Source: Wikimedia Commons
There is a seventeen-character string on every car built since the early 1980s - visible through the windscreen at the bottom of the glass, stamped on a plate…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
In 1955 a chimney sweep arrived on foot or by bicycle with a bundle of cane rods over his shoulder, pinned a sheet across the fireplace, and pushed…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
In 1960 a gamekeeper lived in a cottage out on the ground, answered to one person, and had no external scrutiny of any kind over how he did…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
In 1965 a record began with a sapphire stylus cutting a groove into soft lacquer in real time while the music played, where a mistake meant starting the…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
In 1960 white paint was made with lead, the solvents evaporated into the workroom, and the whole site was a fire risk managed mainly by hoping.
The pigment…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
In 1960 drinking water was filtered through deep beds of sand whose actual treatment was performed by a layer of living organisms on the surface, cleaned by men…