Cabinet piece: the Flying Man's bill — a machine of cane and silk, bat-wing and peacock-tail, to rise over Cremorne under Mr Simmons's balloon 'the Czar'. One shilling to watch. The wings proved heavier than hope: in July 1874 De Groof fell at Chelsea. #CabinetOfCuriosities

From the cabinet:a woodcut of Pepper's Ghost, 1863: a pane of glass anda hidden lamp cast a spectre among the living,and crowds swore they saw a ghost,though no glass was visible. What is a ghost but a trick of light played upon the believing eye? #CabinetOfCuriosities #VictorianScience

From the cabinet: the London Stone — a grey lump of oolite in Cannon Street whose purpose no man has proved. Roman mile-marker, Saxon altar, Druid relic: all said, none shown. In 1450 Jack Cade struck it with his sword and named himself Lord of the City. #CabinetOfCuriosities #VictorianLondon

From the cabinet: Barnum's Feejee Mermaid, 1842 — a monkey's torso grafted to a fish's tail, shown at the Egyptian Hall as sworn truth. Londoners paid to gawp; it was, of course, a hoax. What we wish to believe is itself a wonder. #CabinetOfCuriosities #VictorianLondon

From the cabinet: a zoetrope strip, c.1860 - a dog printed twelve times, each frame a still. Spun in the slotted drum they blur into one motion: a moving picture before film. Horner's wheel of life, 1834, made an eye-trick of a toy. #CabinetOfCuriosities #VictorianScience

From the cabinet: London bricked its lost rivers into Bazalgette's sewers — the Fleet, the Tyburn, the Westbourne. This 1873 plate shows the Fleet still open by the old Red Lion before the bricking-in. What else flows, unsung, beneath our feet? #CabinetOfCuriosities #VictorianLondon

From the cabinet: the Penny Black, 1840 — the world's first prepaid stamp. A penny carried a letter anywhere in Britain. Withdrawn within a year: the black shade could be sponged off and the stamp reused. A Queen's face, gummed by the million, undone by soap. #CabinetOfCuriosities #VictorianLondon

From the cabinet: Babbage's Difference Engine, 1832 — an engine of brass and cog to cast error-free tables, never finished in its maker's lifetime. The one part completed still turns by candlelight. What a century might have done. #CabinetOfCuriosities #VictorianScience