engineering
People who built things that shouldn't have worked, but did.
Fifty Copies
The only Black member of the Edison Pioneers, the man who drafted Bell's telephone patent and fixed the lightbulb, wrote love poems on the side.
The Half-Sovereign
What do you do when the greatest engineer of the Victorian age inhales a gold coin during a magic trick for his children?
The Man Who Let Gravity Draw
What kind of architect designs a church by hanging it upside down from a shed ceiling?
The Rational Heat Motor
Why would a millionaire inventor lay out his nightshirt, mark a small cross on his diary, and fold his overcoat beneath the railing?
The Same Bone, Twice
What does it take for a state to kill the same man twice, nearly thirty years apart, using the same injury?
No to Edison
What do you do when the man who twice tried to take your patent in court turns around and offers you a job?
The Helmet His Wife Made
Who packs a pre-mixed glob of Vaseline and cotton into his pocket before climbing into a balloon, and what exactly does he expect to happen up there?
The Woman Who Stole the Car
Why did a woman in 1888 push an automobile down an alley at dawn while her husband slept upstairs?
The Thrupenny Fix
What happens when the Air Ministry is years from a fix, pilots are dying in stalls, and a five-foot carburetor researcher has a home workshop and a motorcycle?
The Dog Got Clean Too
What happens when a woman who holds thirty-six patents and hates cleaning drags a garden hose into her kitchen?
The Man Who Built a Robot Band
He invented the crankshaft to water a garden, then spent the rest of his career building a programmable robot drummer for palace drinking parties.
The Man Who Found a Taste for Digging
When the council rehoused him on the top floor of a tower block, it was specifically to discourage tunnelling.