Mystery of the Lyubov Orlova: Ghost ship full of cannibal rats ‘could be heading for British coast’ VIDEO MV Lyubov Orlova Walk Around - Before it became a ghostship.Ghost riders: An unmanned Russian ship full of rats is adrift in the Atlantic - so, just how many other vagrant vessels are out there?

Mystery of the Lyubov Orlova: Ghost ship full of cannibal rats ‘could be heading for British coast’

ADAM WITHNALL   Thursday 23 January 2014 / http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mystery-of-the-lyubov-orlova-ghost-ship-full-of-cannibal-rats-could-be-heading-for-british-coast-9080103.html

A ghost ship carrying nothing but disease-ridden rats could be about to make land on Britain’s shore, experts have warned.

The infamous Lyubov Orlova cruise liner has been drifting across the north Atlantic for the better part of a year, and salvage hunters say there is a strong chance it is heading this way.

Built in Yugoslavia in 1976, the unlucky vessel was abandoned in a Canadian harbour after its owners were embroiled in a debt scandal and failed to pay the crew.

The authorities in Newfoundland tried to sell the hull for scrap – valued at £600,000 – to the Dominican Republic, but cut their losses when it came loose in a storm on the way.

Sending the ship off into international waters, Transport Canada said it was satisfied the Lyubov Orlova “no longer poses a threat to the safety of [Canadian] offshore oil installations, their personnel or the marine environment”.

Experts say the ship, which is likely to still contain hundreds of rats that have been eating each other to survive, must still be out there somewhere because not all of its lifeboat emergency beacons have been set off.

Two signals were picked up on the 12 and 23 March last year, presumably from lifeboats which fell away and hit the water, showing the vessel had made it two-thirds of the way across the Atlantic and was heading east.

A week later, an unidentified object of about the right size was spotted on radar just off the coast of Scotland – but search planes never verified the find.

Pim de Rhoodes, a Belgian salvage hunter who is among a number looking for the Lyubov Orlova off the UK coastline, told The Sun: “She is floating around out there somewhere.

“There will be a lot of rats and they eat each other. If I get aboard I'll have to lace everywhere with poison.”

The head of the Irish coastguard, Chris Reynolds, said the ship was more likely than not to still pose a threat.

“There have been huge storms in recent months but it takes a lot to sink a Bessel as big as that,” he said. “We must stay vigilant.”

 

Adrift: The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency is keeping tabs on the empty MV Lyubov Orlova, but it may be lost at sea forever

Russian ghost cruise ship which vanished in the mists off Newfoundland two months ago and has now reappeared half way across the Atlantic

The MV Lyubov Orlova vanished en route to the Dominican Republic

Set sail from Canada bound for Caribbean where it was to be scrapped

Empty vessel has reappeared near the west coast of Ireland

Sighting of the ship reported by U.S. intelligence agency

By KERRY MCDERMOTT

PUBLISHED: 13:24 GMT, 22 February 2013 /

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2282777/Eerie-mystery-Russia-s-ghost-cruise-ship-vanished-mists-Caribbean-months-ago-reappeared-near-Ireland.html

 

All at sea: The ship was being towed to the Dominican Republic to be scrapped when it broke free

When this empty Russian cruise ship disappeared into the mist en route to the Caribbean, it was thought the abandoned vessel could be lost to the ocean forever.

But after spending almost two months adrift the ghostly liner is reported to have re-emerged near Ireland's west coast - thousands of miles from its intended destination.

The MV Lyubov Orlova - named after a famous Soviet actress - was being towed to the Dominican Republic to be scrapped when the cable pulling it snapped, leaving the Orlova to slip away as the crew on board the towing ship battled howling winds and 10ft waves to try in vain to reconnect the line.

The stranded liner, which had left Canadian shores on January 23, was later secured by the supply vessel Atlantic Hawk, but the ship drifted loose a second time, according to a report on the PhysOrg website

Maritime authorities in Canada could not pinpoint the location of the ship, which has no warning lights and a broken global positioning system.

But now a U.S. intelligence agency has reported that the Orlova was sighted 1,300 nautical miles from Ireland's west coast.

Canada's transport authority has said the abandoned ship is no longer its concern as the vessel has left the country's waters, with officials insisting the owner of the Orlova is responsible for its movements.

A document from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency states that the Lyubov Orlova was spotted at the co-ordinates 49-22.70N and 044-51.34W, or roughly 1,300 miles from the Irish coast.

The agency analyses satellite imagery and uses the results to create detailed maps for the U.S. government.

The empty liner is understood to be slowly drifting towards the European coastline.

Now home only to rats, the 1976-built ship once carried passengers on Antarctic cruises.

The ship was seized by authorities in Newfoundland in 2010 amid spiralling debts owed to charter firm Cruise North Expeditions after faults on board meant a scheduled cruise had to be cancelled.

She is understood to have been sold to Neptune International Shipping in February last year to be broken up.

Ghost riders: An unmanned Russian ship full of rats is adrift in the Atlantic - so, just how many other vagrant vessels are out there?

SAMUEL MUSTON /  Thursday 23 January 2014 / http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ghost-riders-an-unmanned-russian-ship-full-of-rats-is-adrift-in-the-atlantic--so-just-how-many-other-vagrant-vessels-are-out-there-9081509.html

In happier times, the MV Lyubov Orlova was a pleasure ship, a cruiser accustomed to taking well-heeled Russian holidaymakers on adventure tours around the Arctic. Today, that same 295ft ship is bobbing somewhere off the coast of Ireland, its only passengers a horde of disease-ridden rats.

The trouble for the ship began last February. Set for the breakers yard, it was being towed from Canada to the Dominican Republic by an American-owned tug. A day into the journey, however, the line between the vessels broke. The tug tried to reconnect it, but was hampered by 35mph winds. It withdrew and the Orlova was left crewless and adrift.

The Canadian authorities, worried that the ship might collide with its offshore oil wells, sent another, larger boat that caught hold of the stricken vessel. It did not take it to port, however. Instead, it towed the Orlova beyond Canadian waters and let it drift out to sea.

Its lonely journey has now run to 12 months and as many as 2,000 nautical miles. The ship, having crossed the Atlantic, is now supposedly on Ireland's doorstep. Unsurprisingly, the Irish Coast Guard is unenthusiastic about the situation. "We don't want rats from foreign ships coming on to Irish soil," the director of the Irish maritime agency told the Irish Independent.

There is not a great deal that can be done to prevent the rats from establishing a beachhead, however, given that the ship has no location-finding devices on board and no one knows where it is exactly. As Gemma Wilkie, a spokesman for the British Chamber of Shipping points out, the situation is about as uncertain as it gets. "Clearly, the coastguard involved was vigilant in carrying out a search in response to the radar results showing an object of similar size off the Scottish coast – although as yet there has been no confirmed sighting of the ship in UK waters," she says.

Although the maritime authorities do not welcome such floating hazards, they are relatively sanguine about them. As John Murray, the maritime director of the International Chamber of Shipping, says, the chance of a collision with another ship is low. "Shipping containers and adrift crafts don't creep up on ships," he says. "Navigation warnings from other vessels and radar usually ensure they are spotted from quite a distance away. Ships navigate around them."

Still, though, the notion of a phantom vessel, disconnected from the world, is discomfiting. The most famous example is, of course, the Mary Celeste, the 100ft brigantine which was found floating, crewless but well-provisioned, in the Atlantic Ocean in 1872. Alas, though, the "ghost ship" is not a phenomena confined to the history textbook.

In June last year, the 69ft Nina, heading to Sydney from New Zealand, was caught in a storm. A text sent by the crew soon after indicated that they had survived unscathed. A search of nearly 500,000 square nautical miles has failed to find the vessel, however. A grainy image, which some have suggested may be the ship, was taken off the coast of New Zealand. It has not been seen since. The family of those on board have financed a private rescue but to little avail.

A Japanese fishing boat, the Ryou-Un Maru, also spent 11 months at sea without a crew. After slipping its moorings in March 2011 during the Tohoku earthquake, it drifted into US waters in April 2012. As it had been assumed sunk by the Japanese authorities, its registration had been cancelled and legally it no longer had an owner. The Americans took a pragmatic approach and sunk it in the Gulf of Alaska.

In some cases, though, when a small ship is being towed for scrap, breaks loose and cannot be caught, it is simply not reported and becomes an unquantified hazard for the shipping industry. Pleasure-boat cruisers and cross-channel ferrygoers need not worry unduly then. As Murray makes clear, such incidents are rare: "It would be inaccurate to think that ships are navigating through a thicket of abandoned boats."

Phantom ships are certainly an eerie spectacle but the chances, for most of us, of ever being visited by a ghost ship are slim to none.

"Made a little walk around the MV Lyubov orlova on the way to Antarctica. At the moment it is drifting around the North Atlantic. Abandoned with only rats as passengers."

El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookshop in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

El Ateneo Grand Splendid is one of the best known bookshops in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Situated at 1860 Santa Fe Avenue in Barrio Norte, the building was designed by the architects Peró and Torres Armengol for the empresario Max Glucksman (1875-1946), and opened as a theatre called Teatro Gran Splendid in May 1919. The ecleticist building features ceiling frescoes painted by the Italian artist Nazareno Orlandi, and caryatids sculpted by Troiano Troiani (whose work also graces the cornice along the Palacio de la Legislatura de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires.

The theatre had a seating capacity of 1,050, and staged a variety of performances, including appearances by the tango artists Carlos Gardel, Francisco Canaro, Roberto Firpo and Ignacio Corsini. Glücksman started his own radio station in 1924 (Radio Splendid), which broadcast from the building where his recording company, Nacional Odeón, made some of the early recordings of the great tango singers of the day. In the late twenties the theatre was converted into a cinema, and in 1929 showed the first sound films presented in Argentina.

The ornate former theatre was leased by Grupo Ilhsa in February 2000. Ilhsa, through Tematika, owns El Ateneo and Yenny booksellers (totaling over 40 stores), as well as the El Ateneo publishing house. The building was subsequently renovated and converted into a book and music shop under the direction of the architect Fernando Manzone; the cinema seating was removed and in its place book shelves were installed. Following refurbishment works, the 2,000 m² (21,000 ft²) El Ateneo Grand Splendid became the group's flagship store, and in 2007 sold over 700,000 books; over a million people walk through its doors annually.

Chairs are provided throughout the building, including the still-intact theatre boxes, where customers can dip into books before purchase, and there is now a café on the back of what was once the stage. The ceiling, the ornate carvings, the crimson stage curtains, the auditorium lighting and many architectural details remain. Despite the changes, the building still retains the feeling of the grand theatre it once was. The Guardian, a prominent British periodical, named El Ateneo second in its 2008 list of the World's Ten Best Bookshops.

Since the restoration of the original bookstore, El Ateneo has built seven other locations (known under the same name) and are located in the city of Buenos Aires (Florida 340, Florida 629, Juramento, Gran Splendid) and also in the cities Córdoba, Rosario, and Tucumán.

DAKS

http://www.daks.com

HRH The Duke of Edinburgh visited the company’s Larkhall factory in Scotland in recognition of its role in exporting goods worldwide.

(Larkhall was built in 1948 to Simpson’s specifications and was opened by Harold Wilson who later became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The factory since closed in the early 2000s. DAKS was granted the Royal Warrant of Appointment by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh in 1956. Her Majesty The Queen and HRH The Prince of Wales granted the company with Royal Warrants in 1962 and 1982 respectively.

The company developed a House Check in 1976 by Johnny Mengers, the Group Managing Director of the time and last family chairman. Representing the most luxurious fabrics and richest colours of camel and vicuna, and the check has since become iconic for the brand.

DAKS is a heritage British luxury fashion house, founded in 1894 by Simeon Simpson. The S Simpson brand became famous for its high quality ready-to-wear tailoring and later the patented self-supporting trouser design known as the DAKS trouser in the 1930s - the first self-supporting trouser in the world when the use of braces and belts were more common. Also renowned for its quality tailoring and iconic house check, the brand continues to produce high quality clothing with three Royal Warrants, selling in over 30 countries in more than 2000 shops, with strong recognition in the Far East it has become the number one non-domestic label in Korea. The label currently shows its menswear collections in Milan and womenswear collections at London Fashion Week. Since 1991, the company was acquired and has become a subsidiary of Japan listed company SANKYO SEIKO CO., LTD.(TYO:8018)

In 1894 Simeon Simpson, aged 16, rented a room on Middlesex Street, East London, with the intention of setting up a business in bespoke tailoring, focused on high standard craftsmanship. Several innovations of technology at the time were being introduced with machinery capable of making buttonholes and electric powered saws to cut many layers of fabric at once – Simpson saw the potential for such equipment for producing garments in higher quantities while still upholding quality tailoring techniques, aiming to improve ready-to-wear standards as no male or female professionals considered ready-to-wear for suitable attire at the time. Simpson’s methods proved successful in speeding up the process and he set up several factories within London, which soon required expansion in its early years through popularity of the label.

Alexander Simpson, his second son, joined the business aged 15 in 1917, and by 1929 had planned and opened a larger factory in Stoke Newington where production could be centralised, this again had to be enlarged a few years later.

20th century – DAKS and Simpsons Piccadilly

With the continued growth of the company Alexander Simpson began to take more control of the business, and in 1935 DAKS gained further fame for the S Simpson brand as an innovation in the tailoring world of the first self-supporting trouser. He went about to invent a way to support his trousers that wouldn’t need braces as these interrupted his swing whilst playing golf and caused his shirt to become untucked. The DAKS trouser was invented – it had a channel within the waistband at the back wherein an elasticated strip was attached at the sides with tabs attached to one of two buttons for adjustment. On the inside of the waistband were sewn-on rubber pads that gripped the shirt and stopped it from becoming loose. This happened in a world where to buy a pair of trousers of high quality one would have to have a bespoke pair made by a tailor, and thus this new design allowed the ease of ready-to-wear trousers. Simpson was so sure of his new design that he had 100,000 pairs made before being introduced to the public at a high price of 30 shillings in a time when a whole bespoke suit would cost 50 shillings. The trousers were available in many colours and fabrics that weren’t generally associated with menswear. They became so popular that the trousers were incorporated into suits and soon after a DAKS womenswear line was released, using the patented waistband for skirting.

The inception of the DAKS name was aiming to be something short, snappy and eye catching and is an arrangement of initials from the two men involved in its development – ‘AS’ for Alexander Simpson and ‘DK’ for his business associate Dudley Beck (his surname’s last letter was used so as to make a better sounding name than using a B hence why the name is capitalised. The advertising agent involved for the promotion of these new trousers, Sir William Crawford of WS Crawford Ltd thought up the idea to market them as ‘Dad’s Slacks’ as it had connotations of reliability and comfort whilst also sounding similar to the name DAKS.

At the turn of the 21st century when the company was acquired by Japanese group Sankyo Seiko Co. Limited in 1991, the S Simpson name was dropped and DAKS became the new brand name.

The ease-of-wear of the trousers and how they allowed movement, as intended from Simpson’s invention, led to DAKS being popular in sporting wear – kitting tennis, golf, motor racing, and football players, and even for the British Olympic team in 1960. The quality of S Simpson tailoring was such that the company was commissioned by the British Government at the time of the Second World War to produce military uniforms for Officers in the Army, Navy, Royal Airforce and Women’s Services even despite the semi-destruction of the Stoke Newington factory due to bomb damage and loss of electricity[10] – with about seven million garments made for military services being produced.

After the war when DAKS clothes were announced to start selling to the public again queues of people would form down Piccadilly, to which Simpson tailors would measure them in line and present suitable pairs of trousers to them when they got into the Simpsons of Piccadilly store.

Simeon Simpson’s son Alexander Simpson, who was then owner of the company, decided he wanted to find a ‘window’ for Simpson clothes in the heart of London. He founded Simpsons of Piccadilly when the Geological Museum had closed and the site to be auctioned. The new building was designed by architect Joseph Emberton as a new and revolutionary retail establishment, the shop front windows exhibited the first curved glass display in Great Britain and the largest in the world at the time, these were designed so that no reflection would be cast to obscure the displays inside. The outstanding feature of the shop’s interior was the travertine staircase that ran up through the centre of the store lit by a continuous window up the height of the building. The current lighting structure suspended through the staircase centre is the original from the 1930s as the building has since become a listed building.

The store opened in April 1936 by Sir Malcolm Campbell, the world famous motor-racing driver. and was famed for its visual merchandising and window displays by László Moholy-Nagy, a former director from the Bauhaus school. Opening the store was a highlight of Alexander Simpson’s vision, he died the following year of leukaemia aged just 34.

Simpsons continued to trade successfully in the Simpsons Piccadilly building for several decades more, helping officers and civilians during World War II, and in later years branched out to sell other clothing by designer labels such as Armani and Christian Dior. Since 1999 Simpsons stopped trading at the Piccadilly store and moved the renamed DAKS to a new flagship store and London offices to Old Bond Street, whilst moving to another new store on Jermyn Street which was recently refurbished in 2012 to focus on selling classic menswear. The original store was sold to bookseller Waterstone’s and now serves as their flagship store.

The new flagship store on Old Bond Street

 To accompany the opening of the new flagship store on Old Bond Street in 2000 DAKS collaborated with Philip Treacy to commission a hat featuring the Double D logo, they also collaborated with Jimmy Choo to create a shoe collection featuring the house check. In 2005, Sankyo-Seiko (for ladies) and Kashiyama (for men's) was the DAKS ready-to-wear license holder in Japan with retail value of €190 million.Bruce Montgomery designed the Menswear since 1996 and showed the Menswear Luxury range on the Milan catwalk for five seasons until 2009. In 2007, British designer Giles Deacon was appointed Creative Director for the brand, showing for three womenswear seasons at London Fashion Week. Since then, Filippo Scuffi joined DAKS as Creative Director in 2008 and is currently in charge of showing catwalk presentations at Milan Men’s Fashion Week. Sheila McKain-Waid acted as Head of Design and shows the womenswear collections for the brand at London Fashion Week. For the Spring Summer 2013 catwalk collection, DAKS collaborated with renowned fashion illustrator David Downton, a style in keeping with its advertising history. The label aims to reinvigorate the values of its heritage while providing a modern aesthetic.

DAKS 120TH ANNIVERSARY starring paul and leah weller

Daks Men Spring/Summer 2014 Show | Milan Men's Fashion Week MFW | FashionTV

Buckingham Palace reshuffles key personnel in 'first step to bringing Prince Charles to the throne'/ Daily Mail.

Preparing: Prince Charles, pictured with Camilla, is set to take control of the Royal Family media operation within weeks

 Sally Osman, left, will run a combines press office for both the Queen and Prince Charles in a move masterminded by the Queen’s private secretary, Sir Christopher Geidt, right.

Buckingham Palace reshuffles key personnel in 'first step to bringing Prince Charles to the throne'

MoS reveals Charles's aide will be media chief for entire Royal Household

Hugely significant move is 'transition to a change of reign'

By ELIZABETH SANDERSON AND KATIE NICHOLL

PUBLISHED:  18 January 2014 / http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2541862/Key-Palace-reshuffle-step-bringing-Prince-Charles-throne.html

It was an announcement that went largely unnoticed amid the obligatory national debate about the  New Year’s Honours List.

There, among the gongs, was a second knighthood for the Queen’s private secretary, Sir Christopher Geidt, awarded, according to the citation, for ‘a new approach to constitutional matters... [and] the preparation for the transition to a change of reign’.

It was a surprising admission. It is widely acknowledged the Queen will never abdicate and the succession is rarely, if ever, talked about in official terms.

But behind the Palace gates, preparations are being made.

And in the clearest sign yet that Her Majesty is getting ready to pass the mantle on to her son, The Mail on Sunday can reveal that the Prince of Wales is preparing to take control of the Royal Family media operation within weeks.

For the past 20 years, the Queen and her heir have operated separate press offices from Buckingham Palace and Clarence House respectively.

They will now be run from one office at the Palace, with Prince Charles’s head of communications, Sally Osman, at the helm. 

There is little doubting the significance of the move, masterminded by Sir Christopher, or the ways in which it will increase Prince Charles’s influence.

The merging of the two offices clearly represents an important change in the way the Monarchy will be run.

One Royal confidante said: ‘This is the first step to bringing Charles to the throne.’

 Royal historian and biographer Hugo Vickers said: ‘It is quite normal for the private secretary to be given two knighthoods, one from the Queen, one from  the Government.

‘Sir Christopher’s second knighthood was from the Government but to talk about transition in a citation is somewhat insensitive.

‘It seems very sensible to run the different offices under one umbrella, mainly because I don’t believe the Queen is in need of an all-spinning press secretary.

Since the Diamond Jubilee she is in  an unassailable position. She’s nearly 88 and revered. At last people have got the point about her now.’

But another source said that Charles feels the need to consolidate his position.

‘He’s worried about being usurped by William and he’s conscious  of how the public  will react to Camilla when he becomes King.’

Hence the appointment of Ms Osman who, it is thought, will have the title director of communications for the Royal household plus Prince Charles.

Her remit will include the Queen, Prince Philip, The Prince of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry. Ms Osman, 54, began working for Prince Charles last summer. S

he was director of communications at the BBC for eight years before going to work for Sony Europe.

The final details are still being signed off, but it is believed James Roscoe, acting press secretary to the Queen, will be made press secretary to Her Majesty as well as joint head of news with Ed Perkins, who will retain his role as press secretary to the Cambridges and Prince Harry. 

Kristina Kyriacou, one of the most influential members of Charles’s court, will retain her role as assistant communications secretary, charities and marketing.

Plans for the transformation began last autumn after the Queen’s then press secretary, Ailsa Anderson, resigned.

She is now director of communications for the Archbishop of Canterbury.

A former member of the Prince’s staff said: ‘Ailsa’s departure was very much the catalyst for change.’

The Queen is said to be fully supportive of the step-change, which was discussed with the whole family, not just the ‘core’ figures.

Charles is now the longest-serving heir apparent in British history, and although the Queen is still active and engaged they all agreed that plans should be made for a smooth transition.

One Royal insider said: ‘There is a feeling that Charles has been given an inch and taken a mile. Having said that, this would never have been done without the full co-operation of the Queen and Sir Christopher Geidt.’

Prince Charles was said to have  a difficult relationship with the Queen’s previous private secretary, Sir Robin (now Lord) Janvrin. By contrast, he has a good rapport with former Scots Guard Sir Christopher, 52, who took over the post in 2007.

Like Charles, Sir Christopher is firmly wedded to the idea of a slimmed-down Monarchy, something that is believed to have upset Princes Andrew and Edward.

Historian and author Brian Hoey said: ‘Following Prince Charles’s attendance at the Commonwealth summit, where he was supported by Sir Christopher, this is yet another example of him setting out his stall in preparation for his  future inheritance.’

Remembering the restoration of Cragside, the world's first hydroelectric house.

 Cragside is a country house in the civil parish of Cartington in Northumberland, England. It was the first house in the world to be lit using hydroelectric power. Built into a rocky hillside above a 4 km² forest garden, it was the country home of Lord Armstrong and has been in the care of the National Trust since 1977.

Cragside, named after Cragend Hill above the house, was built in 1863 as a modest two-storey country lodge, but was subsequently extended to designs by Richard Norman Shaw, transforming it into an elaborate mansion in the Free Tudor style. At one point, the building included an astronomical observatory and a scientific laboratory.

Electricity

 In 1868, a hydraulic engine was installed, with water being used to power labour-saving machines such as laundry equipment, a rotisserie and a hydraulic lift. In 1870, water from one of the estate's lakes was used to drive a Siemens dynamo in what was the world's first hydroelectric power station. The resultant electricity was used to power an arc lamp installed in the Gallery in 1878. The arc lamp was replaced in 1880 by Joseph Swan's incandescent lamps in what Swan considered 'the first proper installation' of electric lighting.

The generators, which also provided power for the farm buildings on the estate, were constantly extended and improved to match the increasing electrical demand in the house.

The Grade I listed[1] house is surrounded by one of Europe's largest rock gardens, a large number of rhododendrons and a large collection of mostly coniferous trees.

The documentary series Abroad Again in Britain by Jonathan Meades focused on Cragside in episode 2 (2005).

In 2007, Cragside reopened after undergoing "total refurbishment."

Cragside was featured during the 21 August 2011 episode of BBC One's Britain's Hidden Heritage programme.

 The Observer, Sunday 1 April 2007 / Restored: the world's first hydroelectric house

Vanessa Thorpe / http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/apr/01/energy.theobserversuknewspages

William Armstrong had his most brilliant ideas while standing thigh-deep in water. The maverick Victorian inventor, who created the mechanisms that raise Tower Bridge in London and open Newcastle's Swing Bridge, was also a passionate fisherman and came up with the idea of hydraulic power at the age of 24 while trout fishing in the Dee in Dentdale.

This weekend, the largest monument to Armstrong's ingenuity is open to the public again after total refurbishment. Cragside, in Northumberland, was home to Armstrong for 30 years and was the first house in the world to be fitted with hydroelectricity. The incredible gadgets, from the rotating spit in the kitchen to the hydraulic lift, were all powered by a vast water pressure system housed in the basement.

Dubbed the 'palace of a modern magician' by one contemporary visitor, it boasted an early dishwasher, a Turkish bath and hot and cold running water. In completely refitting and rewiring the house for the first time, The National Trust had to commission 500 carbon-filament lamps.

In later life Armstrong described his moment of illumination that day in the river: 'I was lounging idly about, watching an old water-mill, when it occurred to me what a small part of the power of the water was used in driving the wheel, and then I thought how great would be the force of even a small quantity of water if its energy were only concentrated in one column.'

Armstrong became one of the richest men in Europe by inventing and manufacturing the Armstrong gun, a cannon. The son of a corn merchant from Newcastle upon Tyne, he founded one of the world's leading engineering firms, WG Armstrong, which sold hydraulic cranes around the world. He employed more than 20,000 men at his works on the Tyne. In 1869 he expanded the house he had built six years earlier on a country estate in Rothbury. The architect Richard Norman Shaw built Cragside by transforming a modest sporting lodge and Armstrong installed a hydroelectric generator in 1878, having dammed a nearby river to create a lake. He wanted to create a cutting-edge home to show important guests, including the King of Siam, the Shah of Persia, an Afghan prince, and the future King Edward VII and his wife Alexandra.

Armstrong eventually presented the patents for his guns to the British government and was knighted in gratitude in 1859. Then in 1887, Queen Victoria's jubilee year, he became the first engineer to be raised to the peerage, as Baron Armstrong of Cragside. The founder of Newcastle University, he died at Cragside at the age of 90 in 1900.

· Cragside, Rothbury, Northumberland (www.nationaltrust.org.uk))