Tracing the history and origins of the steeplejack trade in Britain

From the impoverished back streets of Victorian Oldham, Joseph Wragg looks up at a towering chimney and begins to dream...Fearless, talented and charming, Joseph rapidly scales the heights to become not only the country's most famous steeplejack but also a darling of the London social scene. Feted by the London aristocracy, courted by celebrities such as Oscar Wilde, his ambition knows no bounds. But a fateful meeting with actress Lillie Langtry tempts him away from his family and his roots - and ultimately leads to his downfall.Loosely based on a true story, The Champagne Steeplejack is a breathtaking story of one man's rise to astonishing success in the industrial north-west and his painful descent to reality...

Shows how a strident theocratic minority is attacking - or steeplejacking - mainstream churches in order to eliminate progressive voices and take control.

Well before Evel Knievel or Hollywood stuntmen, reality television or the X Games, North America had a long tradition of stunt performance, of men (and some women) who sought media attention and popular fame with public feats of daring. Many of these feats—jumping off bridges, climbing steeples and buildings, swimming incredible distances, or doing tricks with wild animals—had their basis in the manual trades or in older entertainments like the circus. In The Thrill Makers, Jacob Smith shows how turn-of-the-century bridge jumpers, human flies, lion tamers, and stunt pilots first drew crowds to their spectacular displays of death-defying action before becoming a crucial, yet often invisible, component of Hollywood film stardom. Smith explains how these working-class stunt performers helped shape definitions of American manhood, and pioneered a form of modern media celebrity that now occupies an increasingly prominent place in our contemporary popular culture.

A series of bizarre suicides leads Detective Inspector Silas Quinn to revisit his own troubled past ... June, 1914. A young man is mauled to death by a polar bear at London Zoo. Shortly afterwards, another young man leaps to his death from a notorious Suicide Bridge. Two seemingly unconnected deaths – and yet there are similarities. Following a third attempted suicide, DI Silas Quinn knows he must uncover the link between the three men if he is to discover what caused them to take their own lives. The one tangible piece of evidence is a card found in each of the victims’ possession, depicting a crudely-drawn red hand. What does it signify? To find the answers, Quinn must revisit his own dark past. But can he keep his sanity in the process?

The inspiration for the documentary God & Country For readers of Democracy in Chains and Dark Money, a revelatory investigation of the Religious Right's rise to political power. For too long the Religious Right has masqueraded as a social movement preoccupied with a number of cultural issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriage. In her deeply reported investigation, Katherine Stewart reveals a disturbing truth: this is a political movement that seeks to gain power and to impose its vision on all of society. America's religious nationalists aren't just fighting a culture war, they are waging a political war on the norms and institutions of American democracy. Stewart pulls back the curtain on the inner workings and leading personalities of a movement that has turned religion into a tool for domination. She exposes a dense network of think tanks, advocacy groups, and pastoral organizations embedded in a rapidly expanding community of international alliances and united not by any central command but by a shared, anti-democratic vision and a common will to power. She follows the money that fuels this movement, tracing much of it to a cadre of super-wealthy, ultraconservative donors and family foundations. She shows that today's Christian nationalism is the fruit of a longstanding antidemocratic, reactionary strain of American thought that draws on some of the most troubling episodes in America's past. It forms common cause with a globe-spanning movement that seeks to destroy liberal democracy and replace it with nationalist, theocratic and autocratic forms of government around the world. Religious nationalism is far more organized and better funded than most people realize. It seeks to control all aspects of government and society. Its successes have been stunning, and its influence now extends to every aspect of American life, from the White House to state capitols, from our schools to our hospitals. The Power Worshippers is a brilliantly reported book of warning and a wake-up call. Stewart's probing examination demands that Christian nationalism be taken seriously as a significant threat to the American republic and our democratic freedoms.

Scaffolding is used in many industries every day, all over the world, in the construction industry; for commercial and industrial maintenance; the staging and entertainment markets; the shipbuilding industry; mining; industrial plants, including power plants; hydro and nuclear power facilities; pulp and paper plants; petrochemical plants; oil refineries; and offshore drilling rigs. This book serves as a guide to any person involved with scaffolding in any way so that they will have a training and reference book that they can refer to for both scaffolding product knowledge and for estimating. The first ten chapters of this book include historical data and background information including product knowledge on all types of built-up scaffolding, suspended cradles, and swingstages. The eleventh chapter of this book is dedicated to the procedures that are used for estimating; preparing proposals, bids, and contracts, including systematic instructions on how to calculate the formulas that are most commonly used for estimating materials and labour outputs for scaffolding. Additionally, there are several sections of this book dedicated to temporary enclosures, built-up shoring and falsework, as well as manual and motorized suspended swingstages and cradles. There are very few books available on these topics. To my knowledge there are none dedicated to product knowledge and the estimating of built-up scaffolding systems. No book can be all-inclusive, and this handbook does not claim to be. Much time and research has been put into this book to ensure that as many of the proven estimating methods and design concepts for all types of built-up and suspended scaffolding have been covered. Since one of our greatest assets in any business are our employees, the proper training of all craft and support staff within an industry is of primary importance. Additionally, the continuity in the training given to staff should always be kept up to a measurable standard and continually maintained to an acceptable level.