3 March: George Pullman

George Pullman, inventor and industrialist, inventor of the railway sleeping car was born on this date in 1831.

1. Pullman was born in Brocton, New York, the son of Emily Caroline and Lewis Pullman, who was a carpenter and inventor. He was one of nine children.

2. His father had invented a machine that could move buildings onto new foundations. George took over the family business at the age of 22 when his father died.

3. Three years later, he won a contract with the State of New York to use his father’s invention to move buildings to make way for a canal.

4. His wife’s name was Harriet Sanger. She was the daughter of a construction company owner. They had four children. There was also a man named Gustave Behring who claimed he was Pullman’s illegitimate son.

5. He spent some time in Colorado during the gold rush. He saw a business opportunity catering to the needs of miners there. He opened a ranch, providing food, accommodation and supplies for the miners and a place to exchange tired teams of animals for fresh ones before ascending the mountain passes, earning the ranch the name Pullman’s Switch.

6. Pullman is most famous for inventing the railway sleeping car, which he modelled on packet boats and marketed as a luxury way to travel. After Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, his body was carried in one of Pullman’s carriages from Washington DC, to Springfield, which with thousands of people lining the route, helped raise awareness of the sleeping cars.

7. He hired freed slaves to provide services to his passengers. These men served as porters, valets, entertainers and waiters. Whether this was a good job or not isn’t clear as at least one of my sources contradicted itself, saying at one point that these men had to live on the tips they got, but later saying they were well paid and got to travel and were hence well respected in their communities. They became known as Pullman porters.

8. He founded a company town in Chicago for the workers in his factory, which sounds like a good thing to do, but he turned out to be as big an asshole as many of the super rich people today. In 1894, when the demand died down, Pullman cut jobs and wages but still charged the same rent and didn’t cut utility costs in his town, which led to violent strike action by the residents for which federal troops were called in.

9. On October 19, 1897, Pullman died of a heart attack in Chicago, Illinois. He was 66 years old.

10. He was buried in a mahogany coffin lined with lead, which was then encased in a block of concrete. This was because his family feared that his disgruntled employees might try to dig him up and desecrate the body.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

21 January: Monte Carlo Rally

On this date in 1911 the first Monte Carlo car rally began. 10 things you might not know about the Monte Carlo rally.

1. Its official name is Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo, and it’s organised every year by the Automobile Club de Monaco. The Monte Carlo Rally is usually the first event of the World Rally Championship.

2. It was started by Prince Albert I with planning for the event starting at least a couple of years earlier. The purpose of the rally was to demonstrate improvements and innovations in cars, and to raise the profile of Monaco as a tourist destination.

3. At time of writing there have been 93 Monte Carlo rallies. They were not held during either of the world wars. It’s an older event than the Monaco Grand Prix, which started 18 years later.

4. The winner of the first rally was Henri Rougier, driving a 25hp Turcat-Méry, but the judging at that time was fairly arbitrary, focussing on how elegant and comfortable the car was, and how good a condition it was in at the end. Needless to say, not everyone has happy with this. A German driver called Von Esmark was particularly miffed as he thought the fact he’d achieved an average speed of 30kph on his 1,700km drive from Berlin should have counted for something.

5. Up until 1997, the format was basically that drivers would set off from various places in Europe and drive to Monaco. The rally now takes place along the hills of the French Riviera and south-east France. The different start points mean that weather and road conditions can vary considerably and could include snow and ice; so tyre choice is crucial in order to do well. It proved to be a showcase for the mini in the 1960s, as small and nimble cars have an advantage on roads with tight bends.

6. The winningest drivers all seem to be called Sébastien. Sébastien Loeb has won nine times and Sébastien Ogier seven. Ogier was also the winner with the narrowest margin, just 2.2 seconds ahead of his nearest rival, in 2019. The winningest team is Lancia, with 13 victories.

7. The most controversial rally was in 1966 when the first four finishers were all disqualified for having the wrong type of headlamps.

8. Brits don’t win very often. In fact, the last Brit to win was one Vic Elford in 1968, driving a Porsche 911. Since then, only three British drivers – Colin McRae, Guy Wilks, and Kris Meeke – have finished on the podium, with a runner up and three third places between them. Even so, after Elford, it was 30 years before Britain even made it to the podium again.

9. Possibly the most famous, and challenging, part of the rally is the Col de Turini. This stage is run from La Bollène-Vésubie to Sospel, or the other way around, over a mountain road with an average gradient of 6.7%, hairpin bends and usually snow and ice. Spectators have been known to make it even more dangerous by throwing even more snow onto the road. As if all that isn’t bad enough, the stage also takes place at night and has been nicknamed the "Night of the Long Knives" because of the bright headlamp beams cutting through the darkness.

10. In 2026 the rally begins on 29 January from six locations: Bad Homburg in Germany, Barcelona in Spain, Turin in Italy, Reims in France, Monte Carlo and John O' Groats in Scotland.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

28 September: Circumnavigating the globe

On this date in 1924 the first circumnavigation of the Earth by air was completed. Here are 10 notable circumnavigations of the planet:

1. The one which happened on this date in 1924 was achieved by two US Army Douglas DWC amphibians from Seattle to Seattle with 57 stops in 175 days. The flight was made in 57 hops, each one averaging 483 miles. The actual flying time was 351 hours.

2. The first circumnavigation by anyone ever (at least since records began) was the Magellan Expedition which took place between 1519 and 1522 in the ship Victoria. Of the 270 crew members who set out from Seville, only 18 were still with the expedition at the end. Magellan himself didn’t survive the trip.

3. The first circumnavigation in which the captain made it back was completed in 1580, by Sir Francis Drake. He’d been commissioned to carry out the voyage by Elizabeth I.

4. Jeanne Baret, a member of Louis Antoine de Bougainville's expedition on the ships La Boudeuse and Étoile in 1766–1769, is credited as being the first woman to circumnavigate the globe.

5. The first underwater circumnavigation took place in 1960. The American nuclear-powered Submarine USS Triton circumnavigated the globe in 60 days, 21 hours for Operation Sandblast.

6. The first lighter-than-air aircraft of any type to circumnavigate under its own power was the rigid airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin, which did so in 1929.

7. In 2012, PlanetSolar became the first ever solar electric vehicle to circumnavigate the globe.

8. In 1969, Robin Knox-Johnston became the first person to complete a single-handed non-stop nautical circumnavigation.

9. In 1999, Jesse Martin became the youngest recognised person to complete an unassisted, non-stop, nautical circumnavigation, at the age of 18.

10. People have both bicycled and run around the world, but it’s necessary to cheat a little in order to cross the oceans. David Kunst was the first person Guinness verified as having walked around the world between 20 June 1970 and 5 October 1974. He walked 23,250 km (14,450 miles) through four continents. There’s a sad story attached to that one. He set out with his brother, John, but they were attacked by bandits as they walked and John was killed. David continued and was joined by another brother, Peter, who finished the walk with him.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

16 July: Mont Blanc road tunnel

On this date in 1965, the Mont Blanc road tunnel, linking France with Italy, was inaugurated. The tunnel was inaugurated by the French president, Charles de Gaulle, and the Italian President, Giuseppe Saragat on 16 July 1965 and opened to traffic three days later. 10 facts about it:

1. This is a road tunnel which links Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France with Courmayeur, Aosta Valley, Italy.

2. The tunnel is 11.611 km (7.215 mi) long, 8.6 m (28 ft) wide, and 4.35 m (14.3 ft) high. It takes 17 minutes to drive through.

3. Italy relies on this tunnel for transporting as much as one-third of its freight to northern Europe. It reduces the route from France to Turin by 50 kilometres (30 miles) and to Milan by 100 km (60 mi).

4. The agreement between France and Italy to build a tunnel was signed in 1949. Drilling began in 1959 and was completed in 1962.

5. When it was built, it was twice as long as any existing road tunnel. It’s also the second deepest at 2,480 metres (8,140 ft) below the surface. (FYI the deepest is the Gotthard Base Tunnel.)

6. The tunnel passes almost exactly under the summit of the Aiguille du Midi.

7. 5 engineers and 350 workmen worked an estimated total of 4.6 million hours to complete the project which used 711 tonnes of explosives and 60,000 tonnes of cement.

8. In 2011, there were an average of 5,113 vehicles per day (about 1.87 million vehicles per year).

9. In 1999, a truck violently combusted halfway through the tunnel. The fire spread to other vehicles and 39 people lost their lives. The fire led to a tunnel closure until 9 March 2002.

10. A number of safety improvements were made as a result of the fire. Within the tunnel, a minimum speed of 50 km/h and a maximum speed of 70 km/h applies, while the prescribed distance between vehicles is 150 m.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

21 June: Trans-Siberian Railway

On this date in 1904, the Trans-Siberian Railway opened. 10 facts about it:

1. It’s the longest passenger train journey in the world at 9,288 km, or 5772 miles, travelling from from Moscow to Vladivostok. This crosses eight time zones, 497 bridges and 16 major rivers. It goes through 15 tunnels, 87 major cities, 3 countries and 2 continents. That said, the longest train journey in the world is a freight route, the 13,000-kilometer-long Yiwu–Madrid freight train.

2. On a high-speed train, a journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway takes seven days, or eight days at regular speed without disembarking. Tourists tend to get off and spend a day or two at some of the locations.

3. There are over 850 stations along the line, most of which are small and only used by the locals. The largest station on the line is Novosibirsk. Another stop is Slyudyanka, which has the distinction of being the only railway station in the world to be constructed entirely from marble.

4. The railway took 25 years to build using some 100,000 workers, mostly prisoners exiled for their dissidence against the Tsar, using hand tools, even to dig the tunnels through solid rock. Conditions were harsh, especially considering that temperatures along parts of the route can fall to -62 degrees in winter.

5. During the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1922 the Bolsheviks used the railway for propaganda purposes. Special propaganda trains, known as agitpoezdy, emblazoned with slogans and flags, were sent along the route to deliver the revolutionary message to the people.

6. Needless to say, it’s run by the Russian government via the state-owned company Russian Railways.

7. It’s so big and important to the Russian economy that it has its own army. The Railway Troops were established in 1851, making it it the oldest force of its kind. As with any armed force, the primary responsibility of the Railway Troops is defending the nation, which they do by building, maintaining and protecting the railway.

8. European and Chinese trains can’t use it because the track gauge (1,520 mm) is different. Most of the world’s railways (55%) use 1,435 mm. 1,520 mm is the second most used at 15% but this is largely because Russia is such a large country and has a lot of railways.

9. The Trans-Siberian travels along the world’s largest freshwater lake, Lake Baikal, for 207 kilometres. In the early years passengers and cargo crossed Baikal on ferries in the summertime and train tracks were laid across the lake’s ice during winter. The highest point is at Yablonovy pass at an altitude of 1070m situated in the Yablonoi Mountains, in Transbaikal, Siberia.

10. It’s likely any number of babies have been born on this thing. I didn’t find any numbers on this but one baby born on this train was the dancer Rudolf Nureyev when his mother, Farida, was travelling to see his father in Vladivostok.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

10 February: Plimsoll Day

Today is Plimsoll Day, which commemorates the birth in 1825 Samuel Plimsoll, politician and social reformer, best known for devising the Plimsoll line. 10 plimsoll line facts.

1. First of all, what is it? The Plimsoll line is a reference mark on a ship's hull to indicate the maximum depth to which the vessel may be safely immersed when loaded with cargo.

2. Samuel Plimsoll was a member of the British Parliament who had a particular interest in safety at sea. He was born in Bristol and before becoming an MP, had been the manager of a brewery and a coal merchant in London, although that particular business venture failed and he lived in destitution for a while.

3. In 1873, he published a book entitled Our Seamen, which raised awareness of 'coffin ships' (ships that were highly insured in case of sinking, with minimum consideration given to seafarer safety). He went on to be instrumental in getting Parliament to pass a bill which mandated marking a ship's sides with a line that would disappear below the waterline if the ship was overloaded. Plimsoll was passionate enough about his cause that when the Prime Minister of the time, Benjamin Disraeli, announced that he was dropping the bill, Plimsoll shook his fist in the Speaker's face and called members of the house “villains”. Disraeli moved that he be reprimanded for this behaviour, but Lord Hartington persuaded him to adjourn for a week and give Plimsoll time to calm down. Plimsoll apologised, but public opinion was on his side and the bill was passed in 1876.

4. The law applied to all foreign ships being loaded in British ports, so the plimsoll line became a standard across the world.

5. The plimsoll line, also known as the load line, is found midship on both the port and starboard hulls of cargo vessels. It is designed so that, even if the paint wears off, it will still be visible.

6. The load level can vary depending on the conditions at sea, and so there are several levels marked on it with letters which indicate different situations: ITF = Tropical Fresh Water; T = Tropical; F = Fresh Water; S = Summer; W = Winter; and WNA = Winter North Atlantic.

7. It wasn’t an entirely new idea. In the Middle Ages, the Venetian Republic, the Republic of Genoa and the Hanseatic League required ships to show a load line. In Venice, it was a cross marked on the side of the ship, and in Genoa three horizontal lines.

8. Samuel Plimsoll wasn’t just concerned with the safety of humans at sea. While he was the honorary president of the National Sailors' and Firemen's Union, he drew attention to cattle-ships, where animals were transported under appalling, over-crowded conditions.

9. Samuel Plimsoll appears in the third series of the BBC historical television drama The Onedin Line, portrayed by actor David Garfield.

10. Plimsoll shoes, worn by schoolchildren for PE, were so named because they resembled the Plimsoll line on boats.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

6 February: Spirit of Ecstacy

On this date in 1911, Spirit of Ecstasy, the Rolls Royce mascot, was cast for the first time. 10 things you might not know:

1. The first Rolls Royce cars didn’t have a mascot at all, just the Rolls Royce logo.

2. However, by 1910 it had become a fashion for owners of the luxury cars to add mascots of their own. Claude Johnson, then managing director of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, wasn’t a fan of the trend, because he felt that some people added mascots that weren’t appropriate.

3. Enter sculptor and designer Charles Robinson Sykes. He was also an illustrator using the pseudonym 'Rilette'. He’d designed covers for women’s magazines and advertisements, especially for de Reszke cigarettes. He was first commissioned by John Edward Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu, a politician and motoring pioneer (the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu was named after him) to design a personal mascot for his Rolls.

4. The model for Sykes’s creation was one Eleanor Velasco Thornton, the baron’s secretary and lover. The figure he created had her forefinger pressed to her lips, representing the secret affair between the model and the Baron, and was called "The Whisper." Their story had a tragic end. Eleanor was with Lord Montagu on board the SS Persia on 31 December 1915. He was on his way to assume a command in India. Eleanor was killed when the SS Persia was torpedoed by a U-boat south of Crete. Lord Montagu was presumed to be dead too, but he survived and was saved after several days adrift in a life raft.

5. We can only assume that for once, Claude Johnson liked this mascot, for he commissioned Sykes himself to create a figurine to adorn all Rolls Royce cars. The brief was to convey "the spirit of the Rolls-Royce, namely, speed with silence, absence of vibration, the mysterious harnessing of great energy and a beautiful living organism of superb grace…" Johnson envisaged the Greek goddess Nike as a model, but Sykes thought a more feminine figure would be better.

6. Using Eleanor as his model once more, he produced a figurine which he initially called The Spirit of Speed. However, he would later describe her as: "A graceful little goddess, the Spirit of Ecstasy, who has selected road travel as her supreme delight and alighted on the prow of a Rolls-Royce motor car to revel in the freshness of the air and the musical sound of her fluttering draperies."

7. Founder Henry Royce wasn’t at all keen on mascots, because to his mind they impaired the driver's view of the road, so at first the mascots were an optional extra, although they were a standard fitting by the 1920s. Royce hardly ever drove a car with the mascot on it. In the 1930s, incidentally, a new version was designed of a kneeling lady for the new sports saloons, to allow a better view of the road.

8. The sculptor's signature appeared on the plinth with the words "Charles Sykes, February 1911" or "Feb 6, 1911" or "6.2.11". Even after Rolls-Royce took over the casting of the figures in 1948 each Spirit of Ecstasy had this inscription until 1951.

9. The Spirit of Ecstasy is also called Eleanor, Silver Lady, or Flying Lady. It is in the form of a woman leaning forwards with her arms outstretched behind and above her. Billowing cloth runs from her arms to her back, resembling wings.

10. Spirit of Ecstasy was silver plated from 1911 until 1914 when the mascot was made with nickel or chrome alloy as an anti-theft measure. Gold-plated versions were available at additional cost. Today, she is available in a range of finishes including Rose Gold, Carbon Fibre, Gold, Solid Silver, Solid Titanium, Uplif and Illuminated with a frosted modern effect.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

6 August: Windscreen wipers

One of the earliest recorded patents for the windscreen wiper is by George J. Capewell of Hartford Connecticut, which was filed on August 6, 1896. 10 things you might not know about windscreen wipers:

1. Casewell’s invention was for "Windows of slow-moving craft; but it is more particularly adapted and intended for windows of rapidly-moving vehicles, such as high-speed locomotives and cars, with which it is necessary that the observer or driver should have a clear view of the path or track."

2. His patent illustration shows a circular window, although the patent notes "it is not essential that the Glass be circular in form."

3. Mills Munitions, Birmingham claimed to have been the first to patent windscreen wipers in England. Another early design for windscreen wipers are credited to a Polish concert pianist called Józef Hofmann.

4. The first design for windscreen wipers which worked in the way we are familiar with today appeared in 1903, invented by an American woman named Mary Anderson. In her patent she describes a "window cleaning device" for electric cars and other vehicles.

5. In 1962, engineering professor Robert Kearns demonstrated an intermittent windshield wiper to car designers at Ford Motor Company. Kearns said his invention was inspired by human eyelids blinking. He found it hard to drive in bad weather with one-speed wipers thanks to an Eye injury when a stray Champagne cork struck him in the eye. His invention gave drivers several speed options to match the severity of the weather outdoors.

6. Wiper blades are made of natural rubber, EPDM rubber (or ethylene propylene rubber) or a combination of both. Natural rubber performs better in cold weather but EPDM rubber resists thermal ageing, UV, ozone and tearing. Some manufacturers coat them with graphite.

7. In American English, the windscreen wiper is known as a wind shield wiper.

8. A wiper generally consists of a metal arm; one end pivots, and the other end has a long rubber blade attached to it. The arm is usually powered by an electric motor.

9. In a 1999 television commercial Synchronicity for the Volkswagen Jetta, windscreen wipers were synchronized with events seen through the car windows, accompanied by the song "Jung at Heart".

10. If your windscreen wiper makes scraping noises or leaves streaks on the windscreen, or the blades look frayed or cracked, it means the blades need replacing. In any case they should be replaced once or twice a year.

The first in a new series! It has invading aliens, gladiator-style contests, rivalry and romance.

The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.

Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.

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19 July: The Great Western

On this date in 1837 Brunel's steamship, the Great Western, was launched at Bristol. Here are 10 things you might not know:

1. SS Great Western was a wooden-hulled paddle-wheel steamship with four masts. The Great Western displaced 1,320 tons, was 212 feet (65 metres) long, and carried 148 passengers. Its average speed without sails was 9 knots.

2. She was built in the shipyard of William Patterson & Son in Bristol, beginning in June 1836.

3. She was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel as the first steamship purpose-built for crossing the Atlantic. Brunel had set out to create a route from London to New York. Passengers would be able to travel to Bristol on his railway, and then on to New York on his ship.

4. She was the largest passenger ship in the world from 1837 to 1839, when the SS British Queen went into service.

5. There was a tragedy during the launch. A shipwright was killed when a large bulk of timber fell on him, fracturing his Skull.

6. The Great Western was launched without any engines. Once launched, the ship made its way to London under sail and the engines were fitted there.

7. Her maiden voyage wasn’t until 31 March 1838. Great Western sailed for Avonmouth, near Bristol, to New York. Before reaching Avonmouth, however, a Fire broke out in the engine room, during which Brunel was injured in a fall and had to be put ashore at Canvey Island. The fire was extinguished, and the damage to the ship was minimal, but more than 50 passengers cancelled their bookings for the voyage because of it. When Great Western finally departed Avonmouth, there were only seven passengers aboard.

8. She arrived in New York City 15 days later (half the time that sailing ships usually took).

9. When the original owners went out of business Great Western was sold to the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company and later served as a troop transport vessel in the Crimean War.

10. In August 1856 she was sold for scrapping and was broken up at Castles' Yard, Millbank on the Thames.

The first in a new series! It has invading aliens, gladiator-style contests, rivalry and romance.

The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.

Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.

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21 May: The Manchester Ship Canal

On this date in 1894, Queen Victoria opened the Manchester Ship Canal. 10 things you might not know about it:

1. First of all, what is it? The Manchester Ship Canal is a 36 mile (58 km) inland waterway in the North West of England which runs from Eastham on the Mersey estuary to Salford in Greater Manchester. It uses the routes of the rivers Mersey and Irwell.

2. It is the longest river navigation canal and the world's eighth-longest ship canal, only slightly shorter than the Panama Canal in Central America.

3. It was built to reduce the time and cost of transporting goods from the port at Liverpool to Manchester. It allowed ocean going ships to sail directly to the centre of Manchester. Hence Manchester became Britain’s third busiest port despite being 40 miles (64km) from the sea.

4. Construction began in 1887; it took six years and cost £15 million (equivalent to £1,774,553,339 in 2021). Construction was overseen by contracting engineer Thomas Walker. He divided the 36 mile (58km) route into 8 sections, putting an engineer in charge of work on each.

5. Up to 17,000 labourers (also known as navvies) worked on digging the canal. Many of them had come from Ireland. It was hard work and very dangerous. Navvies were paid the equivalent of around £19 for a 10-hour working day. It’s estimated that as many as 1,100 navvies lost their lives, a common cause of death was being buried by a landslide. It was considered more dangerous to be a navvy than to serve in the British Army. However, accommodation and hospitals were provided. In 2022 it was announced that a memorial to the workers would be created, including a forest of 600 trees native to Britain and Ireland planted close to the canal.

6. The ship canal was flooded in November 1893, and opened for traffic from 1st January 1894. During the opening ceremony the following May, Queen Victoria knighted two people: the Mayor of Salford, William Henry Bailey, and the Lord Mayor of Manchester, Anthony Marshall.

7. The canal is sometimes nicknamed The "Big Ditch".

8. At its peak in 1958, the amount of freight carried by the canal was almost 20,000,000 tons.

9. It has an aqueduct, seven swing road bridges, five high level railway viaducts, four high level road bridges and five sets of locks.

10. In the 1990s there was a rumour that the canal was so polluted the council had to warn people not to smoke next to it, in case they ignited poisonous gases coming from the water.

New!!!

The first in a new series! It has invading aliens, gladiator-style contests, rivalry and romance.

The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.

Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.

Get it in paperback

Get it for your kindle