Isaac Newton, undercover agent (Part 2)
Isaac Newton, giant of math and physics, undercover agent for the Royal Mint, faced off against William Chaloner, the notorious forger, tongue-padder, and dildo-merchant. [2 of 2]
Category: History
Isaac Newton, undercover agent (Part 1)
Precious metals could be stolen from coins by clipping, plugging, or sweating them. It’s a good thing Isaac Newton was on the case. [1 of 2]
Fashionable limp
Queen Alexandra had a scar and a limp – and British fashion followed suit.
Cryptography gardening
If you want to decipher an encrypted message, it’s helpful to plant some plaintext seeds.
Dancing plagues
Sudden bouts of contagious dancing plagued pre-modern Europe – afflicting up to a thousand people at a time.
Iron currency
In the late 19th century CE Sierra Leone and surrounds, high quality iron needles tied into bundles served as currency.
Wine immolation
King Charles II of Navarre died when, wrapped in alcohol-soaked linen, he caught on fire.
This chariot always points south
Around 255 CE, a Chinese inventor named Ma Jun created a chariot that could always point south – without using magnets.
Cities at the bottom of the sea
423,000 people live in Flevoland, a province of the Netherlands. Before 1957, the entire area did not exist.
Kilometre zero
All roads lead to Rome… but where in Rome do they lead?
Chicago River, reversed
120 years ago engineers permanently reversed the flow of Chicago River.
Feed sack dresses
When US farmers bought seeds or flour during the Great Depression, the most important question was this: what patterns were printed on the sack?
First clothes
When did we start wearing clothes? We don’t know for sure, but the genetics of lice, prehistoric needles, and ivory carvings give us some clues.
First clothes
When did we start wearing clothes? We don’t know for sure, but the genetics of lice, prehistoric needles, and ivory carvings give us some clues.
Pre-nuclear steel
If you want to build a Geiger counter you need to first find a shipwreck from before 1945.
Hands of Perón
In 1987 the tomb of Argentinian president Juan Perón was broken into and his hands dismembered and stolen. A ransom note was received but never paid, and the hands were never seen again.
The Generalist Academy 