Rare map found under floorboards put on show
From our archives 5 years ago
A 300-YEAR-OLD map of the world, found during building work on a house in Aberdeenshire, has gone on public display for the first time. The rare 17th-century wall map was no more than a bundle of rags when it was discovered stuffed under a floorboard during renovations on a house that was once part of the Castle Fraser estate near Kemnay. Saved from the skip, the disintegrating antique was later identified as one of only three known similar works by the Dutch engraver Gerald Valck, produced in Amsterdam in 1690. Now, after complex restoration work over several months, it has gone on show at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh.
10 years ago
TWO more Scottish football clubs could be put up for sale, after the city of Dundee became the latest to get its own Monopoly board. Dundee was chosen over 10 other towns and cities, including Perth and Stirling, to be awarded its own edition of the best-selling board game. The public will vote for landmarks to feature, including the most prestigious square occupied by Mayfair in the original London version and the least valuable, Old Kent Road, position. However, officials confirmed the city’s two senior football clubs, Dundee and Dundee United, will vie for positions on the board.
25 years ago
A ROBOT brain surgeon that will be trained to accompany the first manned expedition to Mars was unveiled at an exhibition in Glasgow yesterday. Dr Robert Mah, a scientist based at the National Aeronautics and Space Agency’s Computational Sciences Research
Branch in California, has brought his creation to the Robotix Exhibition, which opened at the city’s Mclellan Galleries yesterday. With take-off for Mars unlikely to occur until well into the next century, Dr Mah is hoping it will have proved its worth before then, and he has applied for approval for it to be used for more terrestrial surgery.
50 years ago
A HELICOPTER of the Queen’s flight that landed in the public park at Penicuik, Midlothian, yesterday while preparing for a forthcoming visit by Princess Alexandra was unable to take off again because of an electrical fault. The Wessex helicopter was stranded for almost six hours while fitters were flown from RAF Benson, Oxfordshire, to RAF Turnhouse. Police officers were called to guard the helicopter as hundreds of children from local schools crowded round it. After repairs had been carried out the helicopter was flown to Turnhouse, where it will be checked before returning south today.
100 years ago
AN alarming explosion, as a result of which five children were removed to the Victoria Infirmary, occurred last night in the premises occupied as a milk distributing depot by the Scottish Farmer’s Dairy Company at 2 Anderson Street, Kinning Park, Glasgow. The premises are situated at the extreme end of Anderson Street, which is a short cul-de-sac off West Scotland Street, and it appears a firm of asphalt contractors had been making repairs that could not conveniently be done during the day. The boiler for the asphalt was located in the street, and this necessitated the main gate of the premises, which ordinarily is closed every evening, to be left slightly ajar.