One of the world’s most valuable watches will go on display for the first time in the UK in a new exhibition: Versailles: Science and Splendour, which opens on 12 December at the Science Museum in London. The No.160 watch by Abraham-Louis Breguet – named ‘Marie Antoinette’...
The Dunkirk Maritime and Port Museum (Musée Maritime & Portuaire de Dunkerque) tells the history of France’s third largest port, its workers, its ships, and its seamen. “Wait! What? Third largest?” That may come as a surprise to some, because to most people, especially anglophiles, Dunkerque or...
Plans are underway at the Royal Air Force Museum Midlands* for the wing section of an iconic Second World War Dornier Do 17 to go on public display in early 2025. Salvaged after more than 70 years submerged beneath the waters of the Goodwin Sands, this unique...
Blenheim Palace has unveiled a new sculpture to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Sir Winston Churchill’s birth. The life size bronze statue, created by sculptor Paul Rafferty, is set in the gardens located on the South Lawn facing the Palace that Churchill loved and where he was...
The hype over the Hyperloop concept may have died down in recent years, but there are still engineers working to make it a reality. A Swiss team from EPFL, the School of Business and Engineering Vaud (HEIG-VD) and Swisspod Technologies, claim to have broken the record for...
You have to love this amazing car, the Citroën P17 Autochenille (‘caterpillar’ or in this case ‘half-track’). It is exactly the sort of thing I would fully expect to see Tintin driving across the Sahara in, wearing an arab headress and with Capt. Haddock floundering around in...
Twenty five sailors, out of the forty who are setting off in the Vendée Globe 2024 solo round-the-world non-stop yacht race on 10th November, will take scientific equipment provided by UNESCO and its scientific partners on board their IMOCA yachts to deploy during the race. This innovative...
Not many people outside France have heard of Puy du Fou*. Those international visitors who discover it, almost always become fans for life. The 500 acre park in the Vendée region of France, packed with extraordinary attractions, refers to itself as a historical ‘theme park’ with period...
The Indian Government has approved plans for a huge National Maritime Heritage Complex (NMHC) at Lothal in Gujarat, an inland archaeological port site from the Harappan era (aka the Indus Valley Civilisation), now 30 miles from the sea. It is being billed as the biggest maritime heritage...
Over 300,000 historic items from the Science Museum Group* collection have been carefully moved into a new facility at the National Collections Centre in the Science and Innovation Park near Swindon in Wiltshire. The new Hawking Building, named after Prof. Stephen Hawking, is not a museum. It...
This is a niche blog about technically-minded travel. It reflects my own interests in the mechanical, technical, historical, engineering, transport and military world.
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