The modern match is ignited by friction, a simple idea but one which had not occurred to anyone until 1826, when a Stockton pharmacist dropped a stick.

In 1609, Englishman Thomas Harriot turned his new-fangled telescope on the moon, and sketched for the first time the face of another world.

When it opened in 1901, the Uganda Railway still wasn’t in Uganda, and Westminster’s MPs were still debating whether or not to build it.

A contributor to the ‘Annual Review’ shared a flurry of facts about the new Liverpool and Manchester Railway, showing what a blessing it already was.

When Robert Southey called for a fairer and greener economy, Thomas Macaulay warned that only politicians and bureaucrats would thank him.

William Jerrold saw the new-fangled sewing machine as an opportunity to get women into the professions — but time was of the essence.