…to a story which the other papers are far less interested in. The recently-installed Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr William Temple (that’s him on the left, though what is being done to him I have no idea; and that’s his forehead on the right), used a speech in Manchester yesterday to give ‘a new charter to Britain — a charter of social reform which will bring happiness to millions of people if applied in post-war reconstruction’ (1). Its nine points…
…landings which the truth of the reports would presuppose; but not a single instance of a landing has been established […]8 The very fact that so many of the aeroplanes were seen at night was also suspicious: Night flying is dangerous, and aircraft flying at night usually keep at a great height. Aircraft do not usually show lights, except when about to land, and hostile craft not wishing to disclose their whereabouts would be especially careful not…
…me! This particular one focuses on the Balkan quagmire and its role in Great Power politics. Unlike some other recent interpretations (such as William Mulligan’s), Clark emphasises European instability, though appears to fall short of claiming that war was inevitable. Nor, per the title, was it intended: it was essentially a terrible accident….
…decisive, in that it forced the Sultan to flee and allowed the British to install their own preferred candidate, which was the reason for the war in the first place. And it was also incredibly quick: the war began at 9:02am on 27 August 1896 and ended at 9:40am. Indeed, at 38 minutes the Anglo-Zanzibar War is supposedly the shortest war in history. With such effective examples of short, sharp shocks before them, it’s easy to see why airpower theo…
…took to be an aeroplane pass over Yarmouth at about Tuesday midnight (14th instant)’. But it doesn’t quote or name any of these other witnesses, instead reprinting another letter evidently from the Daily Press, written by ‘Mr. F. W. Boulton, 20, Gordon Road, Southtown‘ relating to an incident a couple of months ago (so a few weeks after the Sheerness airship but maybe around the time it reached the press): I was greatly interested on reading your…
…-nights’ are regarded by the average citizen with incredulity, and in many instances with ridicule. Most sceptical newspapers don’t blame the sightings on scaremongering by the conservative press, but instead focus on trying to explain what witnesses were actually looking at. The (decidedly non-sceptical) Manchester Courier quotes (by way of the Morning Post) ‘One of the best known aeronautical authorities in France’, who is quoted as saying that…
…in a southerly direction towards Urewera’ at around 1pm, and that ‘In one instance the noise of the engines drew the observer’s attention to the machine’. Apparently ‘The strange aeroplane is not one of those belonging to the Kohimarama Flying School‘.8 Further details soon emerged: the ‘aeroplane had been seen during the day hovering over Taneatua‘ and environs; one of the witnesses was a man named McGougan and two stationhands employed by P. Ke…
…-2005. London and New York: Continuum, 2005. A conference purchase, and an instant one for me after seeing the title. Oddly from my perspective, as far as I can tell it omits almost the entire corpus of knock-out blow fiction; but I think this is explained by the focus on stories about terrorism carried out by non-state actors. So aerial anarchists in fact do get some attention, and the Blitz of course factors as inspiration. But then, Hugh Addiso…
…ough a crowd of people; the state of experiencing such a feeling. Also: an instance or episode of such feeling; a scare. So, while there is clearly overlap, the OED does support a panic being more intense and more consequential than a scare. And perhaps a scare can lead to a panic. But it’s actually surprisingly hard to find any discussion of the difference in historical and sociological texts; the two terms are used more or less interchangeably,…
…f our population. Some people must flit every year, and they are no sooner installed in their new diggings than they begin to cast their vision about in order to select the battle-ground of their next upheaval. Now may be seen the central figure of the show, the commander-in-chief of the whole operations, with whitewash in her hair, fire in her eye, and anathemas on her lips, careering wildly about, seeking for some devoted one which to explode he…
