reliable. They also have a relatively slow [more…]
19th Century
A Bear’s Diary – Part 6
March 2nd, 1809. We are back in Portugal at last. It has been a circuitous journey across ridges and valleys, avoiding the French troops on the lower ground, but we have managed it without any [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Lille, Part 2
First Class Previously I regularly visited the continent travelling by train, ferry and hovercraft. Subsequently I went via the channel tunnel but before the high speed rail link to St Pancras had been completed. After [more…]
19th Century
Milestones in Nineteenth Century Firearms Development, Part Two
In my introductory article we saw that by the beginning of the 19th century the flintlock was firmly established as the state-of-the-art means of ignition in military and sporting firearms. In this article, we will [more…]
Hobbies
The Basel Problem
One sometimes gets very interesting results when one turns divergent sums upside down. The Basel problem was asked by Pietro Mengoli in . He asked what is the exact summation of the reciprocals of the [more…]
19th Century
A Bear’s Diary – Part 5
January 19th, 1809. Our return to Lisbon will not be like our march north. Then we were travelling with an army in good order on broad roads through a populated area near the coast. Now [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Lille, Part 1
In the prologue we recalled a fond age of travelling to the near continent via rail, ferry and hovercraft. This landscape changed with the opening of the Channel Tunnel. At the beginning of Eurotunnel operations, [more…]
19th Century
Milestones in Nineteenth Century Firearms Development, Part One
Some weeks ago, and quite by chance, a friend offered to sell me a rare mid-19th century rifle, the design of which I had long found to be of interest. Although I was not at [more…]