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showing 579 library results for '2019'

Brass from the past : brass made, used and traded from prehistoric times to 1800 /Vanda Morton "Brass from the Past is not only a history of the use and production of brass, but more broadly an insight into the journey of this important metal in the context of a changing and modernising world. The book follows the evolution of brass from its earliest forms around 2500 BC through to industrialised production in the eighteenth century. The story is told in the context of the people, economies, cultures, trade and technologies that have themselves defined the alloy and its spread around the world. It explores innovations, such as the distillation of zinc, that have improved the quality and ease of production. From national or religious priorities to exhaustion of raw material supplies, the themes from the past are echoed in our own world today. In the later centuries, the book shines a light on some of the more personal aspects of people, businesses and relationships that have influenced industry and its progress. Above all the book reflects the enthusiasm, not just of the author, but of all brass enthusiasts across the world. The search for information has involved scrambling down Bohemian ravines, stumbling over brass-works debris under trees, and studying pre-civil-war artefacts in Virginia. Academics and experts from across the world have provided information, from China to Qatar and the USA to the Czech Republic. Brass is a strong and attractive metal, which has been used to create items of great beauty and utility. It is hoped that the reader will come to value the qualities of this material which has become a passion for so many people around the world."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. txt
Sixty years of paddle steamer preservation : the paddle steamer preservation society. ''The Paddle Steamer Preservation Society was founded in 1959 at a time when this familiar and much-loved class of ship was in steep decline and faced possible extinction. Its aims were to encourage the retention and expansion of existing steamer services, to stimulate public awareness and, ultimately, to purchase and preserve at least one surviving example. Now, 60 years on, this fascinating book records the previously untold history of one of Britain?s oldest and most successful maritime preservation societies; one which has succeeded in saving not one but two jewels in the crown of the UK?s maritime heritage ? the iconic paddle steamers Waverley and Kingswear Castle. Drawing on the PSPS archives and the memories of those most closely involved, the book recalls the 1960s and 70s when members were able to sail on board or charter a wide variety of tugs, ferries and excursion ships; describes the purchase, restoration and subsequent careers of Waverley and Kingswear Castle; and examines the Society?s close links with other paddle steamers including Maid of the Loch and Medway Queen, and the motor vessel Balmoral. The extraordinary range of voluntary tasks carried out by members over the 60 years is celebrated, and there is a wealth of previously unpublished information to inform, surprise and amuse. Illustrated with over 200 rare, mostly colour, photographs, depicting a wonderful array of paddlers from the 1950s onwards, special moments in the careers of the Waverley and Kingswear Castle, plus significant events in the Society?s history, this book is essential reading for all paddle steamer enthusiasts. It will also appeal to all those with an interest in coastal passenger shipping, maritime preservation and Britain's nautical heritage. All proceeds from the book will go to PSPS funds and be used to help ensure that Waverley and Kingswear Castle continue to sail into the future.''--Povided by the publisher. 2019. • FOLIO • 1 copy available.
Outlaw Ocean : crime and survival in the last untamed frontier /Ian Urbina "The Outlaw Ocean is a riveting, adrenalin-fuelled tour of a vast, lawless and rampantly criminal world that few have ever seen: the high seas. There are few remaining frontiers on our planet. But perhaps the wildest, and least understood, are the world's oceans: too big to police, and under no clear international authority, these immense regions of treacherous water play host to the unbridled extremes of human behaviour and activity. Traffickers and smugglers, pirates and mercenaries, wreck thieves and repo men, vigilante conservationists and elusive poachers, seabound abortion-providers, clandestine oil-dumpers, shackled slaves and cast-adrift stowaways: drawing on five years of perilous and intrepid reporting, often hundreds of miles from shore, Urbina introduces us to the inhabitants of this hidden world and their risk-fraught lives. Through their stories of astonishing courage and brutality, survival and tragedy, he uncovers a globe-spanning network of crime and exploitation that emanates from the fishing, oil and shipping industries, and on which the world's economies rely. Both a gripping adventure story and a stunning exposâe, this unique work of reportage brings fully into view for the first time the disturbing reality of a floating world that connects us all, a place where anyone can do anything because no one is watching."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 343.3/.7
Sea people : in search of the ancient navigators of the Pacific /Christina Thompson. ''For more than a millennium, Polynesians have occupied the remotest islands in the Pacific Ocean, a vast triangle stretching from Hawaii to New Zealand to Easter Island. Until the arrival of European explorers they were the only people to have ever lived there. Both the most closely related and the most widely dispersed people in the world before the era of mass migration, Polynesians can trace their roots to a group of epic voyagers who ventured out into the unknown in one of the greatest adventures in human history. How did the earliest Polynesians find and colonise these far-flung islands? How did a people without writing or metal tools conquer the largest ocean in the world? This conundrum, which came to be known as the Problem of Polynesian Origins, emerged in the eighteenth century as one of the great geographical mysteries of mankind. For Christina Thompson, this mystery is personal: her Maori husband and their sons descend directly from these ancient navigators. In Sea People, Thompson explores the fascinating story of these ancestors, as well as those of the many sailors, linguists, archaeologists, folklorists, biologists and geographers who have puzzled over this history for three hundred years. A masterful mix of history, geography, anthropology, and the science of navigation, Sea People is a vivid tour of one of the most captivating regions in the world.''--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 996.00922
Cook-voyage collections of 'artificial curiosities' in Britain and Ireland, 1771-2015 / edited by Jeremy Coote. "Cook-Voyage Collections of 'Artificial Curiosities' in Britain and Ireland, 1771-2015 comprises detailed accounts of some of the most important ethnographic collections from Cook voyages, including those of the British Museum, the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the University of Oxford's Pitt Rivers Museum, the National Museum of Ireland (ex Trinity College Dublin), and National Museums Scotland. As well as providing a wealth of new information about what was collected on the voyages and how it was distributed - including illustrated accounts of recently identified objects at the British Museum, the Bowes Museum, and elsewhere - the volume also contains detailed accounts of what has been done with the collections from the time of their arrival in Britain and Ireland in the 1770s through to today. Contents: 300 pp., 106 black-and-white figures; Jeremy Coote, 'Introduction'; Jennifer Newell, 'Revisiting Cook at the British Museum'; Amiria Salmond, 'Artefacts of Encounter: The Cook-Voyage Collections in Cambridge'; Jeremy Coote, 'The Cook-Voyage Collections at Oxford, 1772-2015'; Rachel Hand, '"A Number of Highly Interesting Objects": The Cook-Voyage Collections of Trinity College Dublin'; Dale Idiens and Chantal Knowles, 'Cook-Voyage Collections in Edinburgh, 1775-2011'; Leslie Jessop, 'Cook-Voyage Collections in North-East England, with a Preliminary Report on a Group of Måaori Pendants Apparently Traceable to the First Voyage'; Adrienne L. Kaeppler, 'From the South Seas to the World (via London)'."--Provided by the publisher. 2016. • BOOK • 1 copy available.