Stumville welcomes scientific adventurers

I defended Wolverhampton against the jibes of the metropolitan chattering classes yesterday, then went home, dined on pretzels and haggis, and watched a programme about rain. I do happen to be most at home in drizzle, despite not being a water vole, but even I thought that this show had the potential to be as dull as mere ditchwater. How wrong I was. Once past the tedious old 'English people like rain, even though they moan when Wimbledon and the cricket are rained off' waffle, I learned stuff.

Brilliantly, I learned that in 1862, Glaisher and Coxwell ascended to 37,000 feet (7 miles - that's the stratosphere!) in an open balloon for meterological purposes - and they set off from Wolverhampton Gasworks. Eat that, Rutherford Laboratories!