Icon Gallery

Bakelite telephone

Bakelite telephone. Dial telephone with bakelite casing. Bakelite, the first plastic to be used for widespread commercial purposes, was discovered in the 1920s while the Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland was researching synthetic varnishes in the USA. It is a thermosetting plastic (one that does not melt once it has been heated and set) and it is a good insulator. This made it the ideal material to use in electrical devices like telephones and radios

© VICTOR DE SCHWANBERG/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Our Lady of Vladimir. beg. 12th c. Icon moved

Our Lady of Vladimir. beg. 12th c. Icon moved from Constantinople to Kiev in 1136 and Vladimir in 1155. Iconographic type Eleusa or Virgin of Tenderness'. Byzantine art. Tempera on wood. RUSSIA. MOSCOW. Moscow. Tretyakov Gallery

© Iberfoto/Mary Evans

1136, 1155, 12th, Age, Ages, Art, Beg, Boy, Byzantine, Child, Childhood, Childish, Children, Color, Colour, Constantinople, Eleusa, Female, Feminine, Gallery, Girl, History, Icon, Iconographic, Kiev, Lady, Medieval, Middle, Moscow, Moved, People, Period, Person, Persons, Portrait, Portraits, Russia, Tempera, Tenderness, Tretyakov, Type, Upright, Vertical, Virgin, Vladimir, Western, Woman, Women, Wood

David Attenborough, British naturalist

David Attenborough. Caricature of the British naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Frederick Attenborough (born 1926) holding a frog. Attenborough is most famous for the numerous BBC television nature documentaries he has presented. In the 1960s and 1970s he was controller of BBC Two and director of programming for BBC Television. His awards include Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1974), Fellow of the Royal Society (1983), Knight Bachelor (1985), Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (1991), Companion of Honour (1996) and the Order of Merit (2005)

© GARY BROWN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY