Month: June 2022

Law

Small Claims

In 1973, when the Small Claims track for legal proceedings was introduced in the UK, it was suitable for debts up to […]

In 1973, when the Small Claims track for legal proceedings was introduced in the UK, it was suitable for debts up to £75. Over the next 40 years, in England and Wales, that gradually increased to £10,000 and currently £15,000 is being suggested. In Northern Ireland the maximum is £3,000 and in Scotland £5,000. These upper limits are not inflexible, but are guidelines.

A ‘small claim’ is the last resort for an individual or a business seeking to receive payment that is demonstrably overdue from another individual or business, even after several written reminders, the last of which should clearly warn of legal action if no money is forthcoming. Solicitors are not usually employed as the procedure is very simple and their costs cannot be reclaimed anyway. The application form can be completed online in most cases.

The Small Claims track is dealt with at the County Court and is designed to save everyone time and expense. Nevertheless, potential claimants are advised to use it as a final recourse. Where a claim is disputed, the free mediation assistance provided by HM Courts & Tribunal Service can also help to reduce the Court’s workload by bringing both sides to an out-of-court settlement.

(Image: Image Money at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC 2.0)

29/06/2022
3 min
2 years
202 words

Inventions

The fire extinguisher

After the Great Fire of London in 1666 there was a gradual move towards organised firefighting (initially by insurance companies, who instructed […]

After the Great Fire of London in 1666 there was a gradual move towards organised firefighting (initially by insurance companies, who instructed their firemen to drench clients’ buildings only!). It took another 150 years for the concept to emerge of keeping purpose-made fire extinguishers to hand, other than buckets. Captain George William Manby (1765-1854) from Norfolk witnessed a house fire in Edinburgh and resolved to create an appliance that would stop a small blaze in its tracks.

He devised a portable copper cylinder holding 3 gallons of potassium carbonate solution pressurised to 145psi. Modern fire extinguishers are similar in appearance but use foam, powder, CO₂ or water, to suit particular potential dangers, e.g. electrical. In 2010, Britannia Fire Ltd., also in Norfolk, invented the first maintenance-free fire extinguisher, the P50.

Captain Manby’s fire-fighting device had already saved hundreds of lives before he died and yet he also had another life-saving innovation to his name ~ ‘Manby’s Mortar’, first used in 1808. It is said that Manby watched the tragic drowning of everyone on board a ship wrecked on the Norfolk coast in 1807. In frustration he then invented an ‘apparatus’ ~ a stone block which catapulted a secured rope over a ship’s hull to provide the means of escape.

(Image of Capt. Manby [cropped]: Wellcome Collection at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0)

17/06/2022
3 min
3 years
217 words

History

The Venerable Bede

Bede (672/3-735) was a monk who spent his life in Northumbria, mostly in St. Paul’s Monastery in Jarrow. He is the earliest […]

Bede (672/3-735) was a monk who spent his life in Northumbria, mostly in St. Paul’s Monastery in Jarrow. He is the earliest historian of England of whom we are aware. As a dedicated scholar and teacher, he wrote prodigiously, with perhaps 60 books to his name. These covered a range of topics but the most famous is his 5-volume ‘Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum’ (HEGA) which records the country’s conversion to Christianity, thereby including many interesting supplementary details.

Bede gathered his information from the Monastery’s library of 300 books (huge for that time) and from witness accounts, traditional legends, Vatican documents and correspondence with other monasteries. Fortunately, HEGA avoided oblivion during later Viking/Danish occupation as it was copied for distribution all over Europe. It was translated into Old English 150-200 years later and finally put into print some 750 years after Bede’s time.

Through HEGA, Bede promoted the use of the ‘Anno Domini’ (A.D.) counting system for calendar years. His study of timelines included verifying the annual calculation of the date of Easter. In 836 the Church declared him ‘Venerable‘ and in 1899 he was made a saint and a ‘Doctor of the Church’. His industry was thus rewarded posthumously and his legacy is part of British culture.

(Image [cropped]: Lawrence OP at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

05/06/2022
3 min
3 years
217 words

Quoting Neil Oliver...

I love Britain more than anywhere else in the world. With all my heart I declare that those of us born here, or who have made a home here by choice, are the luckiest, most blessed of all people. I am British. I will always be British.