4 more stupidly cool research facilities

the joint european torus (jet) is the largest nuclear fusion experimental reactor on earth and is also a unique facility for researching fusion technology. jet is an example of a ‘tokamak’, a machine which produces an extremely strong, doughnut shaped magnetic field in order to confine a plasma. in jet’s case these plasmas can reach temperatures in excess of 100 million degrees centigrade…

israel’s bizarre uphill subway system

maybe i live a sheltered life but i’ve never been more surprised by a public transport system than when i came across this little beauty. it’s called the carmelit, it runs underground in the citry of haifa, israel and it’s the country’s only subway system. due to the city being located on the side of mount carmel, the entire single track ‘funicular’ system has been designed to accomodate the incline, hence the strange stepped stations and diagonal trains.

the forgotten sound mirrors

from 1915 onwards these huge eerie concrete structures started popping up along the uk coast, all built with one purpose: to provide the military with an early warning system in relation to incoming aircraft. their construction was pretty much limited to the uk and arrived just before radar technology as we know it became widespread.

3 frightening flagpoles

is it just me or are these immense structures slightly scary?
the 3 largest flagpoles on earth…
gijeong-dong flagpole, north korea
in the 80s, the south koreans built a huge 328ft tall flagpole in daeseong-dong, an area extremely close to the north korean border. the north koreans then proceeded to build their own larger version about a mile [...]

incredible engineering: the maeslant storm surge barrier

the maeslant barrier (maeslantkering), a huge storm surge barrier at the mouth of the port of rotterdam in the netherlands, is the largest hydraulic engineering structure on earth and, according to hard-fact bible wikipedia, ‘the largest moving structure on earth’. it was opened in 1997 as the final part of the delta works, an enormous [...]

12 stunning lighthouses

i’ve been meaning to finish this for quite some time but the huge amount of lighthouses on earth made it a slow process. the examples below have been chosen for different reasons (e.g. design, location, history) and, as always, they’re what i consider to be the best in the world. if you disagree, let me [...]

hardcore boat-lifts

regular canal locks are for wimps.
the beasts below are needed when a simple solution just won’t do and are relatively unknown examples of engineering brilliance that are still being used on our waterways on a daily basis.
in no particular order…
1. saint-louis-arzviller inclined plane, moselle, france

the saint-louis-arzviller inclined plane is used to bridge a height change [...]