Punch's Essence of Parliament
Anon
Genre: | Regular Feature, Proceedings, Drollery |
Subjects: | Military Technology, Commerce, Observatories, Railways, Environmentalism, Telegraphy, Government, Measurement, Accidents |
Describes the fierce debate over the British export of warships to the Confederate forces in the American Civil War. Also notes the attempt of Edward A Seymour (12th Duke of Somerset) to protect the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 'against the railway people' which Punch thinks 'may be as well' since 'the slightest joggling of a telescope' might produce errors in the Nautical Almanack and thus cause the Great Eastern to strike a rock (137). Later, notes the House of Lords rejection of a bill to turn Finsbury Circus into a terminus for the Great Eastern Railway Company, and discussion of the 'Telegraph Bill' giving companies the right to 'hang wires [...] wherever they like' (138). |
© Science in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical Project, Universities of Leeds and Sheffield, 2005 - 2020
Printed from Science in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical: An Electronic Index, v. 4.0, The Digital Humanities Institute <http://www.sciper.org> [accessed ]