According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Australia’s fertility rate fell to 1.5 babies per woman in 2023. The ABS have an informative graph going back to 1935. Then it was 2.115, just enough to see the population edging up. It gradually rose to 3.548 in 1961 before falling to 2.148 in 1975. Since…

Here is H.G. Wells explaining in his book Anticipations (1901) why the steam engine rather than windmills became preferred for pumping water from low-lying coal mines in England: “Wind was extremely inconvenient for the purpose of pumping, because in these latitudes it is inconstant: it was costly, too, because at any time the labourers might…