Somebody laid it, and then everybody dug it up. Here are ten.
1. Large Rectangular Slabs Mean Somebody Was Spending
Big sawn stone flags were expensive and were laid where…
Nobody numbered a house until somebody official wanted something. Here are eleven.
1. Numbering Was Imposed, Not Adopted
Systematic house numbering spread through Europe in the eighteenth century, introduced by…
A traffic light looks like the simplest control system in existence: three lamps, one at a time, in a fixed order. Almost everything about it is a compromise between constraints…
Mostly about air, not water. Here are fifteen.
1. The Bend Is Holding Water on Purpose
Every fixture has a trap, a dip in the pipe that retains water after…
Watch the top of an escalator for a few seconds and something slightly impossible happens. A flat plate slides out from under a comb, then rises into a step, then…
The least designed-looking thing in the street, and all of it is deliberate. Here are ten.
1. The Backrest Decides How Long You Stay
A bench with a back supports…