Most of us are comfortable with pilotage. This is the practice of navigating from one landmark to the next in a sequence to find your way to your destination. In fact, most of us have given directions like, “go down Main Street to the third light and turn left, then …” But what do you …
Author Archives: Michael Carver
Edmund Halley, the famous astronomer. also designed the world’s first diving bell
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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Historical Tidbits — The Revenue Act
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 …
Surveyor, astronomer, calculator, clock builder and instrument maker David Rittenhouse was a man of great and varied talents
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 …
Want to be a Brewer for the Day?
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 …
Swearing and Profanity in 18th Century England
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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UPCOMING EVENT
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 …
Andrew Ellicott finished the work of Mason and Dixon before becoming the Chief Surveyor of Washington DC
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 …
Barbary Pirates
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 …
Reinheitsgebot
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 …
Michael Carver -- Historical Interpreter/Reenactor 