The Canal du Midi
Andrew Smyth recalls the vision and enterprise of one of Louis XIV’s chief ministers and a Béziers businessman.
Science & Technology
The Death of Richard Gatling
The man who gave his name to the notorious killing machine died on February 26th, 1903
Why Study the History of Science, Medicine and Technology?
Andrew Mendelsohn outlines the attractions of a fast-growing an popular field of study.
First British Atomic Bomb Test
Britain's first atomic bomb was detonated on 3 October 1952.
Portolan Charts
Richard Pflederer evaluates a vital tool of the age of discovery.
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’.