In 1962 William Hudson Shaw, a Qantas executive, knocked at the door of a cottage in the seaside village of Walmer, Kent. Shaw was in the grip of an obsession – a ‘labour of love’ to document the ‘true story’ of Australian aeronautical pioneer Lawrence Hargrave.[1] This quest had brought Shaw to the home of [...]
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Posted 01 May 2005
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articles and book chapters § history of australian science
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Also tagged: aircraft, flying, innovation, Jim Willis, kites, Lawrence Hargrave, memorials, models, Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, patents, Powerhouse Museum, Richard Baker, Sydney, Technological Museum, William Hudson Shaw, World War I
Ben Gascoigne, a young New Zealand physicist, stepped off the train at Canberra station. It was August 1941. A tall, good-looking man strode across the platform to greet him. ‘Woolley’ he said, offering his hand, ‘Do you play bridge?’. That evening Ben Gascoigne found himself seated at a bridge table in Woolley’s residence at the [...]
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Posted 03 January 1996
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drafts § history of australian science
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Also tagged: Army Inventions Directorate, astronomy, Ben Gascoigne, Cla Allen, Commonwealth Solar Observatory, Ernst Hartung, Francis Lord, instruments, Kurt Gottlieb, Laurence Hartnett, Mt Stromlo, optical munitions, optics, Richard Woolley, TH Laby
As a suburban teenager, one of the highlights of my school holidays was a trip into ‘town’. This expedition into the wilds of central Melbourne always included a wander around the Science Museum, then housed snugly with the National Museum and the State Library behind the imposing columns of 328 Swanston Street. Naturally I pressed [...]
