Victorian Era

Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Victorian Era’

121
How the British Invented Cool Clay Lane

Michael Faraday showed that gases could be compressed and evaporated to preserve food and make ice.

The development of modern refrigeration involved French, American and Australian inventors, but it was a Scottish professor and an English chemist who made the key breakthroughs.

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122
The Iron Horse and the Iron Cow Samuel Smiles

Railways not only brought fresh, healthy food to the urban poor, they improved the conditions of working animals.

In the 1850s, London could not house enough cows for its population, so dairymen watered down their milk from cholera-infested roadside pumps, adding snails or sheep’s brains to thicken it (more). No legislation could have solved that dilemma of supply and demand. But railways did.

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123
The Pig-and-Potato War Clay Lane

In 1859, peaceful co-existence on the Canadian border was severely tested by a marauding pig.

Even quite late in Queen Victoria’s reign, Britain and the United States of America were still carving up what had once been British colonial territory. One disputed region was San Juan Island near Vancouver, where a dead pig almost led to war.

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124
A Nation’s Wealth Richard Cobden

It is not politicians and their policies that create wealth, but the hard work and ingenuity of ordinary people.

Richard Cobden MP led the fight in the House of Commons to repeal the Corn Laws, which taxed imports of grain in order to shore up Britain’s agriculture industry. The laws caused the price of bread to rise, making the poor poorer; after the laws were repealed, Britain became the manufacturing centre of the world.

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125
Character and Learning Samuel Smiles

Intellectual learning is to be respected, but it should never be confused with good character.

Samuel Smiles devoted an entire volume to the subject of character, appreciating that an education is only as good as the moral principles with which it is applied.

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126
Elias Parish Alvars Clay Lane

Eli Parish of Teignmouth in Devon became one of Europe’s most celebrated virtuosos.

Eli Parish (1808-1849) was a boy from Teignmouth in Devon who went on to become one of Europe’s most celebrated and dextrous concert harpists, and a prolific composer.

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