The BBC reports on an innovative bye product of the sewage treatment business undergoing trials in Blackburn in England.
United Utilities is extracting glucose from toilet paper passing through the treatment plant, which they advise could be used as biofuel and other materials.
They also advise that the glucose will not enter the food chain.
Britain is currently commemorating 200 years of railways with a series of events having taken place this year, arising out of the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, which will occur on 27th September.
However, this was not the first railway in Britain/globally as many mineral tramways predated this. In addition, there was at least one passenger service that predated the S&DR, which was the Swansea & Mumbles Railway in Wales, also known as the Oystermouth Tramway.
The line was built to primarily carry limestone from Mumbles to Swansea, however, a horse drawn passenger service commenced in March 1807.
The BBC has an article going into the details.
The Smithsonian magazine site has an interesting article about a 3D rendering of 2 female skeletons found in a chert mine* in what is now modern day Czech Republic.
The bones of the skeletons were carbon dated to between 4050 and 4340 B.C.E., making them 6,000 years old.
* Chert was used to make stone tools and weapons
Thanks to a Youtube video, I became aware of this building in Oslo, Norway, which is student accommodation in a converted grain silo.
I was in Dresden over the bank holiday weekend, for the express purpose of visiting the Dresden Danglebahn, sorry, Schwebebahn.
Schwebebahn are suspension railway, of which there are a few in Germany. There is the more famous Wuppertal Schwebebahn, which I visited in 2023 and there is the Dresden Schwebebahn, which is, in some ways, more interesting, being a suspension funicular railway (i.e. there are two lines with the carriage ascending being raised by the weight of the carriage descending).
One aspect of the system caught my eye, more on the basis of ‘that would never work in Ireland’. Shortly after leaving the lower station, the line crosses over a road. With no warning signs or gates, the carriage crosses this road at a height that would enable an accident in the form of a large road vehicle running into it.
Were such a system in use in Ireland, I could see it being closed regularly due to vehicular strikes.
I was in Southampton over St. Patrick’s weekend and came across a memorial to the Titanic in the city.
Between 1920 and 1943, the County Donegal Railways Joint Committee had an enterprising general manager in the form of Henry Forbes, a man whose initiative probably kept the company in better nick than most narrow gauge railways and especially its northern neighbour, the Londonderry & Lough Swilly Railway.
One of the things he was known for was actively reusing life expired equipment for different purposes and were he around today, he would undoubtedly be impressed with this activity.
North Carolina, USA, suffered extensive damage during Hurricane Helene in September 2024, including the destruction of road bridges.
I came upon this news article which showcases an innovative use of withdrawn railway carriages (referred to as “railcars” in the article), in forming temporary road bridges, allowing for the quicker restoration of connections than would be the case if localities had to wait for a conventional bridge to be installed.
Railways brought forth all sorts of social change and innovation, in much the same way that the internet has over the last 25 years.
One such act of entrepeneurship in London saw the creation of the London Necropolis Company, which transported the deceased and their funeral cortege from London to a Brookwood cemetery, some 23 miles south west of London, by train. Primarily using the railway lines of other companies, they did have their own connections at both London and Brookwood.
Continuing in operation until 1941, the company’s former station building at 121 Westminster Bridge Road, London, remains in alternative use. This is the second London station of the company, coming into use in 1902.
The original station was nearby and removed to make way for expansion of the adjacent railway mainline, the Necropolis Railway Company making the London & South Western Railway pay heavily for their relocation.
The BBC reports on the unveiling of a blue plaque in Strabane, Co. Tyrone, to commemorate Alexander Orr, who, from the article “is best known for helping finance and arrange construction of New York’s subway system”.
The BBC have an article about the industries of Roman Britain which is interesting.