Tsar Tank
Kaushik Patowary
May 20, 2020
Before World War I, military tanks were a mere concept. Leonardo da Vinci made sketches of a human-powered armored vehicle, with canons all ...
Aerotrain: The High-Speed Train That Almost Revolutionized Transport
Kaushik Patowary
May 19, 2020
Some of the fastest trains in service today have a top speed in excess of 200 miles per hour. With the exception of Shanghai maglev, all o...
Remembering Epidemics With Plague Columns
Kaushik Patowary
May 15, 2020
Military victories are much celebrated, but a victory against a common enemy, such as a disease, is as important, especially in older times ...
Vennbahn: The Railway That Created a Peculiar Border Problem
Kaushik Patowary
May 14, 2020
Germany and Belgium’s border problem. Photo: gunnsteinlye/Flickr Along the German-Belgian border runs an old disused railway track, the ...
Turnspit Dogs
Kaushik Patowary
May 12, 2020
Observe the scene above depicting the inside of an inn at Newcastle, Wales, in the late 19th century. Men and women are sitting around the...
The Pearl Rush of Caddo Lake
Kaushik Patowary
May 11, 2020
Caddo Lake. Photo: Maciej Kraus/Flickr Natural pearls are a rarity today, but a hundred years ago, before British biologist William Savi...
Kruger Shalati: The Train Hotel Over Sabie Bridge
Kaushik Patowary
May 9, 2020
For several years, it was possible to hop into a train at Komatipoort, on the South Africa-Mozambique border, and ride through the wildern...
The Bayeux Tapestry
Kaushik Patowary
May 7, 2020
History is not always written. Sometimes it’s carved . Sometimes it’s embroidered. In a museum in Bayeux, in Normandy, is such a piece o...
The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary
Kaushik Patowary
May 6, 2020
When cotton first came to Europe from Central Asia during the Middle ages, people were fascinated by the fluffy, fibrous balls that resemb...
Black Weddings: Marrying in The Time of Cholera
Kaushik Patowary
May 5, 2020
Last month, a peculiar wedding ceremony took place at a cemetery in Bnei Brak, a city in Israel, just east of Tel Aviv. With government re...
