John Wade (2) (1945–)

Short and interesting chapters on Victorian innovations, though I was expecting more surprises and eccentricity in the selection of topics. There were a few things that captured my attention, like the enormous globe housed in its very own building, and which people could go inside to explore a detailed model of the Earth's geography, rather than standing on the outside and only seeing half the sphere at one time. That was fascinating!

But many of the other chapters were about innovations that are well established and not quite as likely to capture the imagination. Not that they're not worth writing about. It's just that with a subtitle that promises "weird and wonderful," it didn't always go there.… (més)