“When he [Michael Faraday] demonstrated his apparatus [dynamo] to His Majesty's Government, the prime minister, Sir Robert Peel, asked, "Of what use is it?" To which Faraday replied: "I don't know, but I'll wager that some day you'll tax it."”
AR
“To put it bluntly, it was seen as morally permissible to bomb the natives in the hills of Africa, but reprehensible to use those same airplanes to bomb the citizens of Berlin or London.”
A Race on the Edge of Time
“Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, Commander-in-Chief, RAF Fighter Command was asked if their only hope was to pray to God and trust in radar. He replied, "At this stage I would rather pray for radar...”
A Race on the Edge of Time
“England was a the height of her powers as an empire; the virtually instantaneous transmission of information to colonies around the world without the expense and upkeep of laying suboceanic and interc...”
A Race on the Edge of Time
“It was obvious that he couldn't ask any pilot to put his aircraft intentionally into a spin in order to test his theory, so he decided that he should learn to fly. The Superintendent turned down his r...”
A Race on the Edge of Time
“The ground staff, who didn't quite trust him because of his Germanic accent, kept an unofficial but firm limit on the amount of fuel they would put into his plane, never enough to allow him to fly acr...”
A Race on the Edge of Time