Space

Sputnik I
After 1950, Cold War, Conferences and talks, Nuclear, biological, chemical, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Pictures, Radio, Sounds, Space, Turning points in history

Turning points: Sputnik

After taking some time to recover after the marathon Road to War, I’m taking part in a new series of talks with ABC New England North West‘s Kelly Fuller, along with fellow members of the UNE School of Humanities Nathan Wise (who came up with the concept), Sarah Lawrence and Richard Scully (and more, if

Uses of 'Mars' and 'canals' vs uses of 'Mars' only in peer-reviewed astronomical articles, 1861-1970
1900s, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, After 1950, Before 1900, Periodicals, Plots and tables, Space, Tools and methods, Words

The canals of Mars, 1861-1970 — III

So, to wrap up this accidental series. To check whether professional astronomical journals displayed the same patterns in discussing ‘Mars’ and ‘canals’ as the more popular/amateur ones I again looked at the peak decade 1891-1900, this time selecting only the more serious, respected journals. However, because of the French problem I had to exclude L’Astronomie

Uses of 'Mars' and 'canals' in peer-reviewed astronomical articles
1900s, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, After 1950, Before 1900, Periodicals, Plots and tables, Space, Tools and methods, Words

The canals of Mars, 1861-1970 — II

In my post about the lingering scientific interest in the Martian canals hypothesis after 1909, I said that there was a problem with journal coverage. What do I mean by this? Have a look: This is a repeat of the first plot in the previous post, showing the number of articles published in peer-reviewed astronomical

Uses of 'Mars' and 'canals' in peer-reviewed astronomical articles
1900s, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, After 1950, Before 1900, Periodicals, Plots and tables, Space, Tools and methods, Words

The canals of Mars, 1861-1970 — I

In a recent, hmm, let’s call it a discussion resulting from an old post I wrote about the US Air Force’s one-time interesting in mapping Mars, I tried to assess how scientific interest in the Martian canals hypothesis lingered after the early 20th century, and said I would run up some figures to illustrate the

1930s, 1940s, After 1950, Civil defence, Contemporary, Music, Space, Videos

If war should come, pump up the volume

Dr Beachcombing of Beachcombing’s Bizarre History Blog kindly dropped me a line to alert me to his post about Public Service Broadcasting, a British music duo who draw on old propaganda and information films for inspiration and samples. A number of these are from the Second World War period, including ‘Spitfire’, ‘London Can Take It’,

1910s, 1940s, After 1950, Archives, Contemporary, Periodicals, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Rumours, Space

Churchill and that UFO story

There have been a lot of stories in the press recently with titles like ‘Churchill ordered UFO cover-up, National Archives show’. Actually, the TNA files — part of an ongoing series of releases of UFO-related files — don’t show this at all, as is clear if you read the article more closely. The cover-up is

1920s, 1930s, Air defence, Books, International air force, Nuclear, biological, chemical, Space

To-day and to-morrow

[Cross-posted at Cliopatria.] ‘To-day and To-morrow’ was a series of over a hundred essays on ‘the future’ of a diverse range of subjects, which were published in pamphlet form by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. between 1924 and 1931. The authors are equally varied: some were acknowledged experts in their fields, others seem to

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