The Making of a “Great War”, Pt. II – The “British Technique”[1] of Propaganda

On the 5th of July 1732 Thomas Gordon was indicted for robbing one John Cooper, of Number 11, Eagle-court, the Strand. The two men had taken a walk together in Chelsea Fields 'to a secret place', and Gordon had threatened Cooper with a knife unless he gave up all his clothing and his jewellery and changed it with Gordon's. At first, it appeared to be one of those robberies that happens late at night on Clapham Common, between two previously unacquainted gentlemen. The vast majority of such crimes are never even reported let alone prosecuted even in these 'enlightened' times, so the fact that John Cooper brought this to trial in 1732 is quite astonishing. The trial that followed was to be even more incredible.

Part 1: Hedy Lamarr, Engineer

Science is too important not to be a part of popular culture.

- Brian Cox

In Georgian London, fake coin was a problem. There were no banks willing to take in the fake brass shillings you had accidentally picked up in your change at the market. The problem central to counterfeit money, and interference with the currency itself was to do with bullion, and the growth in international trade. England minted coins in both gold and sterling standard silver. These coins had a set value, but they stayed in circulation for a long time, and over the decades, the bullion prices changed, so the actual value of the metal was either lower, or higher than the face value of the coin. If the value was lower, it was cheaper to 'buy' coins and make them into silver dishes, spoons and forks and so on, than it was to buy the bullion to make them.

Whaling: however you look at it, modern sensibilities tell us it's a bad thing. In the 18thC, smaller populations and lack of technology meant it was only possible to hunt something to extinction within a restricted habitat, like the British wolf and the Dodo. The vastness of the oceans equated to an endless bounty in the 18thC consciousness, as well as an otherness that could not be conquered. Whaling was regarded as a perilous occupation, and whatever we now think about the industry, it takes a hard heart not to admire the courage of the men who pursued it, often at the cost of their own lives.