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The word Ides comes from the Latin word “Idus” and means “half division” especially in relation to a month. It is a word that was used widely in the Roman calendar indicating the approximate day that was the middle of the month. The term ides was used for the 15th day of the months of March, May, July, and October, and the 13th day of the other months. The Ides of March was a festive day dedicated to the god Mars and a military parade was usually held.

In modern times, the term Ides of March is best known as the date on which Julius Caesar was killed in 44 B.C. Caesar was stabbed (23 times) to death in the Roman Senate by a group of conspirators led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus.

According to Plutarch, a seer had foreseen that Caesar would be harmed not later than the Ides of March and on his way to the Theatre of Pompey (where he would be assassinated), Caesar met that seer and joked, “The Ides of March have come”, meaning to say that the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied “Aye, Caesar; but not gone.” This meeting is famously dramatized in William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, when Caesar is warned by the soothsayer to “beware the Ides of March.”

John Rennie and Andrew Meikle are familiar names to people interested in engineering or East Lothian’s industrial heritage.  However, few have heard of James Howden.

James Howden, Marine Engineer and Inventor, was one of Prestonpans most illustrious sons, yet no monument or memorial exists in his home town.

He was born on 29th February(!), 1832 and lived with his parents James and Catherine and his four younger siblings in a property in the town’s High Street.

By 1851, James had moved to Glasgow to begin his apprenticeship and where he was later to perfect the forced-draught system for boilers.

He went on to found Howden – now a worldwide engineering company.

For all things to Science and Engineering, take a look at National Science & Engineering Week website.