9th December 1868 – The First Traffic Lights
In the 1860s London was the largest city in the world, with 3 million people squeezed into an area much, much smaller than the present-day city. This high population density caused many problems. These...
Category: 19th Century
Steaming Along – The erratic history of steam powered road vehicles. (Part 2)
By the 1860s many different inventors were working on steam cars. Railways powered by steam locomotives were well established, so making something smaller and lighter that could run on roads seemed to be the...
Eiffel’s Other Icon
French engineer Gustave Eiffel created one of the most famous structures in the world. For over forty years the 300m (984ft) Eiffel Tower was the tallest man-made object in the world, and it remains...
4th June 1855 The Camel Corps – The USS Supply sets sail to acquire camels for the American Army
The USS Supply was a navy stores ship. It usually carried the likes of food, drink and ammunition; basically anything the navy needed to move from A to B. However, before setting out from...
20th May 1892 The end of Brunel’s Broad Gauge.
Fast Work On Friday 20th May 1892 over 3,500 workers took up positions alongside the main railway line running from Exeter to Falmouth. They were due to spend the weekend moving one of the...
15th May 1800 James Hadfield tries to shoot King George III
A Shot at the Theatre On the evening of Thursday 15th May 1800 King George III visited the Drury Lane Theatre to watch a performance of a comedy called ‘She would, and she would...
13th May 1843 – I.K. Brunel – The Engineer and the coin
The Engineer In on Monday 3rd April 1843 Isambard Kingdom Brunel was less than a week away from celebrating his 37th birthday. He was one of the most famous men alive and close to...
