Did the events we are going to tell you about really take place in history? It is hard to be sure. If they really did happen, then they have undoubtedly made their contribution to the collective formation of social culture and ethics. On the other side, if such facts did not take place in the past and these stories were only a side product of the historical process – just a fiction, then it would still be surely possible to find similar stories in the centuries-old social memory… The essence of things is always there, available for us, but it becomes truly ours in various forms only as our mind and spirit become ready for it…
On November evening on the eve of St. Martin's Day 1659 one of the most popular taverns in the central part of Delft, which is located in the South of the Netherlands, halfway between Rotterdam and the Hague, was crowded with citizens joyfully celebrating the upcoming holiday. Pale light of the full moon shone evenly through the weeping windows of the pub and created a bizarre contrast with the trembling light from candles and oil lamps inside the...
During the breaks between classes corridors of the University of Basel are traditionally filled with steady hubbub of ringing young voices. Of course, at any university of the world in these moments students like to communicate with each other, discuss lectures and evening plans, and make fun of their friends and teachers. But in the University of Basel (founded by the bull of the Pope Pius II on November 12, 1459) the intricate and mysterious...
It was very stuffy and gloomy in a rather modestly equipped office of the Director of physical and chemical laboratory of the Royal Institution and, in addition, the President of the Royal Society. The owner of the office was not in the best mood, and the situation in the room perfectly corresponded to his frame of mind: papers and accessories were scattered across the desk, on a floor under a pile of tobacco there was an abandoned smoking pipe, and the...
Beams of the morning summer sun flickered in the rustling foliage of a branchy maple majestically towering at the corner of Fifth Avenue and the Washington Square Park. Patches of light of numerous colours were dancing on the buildings of the most famous street of New York. This made the arty-crafty buildings of the most prestigious zone of the island of Manhattan look even more motley and extravagant…
Nikola Tesla was standing at a tree foot,...
An ordinary citizen of the small town of New Haven, Connecticut, in that fine October day of 1932 could reasonably think that the grand international conference on linguistics, organized in the Yale University, turned upside down not only the famous educational institution, but the entire country town as well. Of course, one may think that in the town, where the Yale is located, they have long ago got used to seeing regular...
- I kindly ask you not to mention the period of his cooperation with Nikola Tesla in the conversation with Mr Edison at all… Also, on no account doubt his decisive contribution to invention of the filament lamp, mass electrification and telephony… - hastily said Henry, the young secretary of the electrotechnical laboratory of Thomas Alva Edison in Menlo Park, addressing the smiling journalist of The New York Times...
- Karl, look at thy hands! They are black-and-blue all over: cuts and punctures are everywhere! - Helen inspected the husband uneasily and looked him in the eyes anxiously. – I beg you, please be as accurate as you can with these viruses and infections of yours. You keep on taking the samples of your own blood again and again and exploit your organism ruthlessly… But you’re not a guinea pig after all!
- Darling, you surprise me! You have been...
