Category Archives: Uncategorized

All Hallows by the Tower is one of the oldest churches in London. It was first constructed in 675 CE and stands on the site of a Roman building. In fact if you go down into the crypt you can still see part of a Roman floor built nearly 2,000 years ago. The original nameContinue reading “The Lady in Black and the Choirboys”

Samuel Morse was born on the 27th April 1791 in Charlestown, Massachusetts. He went to Yale College and studied a wide range of subjects including mathematics, religious philosophy and the science of horses. He also had a flair for art and was able to support himself in college by painting portraits and other commissions.    Continue reading “Tapping into Samuel Morse”

Frederic Chopin was one of the greats of classical music and made his reputation with his compositions for the piano. He was born on the 1st March 1810 near Warsaw in Poland. By the time he was six, he was already composing pieces for the piano. His official musical training began when he was sevenContinue reading “Chopin – Home is Where his heart is”

Marconi is probably best remembered for the company he set up under his name. And because of the high profile of this company, many people believe he invented the radio. But in fact, he worked on it with Karl Ferdinand Braun and they together received the 1909 Nobel Prize for Physics.     Marconi was bornContinue reading “Marconi – Radio Head”

Most people could not envisage their life without a television being somewhere in there. Today there are many ways to download programmes but it was Baird who was to demonstrate the first working model.     He was born in Helensburgh in Scotland on the 14th August 1888 and after being educated in local schools, enteredContinue reading “John Logie Baird – A Television First”

Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle was a writer of many books but he will always be remembered for the creation of one of the best-known characters in fiction, the famous detective, Sherlock Holmes. Conan-Doyle was born in Edinburgh on the 22nd May 1859, the second of ten children.     He entered Edinburgh Medical School and graduated someContinue reading “Detectives, Dinosaurs & Fairies – the Life of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle”

As the dwarf planet of Pluto is left behind, we are already within the next region of the Solar System; the Kuiper Belt. It begins just outside the orbit of Neptune and encompasses the orbit of Pluto. The Kuiper Belt is a flat disc consisting of rocks and ice boulders of many sizes. They varyContinue reading “Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud – the Edge of the Solar System”

As stated in an earlier article, Pluto has been relegated to the status of a dwarf planet. But many people still think of it as an object of importance which deserves its own section. I tend to agree with them so I have included it as part of this series of blog articles.     HavingContinue reading “Pluto – The Planet that Isn’t”

The next object we find in this series as we move out far beyond Uranus is the planet Neptune. Since 2006 when Pluto lost its status as a fully-fledged planet, Neptune assumed the role of the last planet in our Solar System. It is also the last of the gas giants and measures 30,760 milesContinue reading “Neptune – the Final Outpost?”

In this article we journey further out into the Solar System and we are leaving our Sun far, far behind. The heat and light received from it is now very weak. This makes the temperature of the cloud layer we observe as we approach the next planet an extremely cold minus 214º Celsius. We haveContinue reading “The Blue Planet – But not Earth”