There is a reason water clocks were difficult and sand timers were easy, and it comes down to a surprising difference between liquids and piles of small solid grains.
A…
There is an image that makes most people wince the first time they see it: a hammer driving nails into a horse's foot.
The reaction is reasonable, and it rests…
There is a small object that lines a great many old roads and is almost never looked at: a short stone or cast-iron post at the verge, carrying a name…
There is a type of building standing in fields, farmyards and the grounds of old houses that most people pass without knowing what it was for.
It is frequently round…
There is a question about weathervanes that catches almost everybody out, and it concerns which way the pointer faces.
The natural assumption is that the arrow shows where the wind…
For most of the history of keeping bees, getting honey meant damaging the colony that produced it.
Bees build comb attached to whatever surfaces are available, fused to the walls…