The Tingle Factor Box

Roy Creates Banana Bread

Recently, Roy has really been enjoying bananas. After so long when they were a bit of a luxury because they were so expensive, when bananas finally became affordable again, Roy decided it was time to indulge. He went a bit overboard though, and some of the bananas he purchased went a bit too soft to eat in the recent heat. He wondered what he could do with them, because he didn’t want to waste them. His Grandma suggested they would be perfect for her banana bread. So this week, Roy Creates Banana Bread.

They Are So Huge! Keys

Imagine, you are living in the early 1800s. You are from a well off family and enjoy lots of luxuries, including beautiful furnishings and china. Of course, having beautiful things means that you have to look after them too - you don't want to loose them to a thief. Luckily, you have very solid locks on the doors, so they would have trouble getting in. You are just glad it isn't your job to carry the keys - they're huge and weigh so much!

When I took these keys to show the children, they were absolutely enthralled by them. They thought they were simply toys, because they had never seen such big, ornate keys before. To them, keys are small and lightweight, easily carried in a pocket or handbag. These keys were like nothing they had seen before, because not only are they massive, they are very heavy. They were also surprised to see that each key is different and would have fitted a different lock. The effort involved in making such intricate, ornate keys was also surprising to them - each of the keys appears to have been handmade. Of course, the thing which impressed them most about the keys was that they made perfect 'castle' or 'dungeon' keys to play with!

The history of keys is, of course, irrevokably tied with the history of locks and since people first had nice things which they wanted to keep safe, they have needed locks and keys. The history of keys and locks dates back thousands of years, right back to the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. The oldest existing lock is about 4000 years old, was Egyptian and was probably quite common at the time it was made. It used a wooden bolt as the lock securing the door, and then had a series of holes in the wood which would be filled by wooden pegs to stop the lock being opened.In fact, it was this which was the forerunner of our modern locks! The pegs fell into the holes automatically, like the tumblers in modern locks, and they had to be lifted back out again to allow the lock to be opened. At first a handshaped hole in the door allowed the lock to be opened (so the hand was the first 'key') but later long, thin, wooden 'keys were used. The Greeks used locks to keep Temples and sacred places safe, and women carried large angular 'keys' over one shoulder. In fact, it was apparently the Greeks who invented the keyhole as we know it, though the Romans are the ones who refined it. At this time, particularly in Rome, having keys was quite a status symbol because it showed you had things which were worth protecting.The Romans also improved on Egyptian locks by adding 'wards' which the key had to get past before the tumblers could be removed. Apparently the portable lock (padlocks) were also invented by the Romans, though they were also independantly invented in China.

Throughout history, locks continued to be improved, and although by Medieval time locks were a little more complicated, the main innovation in lock and key history was to make them beautiful. They made exquisitely embellished locks and beautifully decorated keys which were not only secure, but also attractive. These early locks were still quite easy to 'pick' for a determined thief. In the late 1700s and early 1800s though these locks were improved upon. In 1778 Robert Barron created a lock which had two sets of tumblers which had to be raised to exactly the right height to allow the door to be opened. In 1818 Jeremiah Chubb further improved on this by adding a spring which would catch and hold the tumbers if they were lifted to the wrong position by a thief. This not only made the lock more secure, only able to be opened by the correct key, but it also made it possible to tell if a lock had been tampered with.

 

Roaming Roy Finds A Rocky Place - Lucinda Memorial

Today, January 1, is a very important day in Australia’s history. January 1 is the anniversary of the day Australia became a federated nation, instead of lots of separate colonies. Roy wanted to visit somewhere which could commemorate this important day. There are lots of places which commemorate the history of Federation, and choosing just one was difficult, but then Roy remembered a sculpture, The Lucinda Monument, he had visited while at The Spit earlier in the year. He thought it was a beautiful sculpture and decided it would be the perfect place to visit.