Stories
- Article
Homes for the hives of industry
By building workers’ villages, industry titans demonstrated both philanthropy and control. Employees’ health improved, while rulebooks told them how to live ideal lives.
- Article
How slums make people sick
A newly gentrified corner of Bermondsey leaves little clue to its less salubrious history. But a few intrepid writers recorded the details of existence in one of London’s most squalid slums.
- Article
Would you like to buy a dinosaur?
Two remarkable letters and a drawing of a plesiosaur by Mary Anning offer a tantalising portal into the exciting world of fossil hunting and discovery of the 1800s.
- Book extract
The shape of thought
Santiago Ramón y Cajal’s description of the moment in 1887 when he saw a brain cell for the first time never fails to move neuroscientist Richard Wingate to tears. Here he captures that enduring sense of wonder.
Catalogue
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The workman's golden rule for drawing and working the five orders in architecture. Wherein Their Pedestals, Columns, Entablatures, Imposts, and Arches, are taken from the best Examples of the Ancients, and proportioned by equal Parts, in a more concise, accurate, and easy Manner, than has been done in any Language. For the Instruction Of Apprentices and Journeymen Masons, Bricklayers, Carpenters, Joiners, Carvers, Turners, Painters, Plaisterers, Cabinet-Makers, &c. (and such Masters) who are unacquainted with so much Architecture, as is absolutely necessary for them to understand, in their respective Professions. And Others, Who desire a Just Knowledge of the Fundamental Rules of that noble Art. By B. Langley, Architect.
Langley, Batty, 1696-1751.Date: [1750]- Books
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The art of fortification delineated: with rules for designing, drawing, washing, and colouring, in the most elegant taste, particular works and buildings, and their Plans, Elevations, Sections, Profiles, and Fronts, in Civil and Military Architecture: As likewise The intire Survey of a Place with its particular Charts, and the Description of Provinces, States, Kingdoms, Empires, &c. A Work absolutely necessary for the Gentleman, Officer, and Architect. Translated by J. Dinsdale. Adorn'd with twenty-three cuts, engrav'd by G. Bickham.
Buchotte, M., active 18th century.Date: M.DCC.XLVIII. [1748]- Books
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The builder's director, or bench-mate: being a pocket-treasury of the Grecian, Roman, and Gothic orders of architecture, Made easy to the meanest Capacity by near 500 Examples. Improved from the best Authors, Ancient and Modern, Of Pedestals, Bases, Shafts, Capitals, Columns, Architraves, Freezes, Brackets, Cornices, Arches, Imposts, Key-Stones, Trusses, Moldings of Raking Pediments, Frontispieces, Portico's, Arcades, Colonades, Chimney-Pieces, Fretts, Guilochi's, Groins, Weatherings, Moldings for Tabernacles, Frames, &c. Proportioned By Minutes and by Equal Parts. The like never before Published. Engraved on 184 copper plates. Wherein The Orders of Andrea Palladio are truly laid down, free from erroneous Measures. Written for the Use of Gentlemen delighting in True Architecture; and for Masters and Workmen to Draw from and Work after. By Batty Langley, Architect.
Langley, Batty, 1696-1751.Date: 1751- Books
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The description and use of an architectonick sector, and also of the architectonick sliding plates whereby scales of all sizes are most readily and universally obtain'd for fluting pillasters and columns, and Drawing the Geometrical Planes and Uprights, in any of the Five orders, according to the given Diameter of a Column. With several other scales, very Convenient and Ready for the Practice of the Ingenious Designers of Buildings. By T. Carwitham of Twickenham.
Carwitham, T. (Thomas).Date: 1723- Books
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Magnum in parvo: or, the marrow of architecture. Shewing how to draw a column with its base, capital, entablature, and pedestal; ... By William Halfpenny.
Halfpenny, William, -1755.Date: 1728