Imagine you are living in the mid 20th century, in a modern house with all modern conveniences. You have a new electric oven, a refrigerator, an inside lavatory (bliss), and of course, you have electricity. It is wonderful to have so many modern appliances, and electricity is such a wonder. You know many people have had it for years, but the old neighbourhood you lived in was not electrified, so it is still a marvel to you. The only thing which does make you nervous is that apparently, if you don’t have the correct fuses, and don’t know how to look after them, electricity can be very dangerous. You have an electrician coming to check things over for you and teach you about them today though, so that will be wonderful.
When I showed the children this ceramic fuse holder and fuse, they had no idea at all what it could be. Of course, the children know about fuses, on a basic level, with their parents occasionally telling them that ‘I have to fix the fuse’ or ‘the fuse has blown’, but most have never seen a fuse. Even those who had seen a fuse did not recognise this one though, as it is an old fashioned type made of ceramic and is much larger than the household fuses we use. In fact, there were parents who did not recognise it! The fuse did intrigue the children though as they had never thought of electricity being old enough to have evolved so much. It is also a huge fuse, much bigger than fuses which would be used in a home. It is far more likely to have been used in a factory, or perhaps even on the railways.
The history of fuses is, perhaps unsurprisingly, closely tied to the history of electricity. However, electricity actually has a longer history than many realise. The oldest and most natural of all electrical sources is lightning, and this has, of course, been around since time immemorial. The ancients knew about static electricity, and about lightning, but this was not created by man. As early as 1660 though, people were experimenting with creating electricity. In this year Otto Von Guericke created the first electric generator. He used his machine to show that electricity could be conducted over a substantial distance (several feet) along wet string. In the 1700s several English scientists conducted experiments with electricity and this was also the era when Ben Franklins famous kite experiment was conducted. In 1752, just as a storm was beginning to break out, he flew a kite with a metal key attached to the end. The key was hung close to a jar and, although there was not yet any lightening, electricity was conducted along the wet kite string, through the key and sparks were seen jumping into the jar until eventually the jar could not carry any more charge. This experiment proved that lightening and electricity were the same thing.
It was not until 1800 though until Alessandro Volta created the first ‘battery’. At the time it was called the voltaic pile and it was made up of a stack of zinc, copper and acid or salt soaked disks which could store electricity. Volta knew the electric cell worked, but he didn’t know why. None the less, he was an important figure in the history of electricity and the volt is named after him. It was Charles Edison who brought electricity to the world though, when he created the electric lightbulb in 1879. He wanted to bring electric light to every home and he built the first electric generating station which provided electricity to one square mile of New York City in 1882.
So what is a fuse and why do we use them? Fuses are essentially a safety mechanism, placed in an electrical circuit to control and limit the flow of electricity. If too much electricity is passing through the fuse the fuse will break (blow) and the flow will stop which makes electricity much safer. Essentially, they are designed to be the weakest link in the flow of electricity. Today there are many different sorts of fuses (though ceramic ones are pretty unusual, and this one would not have wire inside it), but they all serve essentially the same purpose, to make electricity safe. Today we have 'safety switches' which make using electrictity safer still, but we also still use fuses and most people still keep some fuse wire in their fuse box!
If anybody knows any more about this fuse, please let us know!
This week, Roy decided he really wanted to check out a bridge. Roy loves bridges. There is just something about them which grabs his attention. Whether it is a stone bridge, metal, wooden, big, small, they just fascinate him. So, he was looking for an interesting bridge to visit, which was close to home. When he found one at Bobbin Head in Kuringai Chase National Park he was stunned. He must have driven over the Cockle Creek Bridge hundreds of times, but he never knew it was particularly significant!
If you would like to visit the bridge over Cockle Creek, it is located in Bobbin Head, not far from Hornsby. To get there you can enter from Bobbin Head Road in North Turrumurra or from Kuringai Chase Road in Mount Colah (enter from the Old Pacific Highway into Yirra Road, then turn into Belmont Parade and from there into Kuringai Chase Road). While you are at the park, why not go for a bushwalk, enjoy a meal or take in the mangroves!
The bridge over Cockle Creek at Bobbin Head is very significant, though the reason why seems to be little known. Certainly, Roy and I had no idea the bridge was the first of its kind in Sydney, or that it was heritage listed by the RTA. This bridge, which while it’s a nice bridge doesn’t appear particularly exciting, was the first pre-stressed concrete bridge to be built in Sydney. So what is a pre-stressed concrete bridge and why is it important? Pre-stressed concrete is a way of making concrete which overcomes its natural weakness. Concrete which is normally reinforced, with metal bars, cannot be used to make a long spans because it’s weak over such a long distance. Pre-stressed concrete has pre-tensioned ‘tendons’ put in it, which are usually cables. The cables are pre-tensioned and then the concrete is poured over them and this gives much greater strength. Following the success of the Cockle Creek bridge this method of bridge construction became popular in Sydney.
Why go to such effort for a small bridge in an out of the way place like Bobbin Head? At the time the bridge was built, 1956, Bobbin Head was a popular pleasure ground. There was a swimming pool, play equipment, a miniature train, restaurant, boat sheds amongst other attractions and people loved to visit. Bobbin Head was named a National Park in 1894 and from this time onwards the area was popular with visitors. The problem though was that Cockle Creek ran through the pleasure ground area, so a bridge had to be built to enable people to come from both directions, and to utilise both sides of the pleasure ground. The first attempt was made in 1902 and 1903 when a causeway was built, but this was washed away in 1915. A new bridge was the built of timber but by 1925 the bridge and a wharf had been washed away. A temporary bridge was built, and then a proper one was constructed in 1930. Yet again, it was washed away in 1942. Storms were a real problem when it came to building a lasting bridge. It was important that people could pass under the bridge in boats, as this was one of the main pastimes, but the bridges just didn’t seem to be strong enough to survive the storms which hit the area. Then, in 1956, a new type of bridge was trialled, the pre-stressed concrete one. It’s still there today.
This week, Roy decided he felt like indulging. He loves bacon and eggs, but even more, he loves a good bacon and egg pie, where the bacon and eggs cook together in a pastry crust. It isn’t the health food of a nation, but as a treat, a bacon and egg pie is one of Roy’s favourites. It is also very old fashioned and Roy knows many people who have never even heard of it! It is also delicious hot, but is just as good cold, so it's perfect for picnics and lunchboxes. So this week, Roy Creates Old Fashioned Bacon And Egg Pie.
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Imagine you are a housewife living in the 1940s. You have a large family to feed, and they have to be fed quickly in the morning so that you can send your husband to work and your children to school. Thank goodness for your new, electric toaster! You can make two slices of toast at a time, quickly and easily, so that you can just keep churning out pieces of toast until everybody is fed, ready to go and out the door. Then, when the house is quiet, you love to make your own toast, sit down with a cup of tea and relax before a day of housework and cooking.
When I showed the children this toaster, their immediate guess as to what it was was both amusing and understandable. All of the children immediately told me ‘I know what that is, it’s a heater what’s so interesting about that?' When they realised it opened on both sides though, they became a little unsure about their guess, deciding that it must be something else. None managed to guess the real purpose of the little machine though, as it bears no resemblance at all to toasters they are familiar with. When I told them what it was though, they thought it was interesting, but possibly unsafe. As one child put it ‘the outside would be so hot, and the toast is so close to the heating bit, it might catch fire!’
The history of toast is really quite surprising. You might imagine that toast is as old as bread itself, but this is not strictly the case. Bread has been around for thousands of years in various versions (some of which were really quite different to what we think of as bread today). Even the cave men made their own basic bread. Toast as we know it though is a reasonably recent invention in comparison. Toasting probably came about because stale bread is hard and unpleasant to eat and somehow, somebody discovered that if the bread was held in the fire briefly, it became crisp and pleasant. However, this could, according to some food historians, not happen until bread could be sliced. Torn bread would have burned in the fire because it had rough edges. We do know though that the Ancient Romans and other civilisations at that time were familiar with toast, and indeed the word comes from the Latin Toastum which means torching or burning!
As time went by, people began to look for better ways to prepare toast. At first forks or sticks were used, but soon wire frames which the bread could be put into were invented. These frames could then be held near the fire. Forks or cages were the toasting technology of choice for centuries, with really no alternative way of making real toast coming about until electricity was invented. The first electric toasters started to be sold in Britain shortly before the turn of the 20th century and became available in America in 1909. The toaster only toasted one side of the bread at a time, and the operator of the toaster therefore had to flip the toast over. In 1919 Charles Strite created the first modern, pop up toaster, but the original format, single side toaster, like the one I showed the children, remained popular for many years. Toasters did not really surge in popularity until about 1930 though, when Wonder Bread introduced the first ‘sliced bread’. Suddenly toasters became a must have item and sales surged. Today, almost all, if not every household would have this humble device in the kitchen.
This week, with Mothers Day here, Roy thought it was time to take his Mum and Grandma to the local cinema. He thought a cinema would be interesting to write up, but it couldn’t be any old theatre though, it had to be one which was interesting and different. When he heard that the James Theatre in Dungog had reopened, he was very excited and wanted to share some of his photos of the building which he took on a visit a few years ago.
The James Theatre, which many people will know of due to the Dungog Film Festival, is located in Dungog, not far from Gloucester. To get to Dungog you can come by either Clarence Town Road or Stroud Hill Road. There is plenty to see in Dungog, with parks, local shops, a tourist information centre and cafes. The theatre itself is at 6 Brown Street, which is not far from the local train station.
James Theatre, which is also known as the Dungog Theatre or Dungog Picture Show is reputedly the oldest purpose built cinema still operating in Australia. It is a beautiful, Spanish style building, which adds character and charm to the historic town. The first film to be screened in the town was shown in the School of Arts in 1897, which was not long after films were first shown in America and Europe! The history of the theatre on the current site though doesn’t begin until 1912, when the Dungog Electric Lighting Company, set up theatre seating and a screen. There was seating for 1000, but the theatre at that time was an outdoor theatre with no roof.
In 1917, James Stuart on whose land the theatre was operating, took over the business and began constructing a building (including a roof!) to house the theatre. The original building didn’t look quite the same as the one we see today though as in July 1930 the theatre had a massive overhaul and facelift to accommodate the ‘talkies’. It is thought that the Spanish style facade was added on to the original building at this time, and the screen moved to the other end of the hall. There was seating for 650 people in the newly renovated theatre, and the front section had a flat floor and removable seats to allow for dances and other community activities. A stage, supper-room and dressing rooms were also added. In 1980 the theatre was purchased by the council as a community centre and the cinema continued to operate until 2011. After a short hiatus, new projection equipment has been installed and the cinema has reopened, though the film festival which it is famous for remains under threat, with a new community group attempting to reinvigorate and relaunch the festival.
Last week, Roy made a delicious, rich chocolate cake. He
needed to take dessert for a lunch he was going to, but the lunch was 2 hours
from home so the dessert needed to be easy to transport, or able to be
assembled after he arrived. He decided to make one of his favourite cakes, a
Black Forest Cake, and carry the different layers in separate containers in an
eski. The cake was moist, chocolatey, delicious – so good that his Great
Grandad, who doesn’t even like desserts that much ate two slices! So this week,
Roy Creates Black Forest Cake.
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Note: if you are an adult, or want to make a really authentic Black Forest Cake, add some Kirsch Liqueur to the cherries when you are cooking them (about 1 tablespoon) and sprinkle some over the bottom layer of the cake.
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Imagine you are a housewife living in the 1950s. It is washing day, but the rain is pelting down and if you hang things out in this weather they will never dry. Luckily you have a wonderful clothes horse which your husband purchased for you. You need to make sure the washing is done, but at least you can hang the washing inside, near the fire so that it dries!
When I showed the children this old clothes horse, they had absolutely no idea what it could be. They had never seen a clothes horse like this one, with most clothes horses today being plastic or metal and rectangular or square in shape. Moreover, several of the children told me that they didn’t use a clothes horse at home anyway, with one explaining ‘it’s 2013, we have driers’. This old, wooden, round clothes horse was beyond their experience!
In days gone by, before gas or electric driers were created, the only way to dry clothes was on a clothesline or clothes horse, in the sun. For many years, laundry day was a social occasion, with women hanging their washing in tiny, adjoining backyards, or from pulley clotheslines strung up in laneways and alleys. Today, if it rains people simply postpone washing day, or dry their clothes in a clothes drier, but in these early days, in rainy weather the only other option was often to hang clothing inside, near the fire. As time went by, racks were created to make hanging washing inside easier. All clotheslines were straight lines though, and so were all racks. Nobody had thought of hanging clothes in a circle to save space . . .
. . . Until Gilbert Toyne. Toyne was an Australian and in 1926 he invented the worlds first round clothesline. His design was similar to an umbrella, with a central support holding up the ‘canopy’ of clotheslines. Four arms stretch out from the centre post and between them lines are strung for hanging clothes. These arms can even be collapsed, just like an umbrella! Many say the Hills Hoist company invented the clothes line, but it would be 20 years before the Hills Hoist began to be marketed, though it is today the most popular Australian clothesline and there are similar clotheslines in backyards all over the world. It is likely the clotheshorse I showed the children is based on Toyne’s original idea for an ‘umbrella like’ clothesline with the same basic structure but many more arms radiating out, on which the clothes are simply hung. Of course, on non-washing days, with the aid of a couple of sheets this clothes horse made a fantastic cubby house!
This week, Roy decided he wanted to share one of his favourite museums with his online friends. As you may have guessed, Roy loves industrial history, and he loves nothing more than visiting a museum and investigating their steam engines, tractors and machinery collections. Of course, at most museums you will rarely see any of the collection working, and so Roy particularly enjoys the Field Days at The Campbelltown Steam and Machinery Museum.
The next field days at the Campbelltown Steam and Machinery Museum is coming up soon, on the 18th and 19th of May, 2013. If you would like to visit the museum for its field days, and see their amazing machinery up and running, the museum is at 86 Menangle Road, Menangle, not far from Campbelltown. The area is huge, and if it has been wet there might be a bit of mud, but it is great fun. Also, be warned there is lots of smoke and noise!
Australia has a long history of industry and farming. We are a country which was known for the production of wheat and wool, for mining and making materials like steel and iron. Historically, in farming and in industry, machines have always been needed and used to help make the job easier. We are also a huge country with vast distances to traverse and we needed a good road system, and railways. Machines were needed to help in building and maintaining these systems and of course steam engines were needed to carry people and goods on the railways!
At the Campbelltown Steam and Machinery Museum, the machines which performed these tasks are on display and many of them are in working condition, still performing the jobs they were created for. You will see tractors, traction engines, stationary engines, steam rollers, steam engines, and a huge variety of other machines amongst the displays. It is a fascinating place, full of history and enthusiastic characters who will share the stories of the machines with visitors.If you would like to learn more about the steam museum, and about other field days, click here.
This week, Roy wanted to share a special recipe for a delicious cake with his online friends. He wanted something which was easy to make, but so yummy that it would be perfect for Mothers Day, especially for people who needed to take their dessert somewhere else! Roy needed something luscious, spectacular but transportable. Grandma’s Devils Food Cake was perfect. Luckily, he took photos of the last time he made the cake, when he needed a yummy dessert which could travel long distances! The cake is delicious on its own or with a simple chocolate icing or chocolate ganash, but Roy has been wanting to try it as the base for a Black Forest Cake. He decided it would be a perfect dessert as he could make the component parts, carry them in containers in an eski and then assemble when he arrived. The results were spectacular – even the non-dessert lover ate two slices! So this week Roy Creates Devils Food Cake, and next week, he will show you how to turn the cake into a luscious Black Forest Cake.
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Imagine you are an Aztec musician living in 1527. You have been taught all your life to play the little whistle, the ocarina, and now you are being sent far across the sea to entertain some foreign king. The Spanish invaders want you and the other musicians and even some of the dancers to perform for their King. You don’t want to go, but you don’t seem to have any choice.
When I showed this little ocarina whistle to the children it was very funny watching them try to figure out how it worked, though they recognised that it was some kind of whistle. I had given them strict instructions that they were not to actually use the ocarina, but they could guess how it worked. The children were confused by the number of holes in the ocarina, and were not sure what the extra holes would be used for. After all, the ocarina was only small, so it looked like a whistle, but whistles usually only play one note. When I showed the children what the ocarina really does and how it works, they were impressed, especially when they learned what an old type of instrument it is!
The ocarina is an extremely old instrument with a long history. The earliest known example of an ocarina comes from about 12000 years ago. Most associate the ocarina with cultures from Southern and Central America, like the Mayans, Incas and Aztecs, but other cultures like India and China actually had their own versions. In China the ocarina was called a Xun, but it was not quite the same shape as those from Southern and Central America or India, where the little whistle was often shaped like a bird or animal. Europeans may have heard the Chinese Xun, but they certainly had no idea how the instrument worked. It was really the cultures of America though which introduced the ocarina to the Western world.
In 1521 Hernando Cortes led a party of Spanish conquistadors to South America. After many bloody battles, they conquered the Aztec empire. By 1527, Cortes was well in control and he decided to send a group of Aztec musicians and dancers back to Spain to entertain Emperor Charles V. Ocarina players and their instruments were among the group (though at this time the instrument was not called an ocarina). The Emperor enjoyed the performance and sent the group to various exhibitions and, according to legend, when they were in Rome a baker saw their performance and decided to make ocarinas in his oven. The ocarina (which meant ‘little goose’) became a popular toy but it didn’t have many notes or a particularly accurate pitch so it was little more. In the 19th century Guiseppe Donati created a new version of the instrument though which had an extended shape, more accuracy of pitch and more notes. This version became popular with musicians and by the 20th century the little instrument was so popular that many servicemen during the First World War were even given a small ocarina to keep them entertained and help boost morale. Later in the 20th century interest in the little instrument waned though, as the recorder rose in popularity.
