Because of continental drift, the world’s surface is always changing. About 300 million years ago, there were two continents. One, called Gondwanaland, contained parts of South America, Africa, India, Australia and Antarctica, which were then joined together. The other, called Laurasia, was made up of North America and Eurasia. About 275 million years ago, Gondwanaland and Laurasia collided and joined …

Efforts to ease the restrictions on the motor car culminated in an Act of Parliament which became effective on 14 November 1896. It laid down that ‘locomotives’ of less than three tons, unladen, were regarded as ‘light’ and were exempted from the need for an attendant to walk in front. At one time the attendant had to carry a red …

Near the River Deben in Suffolk, at Sutton Hoo, are eleven mounds or ‘barrows’ dating back to the 7th century. In 1938 it was decided to open the largest of these to find out what it contained. The result was the greatest archeological discovery ever made in Britain. Within the barrow was a king’s ship, 25 meters long, and, inside …

An important development in the story of armour was the introduction of flexible garments made of numerous small metal rings which interlocked like chains, known as ‘mail’. The coat of mail remained in favour for five centuries. A complete tunic of armour made of mail contained up to 200,000 iron rings. During the Crusades in the twelfth century, knights wore …

A treadmill was an apparatus of punishment used in prisons. It was a large hollow cylinder, rather like the wheel of a water mill, with twenty-four steps. Each prisoner held on a bar in front of him and kept on treading on the steps, thus making the cylinder revolve. The machines were used for pumping or grinding, or simply as …

The London bus of the 1880s, drawn by two horses, was nicknamed ‘knifeboard’. Those adventurous passengers, usually agile and male, who climbed to its top deck had to sit back-to-back on a long narrow board. The accommodation was rough and some wag soon named the bus ‘the knifeboard’ after the rough emery boards on which cutlery was cleaned until the …

One of the last pieces of armour to survive in the British Army was the gorget. It was a kind of collar, originally worn to protect the throat. Discoveries made in Egypt show that warriors wore armour as long ago as 1500 B.C., and by the sixteenth century both horse and rider were encased in steel from head to foot. …

The ‘capelin’ or ‘lobster-tail pot’ was a helmet worn in the cavalry for a hundred years or so from around 1630. It was oriental in origin. The hemispherical skull piece was fitted with a vizor made up of cheek pieces, an adjustable rod to protect the nose, and overlapping plates connected with joints to guard the neck.

For many centuries, there were tales of islands lying somewhere out in the Atlantic. One of these was the ‘Island of the Blessed’, an earthly paradise just over the horizon. Several Irish monks decided to look for it but although they braved many dangers, they took fright at last when they saw an Icelandic Volcano. Because of this voyage, ‘St …

This famous old cannon can be seen at Edinburgh Castle, Scotland. It is known to have been used at a siege in 1479. In 1489 an account recorded eighteen shillings being paid for drinks for its gunners, when they ‘cartit Monss by the King’s Command’. In 1650 there appears a mention – by Oliver Cromwell – of the ‘great Iron …