Monday 28 July 2014

Dragons of the Alps (1906)

Which country do you associate with dragons? China, probably, or perhaps Wales. Certainly not Switzerland, land of towering peaks and Toblerone. Yet this article from the Strand leaves us in no doubt that these reptilian brutes are rarely more than a yodel away in the Alpine fastnesses.





Saturday 19 July 2014

Dynamite and Dynamiters (1894)

Between 1881 and 1885 Irish Republicans based in the U.S.A. launched a bombing campaign against the British mainland.  Their explosive of choice was the newly invented Dynamite.
This article, unsurprisingly, stays clear of the political issues, and describes the construction of the 'infernal devices' - to an extent which would probably be avoided in a modern publication.







Thursday 3 July 2014

Jules Verne at Home (1895)


Marie Adelaide Belloc was the elder sister of Hilaire Belloc.  A year after the publication of this article she married: she became known to the reading public as Mrs Belloc-Lowndes, the author of the much-filmed thriller 'The Lodger', which was based around the 'Jack the Ripper' murders.