Engineering
Le Château de Guédelon
Introduction I suppose it is only natural when confronted by an ancient architectural marvel such as a Roman aqueduct or a mediæval cathedral to stare in wonder and to ask oneself, ‘How on earth did [more…]
Engineering
20th Century
The Spitfire, of course, Part 3
A look at the Miles M20, the “Emergency Fighter” Design and build us a cheap fighter, knock it up out of wood, shove in this night fighter engine, loads of fuel, plenty of ammo and [more…]
America
Two White Elephants
The demise of the serious defence correspondents in MSM have left the nation exposed to geo political military mistakes of epic proportions. Jonathan Beale at the BBC & Lucy Fisher at The Times are splendid [more…]
20th Century
The Spitfire, of course, Part 2
A couple of years ago I wrote an article here concerning the design of the Spitfire and questioned its status as the best fighter of WWII. I mentioned in that article a follow up piece [more…]
19th Century
South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company
It is obvious from many of the articles that appear on this website that history and mechanical things are of interest. So here is one that combines the two, the history of a railroad and [more…]
20th Century
A Passenger’s Tale
How it all began Not long after our new neighbours Ernie and Maisie Allen moved in next door, my wife and I were invited to join them and a group of their friends for drinks [more…]
20th Century
Happy Birthday, Ruby!
Above photo: My ruby laser with a ‘mirror alignment laser’ just off to the right hand side of the photo. A small amount of smoke in the air makes the alignment laser-beam visible. In the [more…]
Arts
The Home Engineer, Part One
Most men, and not a few women judging by the amount of lady machinists who have YouTube Channels, at some point or another in their lives yearn for a workshop. Now, there are a few, [more…]
Engineering
“And what have the Romans ever done for us?”
Introduction It is interesting that in Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’ when Reg , the leader of The People’s Front of Judaea, poses that question the very first response he receives from his gang of [more…]