Today's random discovery

[brooksmoses]

"[In] Great Britain, many Victorian-era locomotives were specially equipped to prepare tea."

Because of course they were. You're driving a thing that is basically a large tea kettle, obviously you will want tea at some point, a convenient solution is obvious.

Comments

[abracanabra]

Obvious and practical, indeed!

[conuly]

Equally fascinating: UK WWII tanks were also equipped to prepare tea.

[zeborah]

Wise. War conditions being what they are, you probably don't want to drink unboiled water if you can help it, and if you're boiling it anyway you may as well throw some flavouring in (whether or not said flavouring greatly resembles tea, which will depend on your supply lines).

[conuly]

Well, they could always have used iodine to purify the water. Of course, then the water tastes like iodine and not like tea, but you can't have everything.

[tiger_spot]

I want one.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

For thirty-some years I had a scar on my wrist, from where as a very small boy I walked into a train guard on Oxford Station. He'd just stepped down off the footplate of a locomotive, carrying a kettle of boiling water. QED.