Meet the world's one-of-a-kind ENORMO barge-bowling bridge of Falkirk
When is a wheel not a wheel? When it's a liftGeek's Guide to Britain Proving it's not just the Victorians who can make huge structures in steel, the Falkirk Wheel can lift six canal boats 25 metres in...
View ArticleBletchley rebooted: The crypto factory time remembered
High commands and dirty words in German – the story retoldGeek's Guide to Britain The Battle of Britain: it was won by the RAF and pilots in Hurricanes and Spitfires assisted by a new-fangled...
View ArticleTAT-1: Call the cable guy, all I see is a beautiful beach
57 years on, Reg man visits scene of first transatlantic voice callGeek's Guide to Britain A cabled telegram first crossed the Atlantic in 1858, but it took almost a century for voice calls to follow,...
View ArticleHow the UK's national memory lives in a ROBOT in Kew
El Reg visits the National ArchivesGeek's Guide to Britain The UK’s National Archives in Kew have enough gems and hidden secrets to keep Indiana Jones or Robert Langdon in sequels for the next couple...
View ArticleMosquitoes, Comets and Vampires: The de Havilland Museum
When the British aerospace industry was more than just British AerospaceGeek's Guide to Britain Approaching the museum down a bumpy single track road you start wondering if any of this makes any...
View ArticleIBM Hursley Park: Where Big Blue buries the past, polishes family jewels
How the internet of things has deep roots in the English countrysideGeek's Guide to Britain Would you like to work in a cross between Downton Abbey and Silicon Valley? For a small selection of IBMers,...
View ArticleMeasure for measure: We visit the most applied-physicist-rich building in the UK
Like an ass whose back with kilograms of Concorde bows...Geek's Guide to Britain Shielded by lime trees in a quiet corner of south-west London, a low, modern building constructed of green glass sits...
View ArticleKingston's aviation empire: From industry firsts to Airfix heroes
Sir Thomas Sopwith's suburban Surrey hubGeek's Guide to Britain He learned to fly aged 22, set up his first aircraft factory aged 24 and by 30 his fighters dominated the skies over the Western Front.…
View ArticleSuffering satellites! Goonhilly's ARTHUR REBORN for SPAAAACE
BT's sat comms site repurposedGeek's Guide to Britain Big data? Pah. Arthur is big hardware. He weighs in at 1,118 tonnes, has a diameter of 25.9 metres and is 52 years old. From his home, a high...
View ArticleMarconi: The West of England's very own Italian wireless pioneer
A trip to the Lizard King's monumentGeek's Guide to Britain This is the story of a 22-year-old technology genius, who, stung by the lack of interest in his work in his homeland, moved to a new country...
View ArticleSaturn's rings, radio waves ... poetry? At home with Scotland's Mr Physics
James Clerk Maxwell's houseGeek's Guide to Britain Say the the word “radio” and the mind goes to Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian emigrant whose work on the watershed of Cornwall and the Atlantic Ocean...
View ArticleBridge, ship 'n' tunnel – the Brunels' hidden Thames trip
Monument to a trio who left their mark on BlightyGeek's Guide to Britain When you mention Brunel to most people, they think of the one with the funny name – Isambard Kingdom Brunel. A few folks will...
View ArticleTaming the Thames – The place that plugged London's Great Stink
How Joseph Bazalgette flushed the capital into the modern ageGeek's Guide to Britain At various times in the history of the UK, there’s been a massive stink at Westminster, accompanied by demands that...
View ArticlePlanet killer: Ex-army officer's Welsh space-rock mission
Tunguska, Chelyabinsk... PowysGeek's Guide to Britain As I approach the Wales-England border, the rolling Herefordshire countryside sharpens into steep hills and narrow valleys. Powys is a county...
View ArticleThe Great Barrier Relief – Inside London's heavy metal and concrete defence act
Waves against the machineGeek's Guide to Britain Last time London flooded was 1953. Three hundred lives were lost, 30,000 evacuated and the damage totalled a considerable £5bn in today’s money.…
View ArticleGet thee behind me, Satanic mills! Robert Owen's Scottish legacy
Inside the works of Scotland's industrial revolutionaryGeek's Guide to Britain The European Route of Industrial Heritage marks New Lanark as an anchor point in the global development of textiles and...
View ArticleRock reboot and the Welsh windy wonder: Centre for Alternative Technology
Biomass and the pitGeek's Guide to Britain There are plenty of tourist attractions scattered around the coast of Cardigan Bay in Wales. But for the last four decades, the Centre for Alternative...
View ArticleBookworms' Weston mecca: The Oxford institution with a Swindon secret
The 400-year-old Uni library with a big-box backerGeek's Guide to Britain The Botanic Gardens, Sheldonian Theatre, Museum of Natural History – there’s plenty to see in Oxford. Off limits, however, was...
View ArticleBletchley Park remembers 'forgotten genius' Gordon Welchman
Head of Hut Six 'a disastrous example to others' – GCHQAn exhibition has been launched at Bletchley Park to commemorate the work of Cambridge lecturer and "forgotten genius" Gordon Welchman at...
View ArticleCome on kids, let's go play in the abandoned nuclear power station
After oil, before shale: the future that never wasGeek's Guide to Britain On the northern tip of Scotland stands Dounreay – 74 hectares of nuclear site encompassing the world's first fast breeder...
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