An Amazing Idea – Making An Aircraft Carrier Out of Ice and Sawdust

Mackenzie King (left), Franklin D. Roosevelt (center), and Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference

In WWII the British were desperate. Metal was in short supply, and German U-boats were sinking Britain’s lifeline – ships. The Allies needed an unsinkable…

Source: An Amazing Idea – Making An Aircraft Carrier Out of Ice and Sawdust

It’s About Time: Frost Fair on the Thames in London – 1683-84

When the ice on the Thames at London was thick enough in 1683-84, a frost fair was held.  In 1683-84, pedestrians, sleds, & coaches could cross the Thames on the ice for 7 weeks.  It was reported that “whole streets of Booths” sprung up which thousands of Londoners visited.

Frost fairs were already common elsewhere in northern Europe, such as the Netherlands.   During London’s Great Frost of 1683–84, the Thames was completely frozen for 2 months, with the ice reaching a thickness of 11″ at the site of the city.  When the ice was thick enough…

Source: It’s About Time: Frost Fair on the Thames in London – 1683-84.

Mind that ice!

Notes from 19th Century Birmingham

The following salient warning comes from Birmingham Daily Gazette, January 30th, 1865

Street Accidents – If our readers had an opportunity of inspecting the books at the hospitals, it would teach them caution in walking through the streets during the continuance of the present frosty weather. On the out-patient books there are long lists of what are comparatively minor casualties, but which every one would be anxious to avoid. Broken arms are numerous, and there are some more serious cases too. On Saturday, a man named Hemming, a brassfounder of Cottage Lane, was admitted to the General Hospital with a compound fracture of the leg. A child of eight years of age named Chace, living in Rickard Street was admitted with a fractured leg.  An old woman of 65 years of age named Jane Hyde of Old Cross Street was admitted with an external fracture of the “external malleolus”. At…

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