Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
A new lighthouse was first lit in northwestern Ireland just before being completed. Rotten Island lighthouse remains in operation today as a key navigational aid for vessels making their way from St. John’s Point to Killybegs Harbour in Donegal Bay. The origins of the lighthouse can be traced to the spring of 1832, when the... Continue Reading →
SMS Novara, an Austrian Navy frigate, completed one of the more significant circumnavigations of the 19th century. The ship’s historic journey began on April 30, 1857, and it had the distinction of being the first round-the-world voyage undertaken by the Austrian Empire. The Novara Expedition was a large-scale scientific mission authorized by Archduke Maximilian, the younger... Continue Reading →
Professional road bicycle racer Roger Pingeon was born in the commune of Hauteville-Lompnes in eastern France. As a teenager, Pingeon initially took up cross-country skiing as his favorite means of mobility and recreational activity. He eventually refocused his time and attention on bicycling instead. Pingeon developed a strong interest in a career in bicycle racing... Continue Reading →
The Tjeldsund Bridge in northern Norway made its debut. The 3,304-foot-long suspension road bridge, which has 32 spans altogether, crosses the Tjeldsundet strait between the municipalities of Skånland on the mainland and Harstad on the island of Hinnøya. The Tjeldsund Bridge took 30 months to build, with 112,000 bags of cement and 1,200 tons of... Continue Reading →
Automobile manufacturer Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti died at age of 65 in the French commune of Neuilly-sur-Seine in the Paris region. Bugatti had been born in Milan, Italy, in 1881. At a young age, Bugatti demonstrated a strong aptitude when it came to constructing motor vehicles. He was only 17, for example, when he built... Continue Reading →
A new railway bridge, crossing the Rhine between the city of Waldshut (present-day Waldshut-Tiengen) in the Kingdom of Württemberg (now part of southwestern Germany) and the community of Koblenz in northern Switzerland, was officially opened. The Waldshut-Koblenz Rhine Bridge, which was built to carry the Turgi-Koblenz-Waldshut Railway over one of Europe’s major rivers, had the... Continue Reading →
Bicycle pioneer Henri Desgrange died in the commune of Beauvallon in southeastern France at the age of 75. Desgrange had been born into a middle-class family in Paris in 1865. Early on in his working life, he served as a clerk in one of the city’s law firms. Desgrange also developed a strong enthusiasm for... Continue Reading →
The last mainline passenger train hauled by a steam locomotive made its run on British Rail before the implementation of a steam ban the next day. The so-called Fifteen Guinea Special (15 guineas was the equivalent of 15 pounds, 15 shillings in the pre-decimal British currency, or £15.75 today - a very high price for... Continue Reading →
American inventor Robert Fulton took his newly-built paddle steamboat out on the Seine River in France for a test run. Unfortunately, the ship sank. Nevertheless, Fulton was not discouraged. He was accustomed to perfecting his designs and inventions in high-profile situations. Born in Pennsylvania in 1765, Fulton grew up in the environs of Philadelphia, and,... Continue Reading →
A Parisian mechanic named Jules Pierre Suriray was awarded French patent number 86,680 for a radial-style ball bearing he had developed for bicycles. By this time, the use of ball bearings to reduce friction between rotating parts had already long been identified with and applied to various forms of transportation. Ball bearings were used for... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 