Science & Technology

Historians have long argued whether the years 1500-1700 saw a revolutionary change in the art and organization of war. Jeremy Black reports.

John Logie Baird gave the first demonstration of a colour television transmission on 3 July 1928.

Commentators have tended to play down the importance of London as a business and industrial centre since 1500, argues Theo Barker, and in the process have distorted the saga of Britain’s economic rise and fall.

Walter Harris introduces the retired soldier who brought sound recording to Britain.

Glen Jeansonne and David Luhrssen describe how the pioneer aviator Charles Lindbergh was increasingly disturbed by the tension between technology and its impact on the environment. In his later career, in the 1960s, Lindbergh became a spokesman for the embryonic environmental movement as they describe here.

Mark Juddery introduces The Story of the Kelly Gang, possibly the first-ever feature film, now largely lost, that was made a hundred years ago in Australia about the notorious outlaw with the unusual body-armour. Hugely popular when it was first released in 1906, it spawned a genre of bushranger movies and epitomized the significance of the Kelly legend in Australian cultural identity.

Kevin Desmond looks for records of a little-known French inventor who rivalled Thomas Edison.

Robert Fulton's North River Steam Boat (later named the Clermont) made a trial run up the Hudson from New York to Albany on August 17th, 1807.

Richard Cavendish describes the motor race to Paris which set off from Beijing on June 10th, 1907.