Dr Anton Howes
@antonhowes
Invention historian. I write *Age of Invention*, an email newsletter on the history of invention
My latest post! In researching the history of coal, I stumbled across a puzzle that has baffled people for over four hundred years: why the coal briquette never became widely adopted in England. Now, finally, there is an answer! ageofinvention.xyz/p/age-of-inven…
My potentially unpopular opinion? I think this trend has been disastrous for the overall quality of economic history.
4/ 🧪 Methods: From Time Series to Causal Inference In 2000, 70% of papers used mostly descriptive time-series analysis. Now? It's <40%. Econometrics (IVs, DiD, panel models) are dominant. Machine learning & text mining are on the rise. Qualitative work? Nearly extinct.
Over the past month, in writing a section of my book, I've become absolutely fascinated by the fact that for hundreds of years after the Black Death, the government imposed wage caps! Here are the caps for London in 1655:
We wanted to take our time to analyse the changes the Government has made to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. Here's my take: The Bill remains a step in the right direction towards getting Britain building again. Replacing the broken status quo of site by site protections…
This is indeed an interesting idea and something that @V_Delabastita @GibbsSpike and I looked at. An issue is that the enforcement of the Statute and Ordinance of Labour was inconsistent and the survival of documents is patchy.
Here's a fun study for an economic historian to do: Right after the Black Death, in 1351 workers' wages were capped by law. Those who exceeded the cap were fined. The collected fines were then set against each community's tax obligations, giving us all sorts of juicy records.…
Here's a fun study for an economic historian to do: Right after the Black Death, in 1351 workers' wages were capped by law. Those who exceeded the cap were fined. The collected fines were then set against each community's tax obligations, giving us all sorts of juicy records.…
Is there any middle ground where cyclists have to dismount when passing these floating bus stops, clearly signposted and with a suitably punitive fine if they do not? The situation on the video seems crazy.
The pause on floating bus stops by @LordPeterHendy @simonlightwood is for shared use bus borders as shown in the video, where passengers board & alight the bus directly from & into the cycle lane. This pause needs to be made permanent, along with all types of floating bus stops.
There's a journal that really shows how it ought to be done: the Agricultural History Review. Shockingly, all of its back issues are just freely available online!
The British rebellion begins, as the citizenry demands access to the durable household goods of the mid-twentieth century
36 degrees indoors! Have a look at the temperatures our supporters recorded at home with no air con (post a pic in the replies if you can beat them!) Only 5% of British households have air con due to anti-air con rules. It's time to change them and COOL BRITANNIA.
Diplomatic history would work with something related to diplomacy, history of science with actual scientists, history of religion with actual clerics, etc. The core idea being that seeing how a given profession is done in practice will help provide practical imagination
There’s a strong argument for ending the charity business rate exemption as part of a wider reform of business rates. It distorts competition and damages the high street.
Another fascinating and forensic post from Anton.
My latest post! In researching the history of coal, I stumbled across a puzzle that has baffled people for over four hundred years: why the coal briquette never became widely adopted in England. Now, finally, there is an answer! ageofinvention.xyz/p/age-of-inven…
In case you missed it last week:
My latest post! In researching the history of coal, I stumbled across a puzzle that has baffled people for over four hundred years: why the coal briquette never became widely adopted in England. Now, finally, there is an answer! ageofinvention.xyz/p/age-of-inven…
Three cheers for major accomplishments of civil engineering, which go mostly unnoticed because this neighborhood doesn’t *feel* like it is in the Meguro River floodplain.
If reports are true this will lock *everyone* - not just Scotland - into higher bills for years as we will spend billions switching off wind farms when it’s windy (rather than allowing them to sell power dirt cheap locally). A mistake. theguardian.com/business/2025/…