Oldest TV set in Britain: Built in 1936... and it's only had two careful owners

For £5,000 you might have expected a bigger, flatter screen.

But this television does come with 75 years of broadcasting history – and you can still hook it up to a Freeview box.

Built in 1936, the Marconi type-702 is the oldest working television set in Britain.

It was bought for just under £100 only three weeks after transmissions in Britain began. And with just one channel broadcasting for two hours a day, there wasn’t much need for a remote control.

But what the television lacks in modern technology, it makes up for in reliability. Only 30 per cent of its components have been replaced during its lifetime, all with identical parts.

The 75-year-old set has a 12in screen contained in a walnut and mahogany case, with the picture reflected on to a mirror for the viewer to look at.

It is now being auctioned along with its original invoice, made out to a Mr G. B. Davis of Dulwich.

Unfortunately for Mr Davis, his viewing was cut short when the local transmitter burned down just three days after he bought the set on November 26, and his area could not receive pictures again for ten years.

The TV has a pre-sale estimate of £5,000, but experts at Bonhams expect it to fetch much more. It cost Mr Davis £99 and 15 shillings 0d – more than half the annual average wage at the time and equivalent to almost £4,000 today. 

Its serial number is H1007, and it is thought the sequence began at 1,000, making it number 007.

Bonhams specialist Laurence Fisher said: ‘This is being sold by the late owner’s family and is the oldest working TV set in Britain.

‘Its case is made from walnut and mahogany to give a two-tone effect and doesn’t have wheels and is quite a big lump.

‘The picture is reflected on to its lid and at the time it was bought there was only one channel. Unfortunately for the original owner, three days after he bought it the Crystal Palace burned down and that was where the transmitter was.

‘His area did not receive pictures again until after the war. But at least people who visited him would know he had [a television], even if he couldn’t use it.

‘Most programmes at the time would be live and there were plays which were grand productions like you would have at the theatre.’

But as revealed by the listings above, from the day the television was purchased, the same programmes were often shown twice a day – proving that frequent repeats are not a recent invention.

Deep sea treasure: 17th century gold chain worth $250,000 plucked from ocean bed

A deep sea diver has struck gold after unearthing a 17th century chain worth $250,000 from the ocean floor.

Bill Burt, a diver for Mel Fisher's Treasures, spotted the 40-inch gold chain while looking for the wrecked Nuestra Senora de Atocha, which sank off the Florida Keys in a 1622 hurricane.

Shipwreck experts have tentatively valued the piece at around $250,000.

The chain has 55 links, an enamelled gold cross and a two-sided engraved religious medallion featuring the Virgin Mary and a chalice.

On the edges of the cross there is engraved wording thought to be in Latin.

Andy Matroci, captain of Mel Fisher's Treasures salvage vessel, JB Magruder, said the crew had been diving at the North end of the Atocha trail.

On their last trip to the wreck they uncovered 22 silver coins and a cannon ball just east of the site.

They had been hoping to find more coins in the area, Mr Matroci said, but instead found the chain.

'In the nine years I have been running this boat this is the most unique artefact we have brought up,' Mr Matroci said.

The piece is believed to be from the Atocha's infamous treasure trove.

The company has uncovered half a billion dollars in historic artefacts, gold, silver and emeralds since they began diving the wreck in 1969.

In 1985 - after 15 years of searching - the Fisher crew discovered Atocha's 'mother lode', worth more than $450million.

They unearthed thousands of artefacts, silver coins, gold coins - many in near mint condition, exquisite jewellery sets with precious stones, gold chains, disks, a variety of armaments and even seeds, which later sprouted.

They then faced a legal wrangle with the U.S. Government claimed title to the wreck. Florida state officials seized many of the items the Fisher crew had retrieved.

But after eight years of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Fisher's favour.

The contents of the ships sterncastle - a wooden, fort-shaped area at the back of ship, have never been recovered.

This is where the wealthy passengers, including nobility and clergy, would have stayed.

Fisher's estimates the treasure in the sterncastle section is worth in the region of half a billion dollars.

The latest find was likely owned by a member of the clergy indicating the company's search for the missing treasure trove could be getting nearer.

'Mr Elastic' goes for Guinness world record with his incredible bendy feet

Moses Lanham plans on stepping into the record books in a rather unusual fashion.

'Known as backwards feet man' and 'Mr elastic', the Michigan based 49-year-old can rotate his feet 120 degrees behind him, a feat he hopes will earn him a place in the Guinness Book of Records.

As that's not all; he also plans on setting a record for the fastest man to walk 20 metres with his feet turned backwards.

Despite the daunting task ahead, Mr Lanham can however remain quietly confident - both records have never been attempted before.

Speaking to AOL News, Mr Lanham said: 'I know I can put my toes together in back, but for the record, I'll do a full 120 degrees.'

Despite the visually excruciating appearance, Mr Lanham says his flexible feet cause him no pain, in fact he quite enjoys the back-to-front feeling.

'A lot of times when I'm sitting down I'll put my feet in a twisted position because it's more comfortable for me,' he said.

Mr Lanham discovered his strange quirk at 14 after a high school gym class accident.

Climbing a rope, he lost his grip and fell nearly 18 feet before landing with his feet in an extremely awkward position.

'They thought something was dislocated,' Mr Lanham said. 'But I stood up and was fine.'

Mr Lanham has made the most of his talent ever since.

In high school he was prone to walking backwards and at college he would wear his clothes backwards to match the direction of his feet.

Sadly, Mr Lanham's 17-year-old son Trey has only partially inherited his father's funny feet.

Trey can not turn them the full way round like his father, and also feels pain after staying in the position for a short time.

'It's a shame because I was hoping I could retire and be his manager,' Mr Lanham added.

Doctors who have examined Mr Lanham say he was born with extra tissue and cartilage in his joints, making his hips, knees and ankles especially elastic.

There are no records of anyone else in the family, apart from Trey, having the condition.

His perculiar talent has also gained him national notoriety after he appeared on 'Candid Camera', 'Ripley's Believe It or Not!', 'America's Funniest Home Videos', 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' and the Discovery Channel's 'Medical Incredible'.

Britain's biggest ever baby girl welcomed to the world in just six hours weighing 12lbs 8oz

A woman has given birth to the biggest ever baby girl, coming in at a whopping 12lbs 8oz.

Pictured here next to her cousin Thomas - who is actually younger than her - baby Libby, from Wigan, is twice the size of the average newborn.

The youngster, who has three older brothers, was born after a surprisingly short labour of just six hours.

Mum and dad Gemma and Ian Woods were over the moon to finally have a long-awaited daughter in their family but weren't quite expecting such a large baby.

Not only was it a relatively short labour, but brave mum Gemma, 28, had a natural birth and opted only for gas and air pain relief.

'I just couldn't believe it when the midwife told me the weight - I thought I was hearing things,' she told the Sunday Mirror.

'When she was two weeks old we took a photograph of her next to my nephew Thomas, who was born three weeks early.

'He weighted 6lb 13oz - and she absolutely dwarfed him.'

The heaviest baby ever born was in January 1979 when Anna Bates gave birth in Ohio to a boy that weighed 23lb 12ozs but he died 11 hours later.

The heaviest surviving newborn was in Aversa, Italy, in September 1955 which weighed 22lb 8oz.

The three-year-old who weighs a whopping nine-and-a-half stone

At 132lbs, Lu Hao is already five times the size of a normal child his age.

The three-year-old toddler from China eats a staggering THREE bowls of rice when he sits down for a family meal.

When Lu Hao was born he weighed just 2.6kg (5.7 lbs), however, from the time he was three months old he began to gain weight rapidly.

'His appetite is so good that for a meal he can eat 3 big bowls of rice, even larger than I and his mother,' said Hao's father Lu Yuncheng.

Since Hao was one-year-old his parents have tried to keep a careful eye on his diet.

However, Hao's mother Chen Yuan comments: 'We have to let him be as if we don't feed him he will cry non-stop'.

No matter how hard the family restricts Hao's diet and pushes him to move more the toddler has still managed to put on 10kg (22 lbs) in the past year.

Now Chen Yuan is unable to pick her son up.

'In both of our families, there was no such giant person,' said father Yuncheng.

Hao hates walking and each day his mother takes him to kindergarten on a motorcycle.

'He is quite happy that I could ride him to kindergarten instead of walking him there,' said Yuan.

Hao has many toys at home but his favourite is Superman because, he says, 'Superman can fly and beat bad men!'

When asked is he would like to fly like Superman Hao giggles and replies: 'No. I am too fat'.

To push Hao to do more sports, the family installed a basketball hoop in the yard and often take him to swim in a local river.

But the exercise just make him hungrier and results in him putting on more weight.

'We took him to three hospitals and one said he has a tumor in the head, while the other two said there is no tumour in the head,' said Yuncheng.

'Doctors said his hormones are at a normal level. It's hard to know why he could be so big.'

'We now worry the most about his health. As if he continues to grow at this rate his heart could fail,' said Yuan.

They also worry that when he gets older and more aware of his weight Hao will be bullied.

'Our biggest hope is one day Hao could get slim,' said Chen.

Largest prehistoric Megalodon shark jaw ever assembled up for auction

It makes the Great White shark in Jaws look like a goldfish.

But this giant prehistoric shark jaw comes from the largest predator ever to have existed on Earth.

The 16-metre long Megalodon shark, which died out 1.5million years ago, was once the true king of the ocean, weighing an awesome 100 tons.

It took famed fossil hunter Vito 'Megalodon' Bertucci almost 20 years to reconstruct the jaw, the largest ever assembled and which measures 11ft across and is almost 9ft tall.

The late Mr Bertucci found fragments of the ferocious species in the rivers of South Carolina.

The jaw set is composed of 182 fossil teeth, some over seven inches long and is expected to sell for $700,000 (£436,000) at a sale by Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas, on 12 June.

Megalodon ruled the temperate and warm waters of all the oceans between 25million and 1.5million years ago.

David Herskowitz, Director of Natural History Auctions at Heritage Auctions, said: 'The Megalodon was a shark that grew to the length of two city buses and preyed on whales and other sharks.

'With jaws that size, and a hugely voracious appetite, you or I would be no more than an hors d'oeuvre for this monster.'

Vito Bertucci died in 2004 in Georgia while diving for prehistoric shark's teeth.

His brother Joey Bertucci, who is auctioning the jaws, said: 'This was Vito's legacy. He loved it. He dragged it around everywhere.

'This was something he just had a vision to do, and it took him a lifetime of collecting to be able to build it.'

The maximum size of the Megalodon has been of much debate - cartilage rarely fossilises and therefore no complete shark has ever been found.

However, near-complete sets of dentitions have been found, which allows for accurate reconstruction.

The Megalodon's colossal mouth would have produced a but force of 10.8 to 18.2 tons.