Although best known for his proof that comets follow regular orbits around the sun, Edmond Halley was also an inventor. Halley invented and tested one of the world’s first submersible. In this diving bell as many as four men could descend beneath the surface of water and spend hours observing life on the bottom or …
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When reenacting or acting as a historical interpreter, its good to have a few historical dates and stories to share. This series will publish a few. June 26, 1767 The Revenue Act — placed taxes on glass, lead, painters’ colors, and paper. It gave customs officials broad authority to enforce the taxes and punish smugglers …
David Rittenhouse was a highly respected scientist during the formative years of the United States. Anyone who has attempted to survey knows that straight lines are much easier than curves. Rittenhouse ran the survey that established the circular boundary between Pennsylvania and Delaware, a circle of 12-mile radius, with Newcastle as its center. He later …
Washington’s Crossing — July 4th CelebrationWashington’s Crossing Historic Park July 4, 2023 10:00pm – 4:00 pm Event Announcement: https://wordpress.com/post/colonialbrewer.com/54489 Volunteer Sign-up: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/volunteering/7ff92cbb-be49-4a78-817c-8063ef7b46b5 In the market we will gather in the Historic Village and sell our wares, soldiers will drill 18th-century military tactics, the park’s fife and drum corps will perform, and I will be running my …
Well, sometimes you just have to let someone know what you think and polite words don’t work. We’ve all been at events when we wanted to let loose on one or more of the “brilliant” attendees who “know everything.” Well, its just a matter of speaking the right language (Ik mompel gewoon in het Nederlands …
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Washington’s Crossing — July 4th CelebrationWashington’s Crossing Historic Park July 4, 2023 10:00pm – 4:00 pm Come join us as the townspeople around McConkey’s Ferry as we gather to celebrate Independence Day. At Washington Crossing Historic Park, you can watch living historians demonstrate their crafts and see a military encampment. There will be a reading …
We first met Andrew Ellicott in my earlier article on Benjamin Banneker. A commissioned officer in the Maryland militia, by the time Ellicott was given the job of surveying Washington DC, he was a highly accomplished surveyor having gained experience by working on the survey which extended the Mason-Dixon line westward to its originally intended terminus …
Typically, when we think of pirates, images of Long John Silver with an eye patch and a parrot come to mind. This is, of course, fiction. There were some pirates in the Caribbean (although most of them were Jews displaced by the Spanish Reconquista) but by far most pirates hailed from ports in Asia and …
The Reinheitsgebot, literally “purity order”, is a series of regulations limiting the ingredients in that can be used to make beer and how beer can be sold in the states of the former Holy Roman Empire. The best-known version of the law was adopted in Bavaria in 1516. According to the 1516 Bavarian law, the …
Huzzah for backward thinkers! Now that Brexit is complete, great morons like Boris Johnson (Britian’s Trump) want to bring back Imperial metrics and where do they want to start, well your beer glass. Beginning in 1698 British pint glasses intended for measuring and serving beer were marked with a crown stamp as a declaration that …
Michael Carver -- Historical Interpreter/Reenactor 