Author Archives: David Rooney - Council Member
Bomb found outside AHS meeting focused on bomb scares
The strangest thing happened last Thursday. To be honest, I thought it was a put-up job and so did many of the people with me. I thought James Nye had arranged it; everyone else thought I had. It was … Continue reading
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How did Arnold get to the Clockmakers’ Museum?
On 23 October, the Clockmakers’ Museum opened at the Science Museum. The new gallery is a treasure-trove of horological history, home to so many wonderful items it’s hard to know where to look next. Tucked away in one showcase … Continue reading
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The AHS 2015 Annual Meeting
We welcomed over 100 members and guests to a packed full house at the National Maritime Museum for our 2015 Annual Meeting last Saturday. The sun shone, the atmosphere was buzzing, and we were given a superb day of … Continue reading
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Changing times in Germany
We call it British summer time, but the first country to advance its clocks during the summer was Germany, which inaugurated a daylight-saving scheme in April 1916. A letter, written 100 years ago this week and found buried in … Continue reading
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The AHS Annual Meeting 2014
On Saturday 17 May, 120 AHS members and guests packed into the National Maritime Museum’s lecture theatre for our 2014 Annual Meeting. It was a sell-out crowd, and what a day we all enjoyed. Those who couldn’t make it … Continue reading
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British Pathé films on YouTube
In the latest in what seems to have become a short series on easy-access digital resources, I bring news that British Pathé has released its entire historical newsreel archive of 85,000 films onto YouTube, the video-sharing website. British Pathé … Continue reading
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100,000 more free images
When I got an email from the Wellcome Trust which began, ‘we have some very important news to announce’, it certainly got my attention. And they were right: it is very important news indeed, and I’m delighted to share … Continue reading
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A million free images
Just before Christmas, the British Library released over a million historical images from its printed collections onto the image-sharing website Flickr. The images are out of copyright and the library has made them available with a Creative Commons licence … Continue reading
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“A Visit to the Science and Art Museums”
In 1932, the Trinidadian historian and writer, Cyril Lionel Robert (C.L.R.) James, then aged 31, visited the Science Museum in London. “I hadn’t intended to spend much time there”, he wrote. “I was on my way to the Victoria … Continue reading
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Walking the ‘Willett Way’
Every spring, when we put our clocks and watches forward for British Summer Time, we do so with a hollow laugh. March weather is rarely summery! But last month many in the UK have seen prolonged sunshine, and in … Continue reading
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