19th Century
Bullet Points
Every once in a while I get involved with some project or other relating to my hobby of collecting and shooting antique firearms and while individually these may not justify a separate GP article, I [more…]
Tom Pudding
19th Century
Ancient and Modern (or a Tale of Two Cartridges: 2)
In Part One I described the processes involved in reloading the (to me at any rate) ‘modern’ .303 British cartridge, all stages of which can easily be automated. Now let’s look at what is involved [more…]
19th Century
Ancient and Modern (or a Tale of Two Cartridges: 1)
Introduction Two questions that I am regularly asked when shooting my long-obsolete 19th century rifles at our local club range are i) how much does it cost to make one cartridge? and ii) how long [more…]
19th Century
The Rise and Fall of the Needle Gun 1841-1874
The Needle Gun Every once in a while in all fields of engineering there comes along an innovation that so revolutionises the existing technology that it makes long accepted ways of doing things obsolete and [more…]
20th Century
Erich Bachem – an engineer years ahead of his time (iii)
Introduction It was a sunny Saturday afternoon in mid-July 2010. I was sitting outside our tent on the Municipal Campsite at Bléré, in the Indre et Loire département of central France doing a crossword and [more…]
20th Century
Erich Bachem – an engineer years ahead of his time (ii)
Introduction From January 1943, with the commencement of American daylight bombing of German targets complementing the existing night time raids by the British Air Force, Luftwaffe superiority in the skies over Germany and its occupied [more…]
20th Century
Erich Bachem – an engineer years ahead of his time (i)
Introduction In common with many boys who like me were fortunate enough to grow up in the 1950s and 1960s, I spent much of my spare time building and flying Keil Kraft balsawood & tissue [more…]
19th Century
A Court for King Cholera
Introduction In 1967, as part of my Public Health Inspectors’ Education Board course, I remember attending a lecture given by Dr Moore, the then Medical Officer of Health for the City and County of Kingston-upon-Hull, [more…]
20th Century
The .303 Pattern 1914 – the Best Battle Rifle the British Army Never Had?
Introduction The humiliations suffered by the British Army at the hands of untrained Boer irregulars during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 caused a great deal of concern at the War Office where questions were soon [more…]