- The Queens first council - Kensington Palace June 20 1837
Queen Victorias first council - Kensington Palace June 20 1837 The year 1837, except for the death of the old King and the accession of the young Queen, was a tolerably insignificant year. It was on June 20 that the King died. He was buried on the evening of July 9 at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor; on the 10th the Queen dissolved Parliament; on the 13th she went to Buckingham Palace; and on November 9 she visited the City, where they gave her a magnificent banquet, served in Guildhall at half past five, the Lord Mayor and City magnates humbly taking their modest meal at a lower table. - Death of Sainte-Geneviève
Sainte-Geneviève, the patron saint of the Parisians, also perpetuated with her legend on the walls of the Panthéon, originally her church but now dedicated to the Grands Hommes of the nation, was born at Nanterre, near Paris, in 422, and guarded in the fields the flocks of her parents, Sévère and Gérontia. - Bicyclists ( Carrefour d'Ermenonville )
While at the Potinière we admire the velocemen and velocewomen in possession of all the secrets of art, we only meet here the laggards studying under the eye of professionals. It is assured that the ordinarily gifted people are, after ten lessons, in a condition to direct themselves properly. But just as some students take a long time to do their law far beyond the statutory years, so we find certain temperaments refractory to equilibrium which persist in capsizing at every turn of the wheel beyond all expectations. - Return of the Races
From the weighing gate of Longchamps to the top of avenue du Bois, there is everywhere the same accumulation of cars, horses and bicycles. The lines follow one another without interruption, the noses of the horses touching the hood of the previous car and the drawbars threatening the rear of the footmen sitting behind the phaeton. Despite the impatience of some, the general resignation means that, in a relatively short time, this mass of spectators ends up flowing, which, first of all, seemed to be absolutely implausible. - The waterer of the Louis XV bridge
Few horses are driven there for the sole purpose of quenching their thirst, but the number of tired hocks that we hope to strengthen by staying in cold water is large enough for the trough to be sufficiently populated, and the hope of seeing some clumsy groom fall into the water keeps a certain number of fans of free shows on the parapets. - A Wedding ( La Madeleine )
The crowd is generally sympathetic to weddings. The hour at which they are accomplished generally coincides with that of the lunch of the milliners and other dressmakers of the district, which their lack of dowry maintains in the state of celibates without depriving them of the desire and the hope of going up in `rank`. They constitute the fund of spectators, and their special knowledge enables them to estimate with precision the probable resources of the new spouses and their entourage. - Charlemagne
Portrait of Charlemagne, whom the Song of Roland names the King with the Grizzly Beard.--Fac-simile of an Engraving of the End of the Sixteenth Century. Charlemagne was the first who recognised that social union, so admirable an example of which was furnished by Roman organization, and who was able, with the very elements of confusion and disorder to which he succeeded, to unite, direct, and consolidate diverging and opposite forces, to establish and regulate public administrations, to found and build towns, and to form and reconstruct almost a new world. We hear of him assigning to each his place, creating for all a common interest, making of a crowd of small and scattered peoples a great and powerful nation; in a word, rekindling the beacon of ancient civilisation. When he died, after a most active and glorious reign of forty-five years, he left an immense empire in the most perfect state of peace - Civic Guard of Ghent (Brotherhood of St. Sebastian)
- Distributing Bread
Water-color by George Rochegrosse. - Girl in a hat
Girl in a hat - Assassination of Henry IV
Assassination of Henry IV, Rue de la Ferronnerie, may 14, 1610. - A Merovingian Queen
A Merovingian Queen - Caroche
Caroche, covered with leather, studded with gold-headed nails, percherons; period, end of sixteenth century. - Boy and Girl encouraging their bird to come back
Boy and Girl looking out the window encouraging their bird to come back after escaping from its cage - Boy reading to two girls
- Nordenfeldt Five Barrel Rifle Calibre Machine Gun
- Nordenfeldt Five Barrel Rifle Calibre Machine Gun on field carriage
- Nordenfeldt Ten Barrel Rifle Calibre Machine Gun
- Gardner five barrel machine gun on carriage
- Mother breaking up fight among her four children
Mother breaking up fight among her four children - Principle of the parachute, drawing by Leonardo da Vinci
If Leonardo da Vinci's aerial flight experiments do not seem to have been carried out on a large scale, it is perhaps not the same with the parachute, the use of which is much safer. The description of Leonardo da Vinci was reproduced later, not without a notable improvement in the mode of representation of the apparatus, in a collection of machines, due to Fauste Veranzio and published in Venice in 1617. - Principle of the helicopter, drawing by Leonardo da Vinci
Principle of the helicopter, drawing by Leonardo da Vinci - Girl sleeping
Girl sleeping - Remains of roman amphitheatre
Remains of roman amphitheatre, Rue Monge, discovered in 1869. - Fragment of roman aqueduct
Fragment of roman aqueduct - The Duchess of Kent, with Princess Victoria at the age of two
The Duchess of Kent, with Princess Victoria at the age of two - The Lords and Barons prove their Nobility by hanging their Banners and exposing their Coats-of-arms at the Windows of the Lodge of the Heralds
The Lords and Barons prove their Nobility by hanging their Banners and exposing their Coats-of-arms at the Windows of the Lodge of the Heralds After a Miniature of the "Tournaments of King Réné" (Fifteenth Century), MSS. of the National Library of Paris. - Raven
Raven - Armed Parisians meeting the king
Armed Parisians meeting the king, 1383 From an illuminated manuscript in the National Library, Paris. - Little girl at the beach with many other children
Little girl standing in a puddle at the beach while lots of other children play in the background - Mother cuddling her little girl
Mother sitting in chair cuddling her little girl - Little girl sitting and reading in the garden
Little girl sitting and reading in the garden - Facsimile of Leonardo da Vinci's drawings on artificial wings
The examination of the original drawings of the great Italian artist is intersting. We reproduce by heliogravure a complete plate; it makes it possible to follow the thought which presided over its execution. We let Dr. Hureau de Villeneuve interpret it. We see in the second row on the right a small character quite similar to a demon or a genie, for he wears a flame on his head and, next to this flame, a Latin cross. His arms end with the fingers of a bat. The figure is not yet finished when Leonardo already recognizes its insufficiency and, guessing the little muscular action of the arms, thinks of using the force of the legs. So we see a little higher, in the same plank, a vigorous man placed on his stomach, his legs bent and about to launch a violent kick. The protruding muscles, traced by an anatomist's pencil, reveal the great painter in an unassuming drawing. - You are it
Seven little children are all pointing at one little girl - The Venice parachute (1617), after an engraving of the time
The attached engraving is the exact reproduction of the parachute that the author also defines in the following terms, certainly inspired by those of Leonardo da Vinci: With a square veil stretched out with four equal poles and having tied four ropes to the four quinces, a man without danger will be able to throw himself from the top of a tower or some other prominent place; because although, at the hour, there is no wind, the effort of he who falls will bring wind which will hold back the sail, lest it fall violently, but gradually descend. The man therefore must measure himself with the size of the sail. - Father Lana's aerial ship (1670)
Certainly Lana's project is impracticable: the learned Jesuit did not foresee that his empty copper balloons would be crushed by the external atmospheric pressure; but he nevertheless had a very clear idea and very remarkable for his time of the principle of aerial navigation by balloons lighter than the volume of air which they move. He ends his long chapter with some very curious considerations: I do not see any other difficulties that can be opposed to this idea, except one which seems to me more important than all the others, and that God will not allow this invention to be ever successfully applied in practice, in order to prevent the consequences which would result from it for the civil and political government of men. Indeed, who does not see that there is no State which would be insured against a stroke of surprise, because this ship would be heading in a straight line on one of its strongholds, and, landing there, could descend there soldiers. - Besnier's flying apparatus
Reproduction by heliogravure of the figure from the Journal des sçavans (1678). Extract from a letter written to Mr. Toynard on a Machine of a new invention to fly in the air. A, right front aisle. — B, left rear aisle. — C, left front aisle. — D, right rear aisle. — E, fissure of the left foot which lowers the D aisle, when the left hand lowers the Aisle C. — F, fissure of the right foot which lowers the D-pin when the left hand lowers the C-pin. - Eight children
Eight children - Harriet Martineau
Harriet Martineau - Electric flying machine depicted in Le Philosophe sans pretension (1775)
We reproduce as a curiosity this charming vignette, where we see the inventor Scintilla driving his machine. - Little girl on a swing
Little girl swinging on a swing attached to a tree - Leigh Hunt
Leigh Hunt - Sir Robert Peel
Sir Robert Peel - Family Dinner
Family Dinner - Reading a book
Young boy with a bowtie Reading a book - Lord Lyndhurst
Lord Lyndhurst - Little girl looking in the mirror
Little girl looking in a full length mirror - Splashing everyone
Splashing everyone - Egyptian bronze representing a flying man
In the Hall of the Gods, in the Egyptian Museum, there is a small bronze plaque of great antiquity, where we see in relief a man flying the two extended wings. It is true that we agree to consider this piece as a symbolic composition rather than as the representation of an aircraft. - Two little girls blowing bubbles in the garden
Two little girls blowing bubbles in the garden - I'm Reading
Little girl "reading" a newspaper - Hotchkiss Revolving Cannon for shell fire
- Elswick Improved six barrel Gatling Machine Gun
- Napoleon at Longwood
Napoleon at Longwood - Nordenfeldt Four Barrel 1 inch anti-torpedo boat machine gun
- 10 barrel Gatling Machine gun
- Flock of sheep in Australia, under a large Eucalyptus
- Sheep-shearing operations in Australia
- Samuel Rogers
Samuel Rogers - Ten Barrel Gatling Gun at low angle of depression for searching Ravines