Arts
Postcard from Taiwan
The Alishan Forest Railway runs from the coastal plain into the heart of Taiwan’s empty highlands. It was built in 1912 by the Japanese for the purpose of transporting timber from the mountains for the [more…]
Engineering
Engineering
Invisible Writing
Herbert O Yardley was a a code clerk in the US State Department who took an interest in codes and ciphers. He taught himself as much as he could and he proposed a cryptographic bureau. [more…]
Engineering
Making A Ruby Laser – Part Three
More information on laser speckle can be found here: Speckle pattern A Mirror Alignment Tool The most important part of constructing a ruby laser (or any laser with external mirrors) are getting the mirrors alligned [more…]
Engineering
The Gestation Period of the Me 262
The world’s first operational jet powered fighter was the Me 262 , the fighter version was known as the Swallow (Schwalbe) and the fighter-bomber was the Storm Bird (Sturmvogel). We are once again indebted to [more…]
America
Engineering
Making A Ruby Laser – Part Two
(a ruby rod lit by two bright blue LEDs. Due to the IR filter in my camera the pink colour is actually red. What you are seeing is the absorption of the blue light and the [more…]
Engineering
Rommel re-visited
General Erwin Rommel , the Desert Fox , a genius , master tactician and the man of the swift bold attack. He is a legend , ran rings around Generals Wavell , Cunningham , Ritchie [more…]
America
America
The Puckle Gun and Others – Part Two
Author’s Note:- Right, you lot. It must by now be blatantly obvious that we could have dealt with this in a far brisker fashion. Absent the cleverdickery and all the chortle-chortle, so-called funny stuff and [more…]