Portolan Charts
Richard Pflederer evaluates a vital tool of the age of discovery.
Science & Technology
Science and Religion in the 19th Century
Francis Murphy challenges the idea that science was religion’s foremost enemy, in this winning essay in the 2001 Julia Wood Award.
Richard Trevithick's First Steam Carriage
The 'puffing devil', the first passenger-carrying vehicle powered by steam, made its debut on a road outside Redruth in Cornwall on December 24th, 1801.
Birth of Pierre de Fermat
The French mathematician was born on August 17th, 1601.
Growth, Digestion, Decay and Resurrection
Philip Lyndon Reynolds considers the battle between faith and reason in approaching a key subject of human existence.
The Discovery of Second Sight in Late 17th-Century Scotland
Michael Hunter tells how a mysterious phenomenon in the Highlands sparked a debate between scientific virtuosi and urban sceptics, in an episode that helps shed light on the vexed issue of ‘the decline of magic’.
The Museum of British Pewter
David Moulson looks at the history of pewter, as a new dedicated museum opens in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Death of Lord Armstrong
The brilliant inventor and engineer William George Armstrong died on December 27th, 1900, aged ninety.
Birth of Joseph Needham
Joseph Needham, one of the twentieth century’s most remarkable scholars, was born on December 9th, 1900.
Birth of Caroline Herschel
The pioneering astronomer was born on March 16th, 1750.