Chiefly a review of the technological advancements of Great Britain and its colonial empire since the rule of Henry VIII, who invented the Church of England in order to divorce his barren wife. He was quite a guy. The major technological breakthrough of his reign was the decision to put land cannon aboard his naval ships in covered gun ports. And instead of expensive bronze, the cannon were made of cheap cast iron. In a sense they were the first battleships.
Then William the Conqueror builds the Norman Tower of London to impress upon his subjects the fact that they are now dominated by French rulers. I didn't know William had built the Tower, though I'd visited it.
Next, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert -- Westminster Palace burns down and Parliament is put up, a ramshackle conglomeration of continental architectural styles whose most notable feature is Big Ben, a huge clock with a monster bell. In 1955 a flock of birds sat on its minute hand and time was retarded by five minutes.
There's the railway too, and the Box Tunnel through which it ran -- and still runs.
A nice, added touch is the emphasis placed on the displacement of the population during the Industrial Age. The so-called Age itself began in Britain because of the ready availability of its local coal, but it caused hordes of people to leave their cottages and farms and flock to the major cities to find employment in the shops and factories there. The crowding was phenomenal, almost chaotic, and the nation was unprepared for the demographic shift. (Read anything by Dickens.) Sewage ran through the streets. Edinburgh was known as "Auld Reekie." The Thames stank so badly that the Parliament was shut down. Cholera was epidemic. You get cholera when drinking water is contaminated by feces. This problem, at least, was solved by a magnificently engineered sewage system, to which only slight attention is given, that shifted waste from the river directly into the sea.
An interesting episode, more modern than the rest.
Then William the Conqueror builds the Norman Tower of London to impress upon his subjects the fact that they are now dominated by French rulers. I didn't know William had built the Tower, though I'd visited it.
Next, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert -- Westminster Palace burns down and Parliament is put up, a ramshackle conglomeration of continental architectural styles whose most notable feature is Big Ben, a huge clock with a monster bell. In 1955 a flock of birds sat on its minute hand and time was retarded by five minutes.
There's the railway too, and the Box Tunnel through which it ran -- and still runs.
A nice, added touch is the emphasis placed on the displacement of the population during the Industrial Age. The so-called Age itself began in Britain because of the ready availability of its local coal, but it caused hordes of people to leave their cottages and farms and flock to the major cities to find employment in the shops and factories there. The crowding was phenomenal, almost chaotic, and the nation was unprepared for the demographic shift. (Read anything by Dickens.) Sewage ran through the streets. Edinburgh was known as "Auld Reekie." The Thames stank so badly that the Parliament was shut down. Cholera was epidemic. You get cholera when drinking water is contaminated by feces. This problem, at least, was solved by a magnificently engineered sewage system, to which only slight attention is given, that shifted waste from the river directly into the sea.
An interesting episode, more modern than the rest.
