19th Century
Frederick Pybus: the surgeon behind Lucozade
If you were ever handed a bottle of Lucozade when ill as a child, you can trace the origins of this back to a Stockton-born surgeon, a baby who died on his ward in 1908, [more…]
Science
America
Starlink Installation and Setup
Why? My BT broadband, including mobile is £85/month. I get a download speed of around 23Mbps and it’s not particularly reliable. The basic Starlink package of £40/month (I understand this might vary by location) is [more…]
Computing
Hari Seldon’s Maths Machine in Northamptonshire: A 100-Variable Model for Predicting the future…
A bit about me… Hi… i’m Phil.. I live in Northamptonshire, married with two kids, I work in the construction industry, or at least adjacent. I’m a long time lurker (early days of Guido Fawkes [more…]
19th Century
George Airy: The Man Who Filed the Universe
George Biddell Airy was Astronomer Royal for 46 years. He drew the line the whole world sets its clocks by, weighed the Earth from the bottom of a coal pit in South Shields and never, [more…]
Drinking
In praise of red wine
Way back in the 70s or it might even have been the 60s, the French Wine Industry insisted that red wine was really good for you. I took this to heart, forget the butter is [more…]
18th Century
John Walker: The Man Who Gave the World a Light
In 1826 a Stockton chemist scraped a dirty stirring stick across a rough hearth and invented the friction match. He sold fire by the tin for a shilling, refused to patent the idea and told [more…]
Health
Introducing My Giant Spot
May I introduce you to my giant spot? It sits in the middle of my forehead and, upon closer inspection, seems to consist of a little stream, some flowers and a tree. Might it be [more…]
Business
A Landscape of Lies
In 2007 I was the joint owner of a building services consultancy which undertook the mechanical and electrical design and production tender documentation relating to new construction and refurbishment projects. In addition, we also undertook [more…]
18th Century
The Railway’s sleepers: the Patron, the builder and the Polymath
A final journey into history to meet three men whose names never sadly made it into popular memory but who, like all the others, laid the foundations still used by the railways to this day. [more…]