Never enough knowledge
Alexander George Thornton founded his business in 1880 in Manchester, took over the Precision Instrument Co in 1901 and in 1967 changed the name of the company to British Thornton. The firm grew to become one of the largest manufacturers of drawing instruments and slide rules in Britain. PIC continued to be used by Thornton…
Cylindrical slide rules exist in two designs – one with a logarithmic scale wrapped in a spiral around the outside of a cylinder (such as the Otis King and Fuller’s rule), the other in the form of bars (Thatcher). Both types provide a longer scale than a straight or circular rule, which can lead to…
Samuel Pepys, the ‘Father of the Modern Navy’, recorded in his Diary 14th April, 1663 ‘I walked to Greenwich, studying the slide rule for measuring of timber, which is very fine‘. It was a Coggeshall slide rule to help measure the dimensions, surface area, and volume of timber having the form of a folding carpenter’s measuring…
This working model was obtained from a local car boot sale. The TI-5200 was a desktop calculator introduced by Texas Instruments in January 1977 priced at around $150 USD. The main features are: The concept of integrating electronic circuits into a single device was first proposed by British engineer Geoffrey Dummer in 1952. However, it…
The site of the present Thai restaurant at the junction of Eastgate Square, between St Pancras and The Hornet was the location from the late 17th century for the Unicorn Inn. The title deeds held by Messrs Henty and Constable in 1940 go back to 1741. The “Unicorn” was the home of that ancient body…
The Bull Inn located at 4-5 Market Road was a Free house that closed in 2015. In mid-2023 work started on gutting the interior. The latest photo of the repainted exterior was taken in March 2024 when it displayed a ‘To Let’ notice -‘All classes and uses considered’. For more information about the history of…
Designed by chief engineer Kurt Tank, the aircraft was initially developed for two alternative power plants, the inline Daimler Benz DB 601 and the radial BMW 139. The choice of a radial engine was controversial as it was thought the large frontal area would adversely affect performance. However, it offered more power and was chosen…
Designed by Professor Willy Messerschmitt to meet a 1934 Reichfluftfahrtministerium requirement for a single-seat monoplane fighter, the prototype Bf1 09A first flew in September 1935 and was the winning competitor in a fly-off that involved three other designs – Focke-Wulf submitted the Fw 159V1, Arado the Ar 80V1 and Heinkel the He 112. When it…
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a large system of ocean currents that carries warm water from the tropics northwards into the North Atlantic. It operates like a conveyer belt driven by differences in temperature and salt content – the water’s density. It is a vital system of ocean currents that governs weather patterns…
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A charity shop acquisition, the Imperial 200 has serial number 1249067 and was produced between 1970 and 1971. The model 200 existed from 1969 to 1973. These were Silver-Seiko Portables made in Japan and badged under Royal and Imperial marques. Comments on the design It has a compact design and when closed has dimensions of…