The Tingle Factor Box

What Is It? Ceramic Fuse

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!

How Does It Work? Ocarina

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 19^th 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 20^th 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 20^th century interest in the little instrument waned though, as the recorder rose in popularity.  

That's Just Mean - Branding Iron

Imagine you are living in the 1800s in Australia. You live on a farm, with a huge herd of cattle. You have new calves at the moment, and it is very important that you brand them as soon as you are able. Otherwise, cattle thieves might steal them as they would be easy to brand and sell. You always feel a little bad about burning the small calves, but it must be done, and you are sure that you treat your animals better than a thief would, so it is for the best.

When I showed this branding iron to the children, they were quite disturbed by it. They have seen pictures of cattle and other animals and sometimes have noticed a number or symbol on their skin, but they did not realise how the mark was put in place. To the children, the brand was interesting, but the way it was used was ‘cruel and wrong’.

Originally the term ‘brand’ referred to anything which was heated or burning, but by the Middle Ages it was used specifically to describe the process of marking an animal to indicate ownership. Yet the practise of branding itself dates back well before Medieval times, right to the ancient world. Inscriptions and paintings in Egyptian tombs show that as early as 2000BC cattle were branded to indicate ownership. In the ancient world though, brands were not just used on animals. Branding indicated ownership and the Romans also branded slaves, and throughout history, right up until the slave trade died out, slaves were branded as the property of their masters.

All large cattle grazing nations eventually took up the process of branding to allow identification of the owner of individual animals. When America was settled, the process was adopted by the huge cattle ranches. In America, and later in Australia, many of the cattle properties were ‘open range’ with no fences and animals could roam freely. This also meant that the herds of different owners could mix together, making the ability to identify who owned which animal essential. At the annual or biannual round up the cows would be separated and those which were to be sold were taken to the markets. The roundup also allowed the calves were branded. Unbranded animals were easy prey for cattle thieves (known as cattle rustlers), who could put their own brand on the animal and then claim ownership, so marking animals quickly was important. You may think that with herds mingling identifying which calves belonged to which owner would be difficult, but apparently it was quite an easy process as the calves always followed their mother who was already branded.

So Salt Is Actually Important? Salt Packet

Imagine you are the wife of a farmer living in Australia in the early 1900s. You are lucky, because you always have plenty of food available, but you are also lucky to have your Mothers recipes for pickles, preserves and salted meat because this year has seen lots of food which needed to be saved. You aren’t sure the garden has ever provided so much excess fruit and vegetables! You will have to go into town soon though because while you have plenty of vinegar still, you are almost out of sugar and have completely run out of salt. You can’t preserve anything without sugar and salt!

It's Huge! Records

Imagine you are living in the 1960s. You are going on a picnic today and everything is prepared, ready for your friends to pick you up. You have plenty of food prepared, drinks, a rug and you even have your new portable record player. You think the player is wonderful. Now you can take your music with you and enjoy it, even on a picnic! Of course, you have to be careful that the records don’t get too hot during the trip, or sitting in the sun, or they will melt and won’t be much good for anything!

When I showed these records to the children their first reaction was ‘they’re huge!’. They are used to music coming to them digitally, in a box small enough to hold in their hand like an iPod, or at the very most coming on a CD which is still only a little bigger than their hand. To see a record which was so large was stunning. Then they assumed that, being so big, it must be able to store huge amounts of music, but were surprised to realize there were only (relative to now) a few songs on it. When I told them that records were also renowned for melting in the sun and could easily be broken, they decided records were best left as part of history as ‘they don’t sound like they were much use’.

Although people tend to think of records as being a part of 20^th century history, their origins date back much further. The early history of, possibly successful, sound recording begins in 1806 when Thomas Young recorded the vibrations of a tuning fork on a wax cylinder. Wax cylinders would later be used, very successfully, to record sound for phonographs and gramophones, but at the time Young used the technology there was no machine to allow him to play the sound back. In 1857 Leon Scott de Martinville created ‘phonoautographs’, but again there was no machine to allow the sound to be played back. In 1877 Charles Cros designed a machine which would not only record sound but actually play it back, but couldn’t find anyone to finance building the machine and in 1881 another inventor, Charles Tainter, came up with a way to record sound (and these were possibly the first ‘records’ as we know them) but yet again he didn’t have a machine to play them back with.

The first to create a way to not only record sound but also play it back was Charles Edison. In 1877 he accidentally discovered a way to record and play back his voice, thereby creating the first, primitive phonograph. He updated his design in 1887. In 1885 Chichester Bell and Charles Tainter teamed up to create the gramophone, another successful machine, which at that time relied on wax cylinders and was popular for many years. In 1888 Emile Berliner created his own version of the gramophone which played actual records – 7 inch discs. For the first time hard rubber copies of the original disks were able to be mass produced and sold making listening to sound (it wasn’t always music) more readily available to the public. In 1896 Fred Gaisberg discovered that shellac was better for making records and in 1904 double sided discs become available. Edison hung on to his wax cylinder technology for many years but he finally gave up in 1913 when his company started to sell ‘Diamond Disc’ playing machines and records. In 1940 shellac was replaced by vinyl and this became the material of choice. Magnetic tape recording technology was actually discovered in 1939 but the technology was mainly used for film. In the 1960s ‘tapes’ started to emerge as a popular alternative to records and in 1980 CDs were created. It would not be until 1988 though that the CD took over as the sound recording device of choice.

So We Need Fire? Stirrup Pump

Imagine, it is the 1940s and you are living in the country in Australia. Away from the smog and noise of the city life is usually calm and peaceful, but occasionally life heats up a little up with a bushfire. You have a stirrup pump which fits into a barrel of water and can be used to help defend against any flare ups or ember attacks, and so far you have saved your property from any serious danger. Fires are certainly scary, but they are also very necessary parts of life in Australia. After all, the bush around you always seems to brim with new life when a fire has gone through.

Recently in Australia there has been a lot in the news about fires, and many people have lost their homes. The news has been rather frightening, and the fires are severe and dangerous, but fires are also a normal part of life in Australia, so much so that The Tingle Factor Box has artefacts relating to fighting them from times long gone, like the stirrup pump I showed the children.

When the children saw this stirrup pump, they were amazed. They couldn't imagine using something like the simple pump to fight a fire and when they discovered it would have been used with a bucket, barrel or creek not an endless water supply they were even more surprised. The thing which amazed them most though was that fighting fires in the days of this stirrup pump was a normal part of many peoples lives. The fire services were not as organised and there were not as many services available - sometimes even children were needed to help defend buildings, including schools from fires. They couldn't imagine having to help fight fires so actively, pointing out that today, 'we would all be evacuated'

Millions of years ago, Australia broke away from the massive continent Gondwana and began to evolve its own environment and species. The earliest species, like Lillipilli and Sassafras, sometimes called 'Gondwana plants', were similar to plants found on the supercontinent, but as the climate adapted new species started to evolve. Fire played a very important role in this evolution. The early species of Gondwana plants did not like fire, but Australia was increasingly fire prone. New species started evolve to suit these new conditions. Many eucalyptus forests, banksia woodlands, heathlands and grasslands have evolved to not only withstand fires, but have even become dependent on them! Some seedpods will not open until they feel the intense heat of fire, while some seeds will not actually start to grow until a fire has passed through. Trees which appear to have been burnt to a crisp will burst into life weeks after a fire has passed and there are even some plants which will not produce flowers or fruit without the smoke, heat and flame of a burn. Conversely, many of the Australian plants encourage fire, with highly flammable oils, dry leaf litter and shedding, dry bark to provide fuel for the flames. Even the animals have adapted in some ways to benefit from fire, with the new shoots which grow after fires have passed through encouraging some animals to breed!

Fire is indeed no stranger to Australia, but humans are. The first humans to arrive in Australia were the Aborigines, and they quickly learned that they needed to work with fire. The Australian bush naturally provided perfect conditions for fires and Aborigines recognised that in order to survive they needed to reduce the fuel available. They started fires deliberately to control the bush around them and this reduced the fuel available for 'wild fires'. Of course it also encouraged growth and this in turn gave the Aborigines food. Since Europeans have arrived though, the pattern has changed. Where the Aborigines burned fiercely and frequently, Europeans allowed the bush to thicken and fuel to build up. Fires, when they happened, were therefore more severe. Europeans did have tools though which allowed them to fight the fires, like the stirrup pump I showed the children, but the fires were less common, hotter and moved faster. Damage and danger was inevitable. Today, we use hazard reduction burns to reduce the fuel available to fires, but fires still occur as a normal part of our hot, Summer life.  

What Is THAT? Luffa

Imagine, you are living in South America in the early 1900s. Your family is poor, and you work hard for everything you have. You have a lovely little patch of ground where you grow vegetables and fruits for the family, and on a trellis in the corner is one of the more useful plants, the luffa. Although it isn't necessarily the tastiest of the vegetables, it is filling and gives lots of fruit. Even better though, if you let the fruit mature and dry, you can peel them and use the luffa inside. They are such useful things, being used as sponges in the kitchen and bath, as padding for pillows, and even to re-pad the old mattress when it becomes too hard and lumpy.

Isn't A Cock A Rooster? - Shuttlecock

Imagine, you are a child living during the Great Depression. Things are very tough for your family and all the money Dad earns needs to go into paying rent and feeding the family – there is nothing left for buying frivolities like toys and games. A few days ago, you were out and about when a lady hit her badminton shuttle too hard and it came soaring into the street. You picked it up and gave it back to her, but you also realised you could make one! It was just a bit of cork with some feathers in it. You collected some feathers from the ducks down near the river, and found an old bit of cork to put them into. It isn’t a perfect shuttle, but it’s a lot of fun to play with!

When I showed the children this shuttlecock, they knew exactly what it was. Shuttlecocks are still often used by the children because they are soft and easy to use, and most importantly, they don’t hurt if they hit you! The children were very surprised by the shuttlecock though. They are used to plastic shuttlecocks, mass produced in factories. This shuttlecock is made of cork and feathers though, as they traditionally have been for centuries. One child pointed out that the feathers might be why it’s called a ‘shuttlecock’ “after all, isn’t a cock a rooster?” The thing which surprised them most though was how old shuttlecocks were, and that badminton is not the traditional sport they are used in.

Today, shuttlecocks, also known as ‘featherballs’ are most familiar to westerners as the ‘ball’ used in the game badminton, but their use in this game is actually very recent. Shuttlecocks themselves date back far before the game of badminton even existed! The first shuttlecocks came from China and they date back over 2500 years. They were probably first used in military training, but by the 5th century BC they were being used in the game Ti Jian Zi, which literally means ‘kick shuttlecock’. In this game the shuttlecock must be kept in the air by using the feet or other parts of the body to kick it up. Hands are not allowed to be used, though later another game, called battledore was introduced where a paddle was used to hit the shuttlecock back and forth. Both versions of the game quickly spread throughout Asia, and have been played in Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Korea and Indonesia for centuries. The original game is now played internationally and is actually called shuttlecock. The shuttlecocks used in this game are different to those used in badminton though, using fewer feathers, and much more heavily weighted. To find out more about this game, click here.

Although shuttlecock is usually accepted to have originated in China, a similar game called Poona has also been played in India since about 1500BC. At first, this game used the hand to hit the shuttle, but as it evolved it split into a womens game (using the hand) and a mens game (using the legs). In about 1870 it was this game which was introduced to England by soldiers who had been stationed in the Indian colonies. The Duke of Beaufort, who is known as ‘the father of Badminton’, loved this game and enjoyed playing the ‘womens’ version with his daughters and family. He played it in his Villa in the village of Badminton, which is probably where the name of the game comes from.

It's Just A Really Big Ship - HMS Hood

Imagine, you are standing on Sydney Heads and it is 1924. You have come out here early, to make sure you have a perfect viewing in front of you for todays events. You had a picnic, and now, just on the horizon, you can see the ships approaching. These are the ships of the British Navy, brave ships who have, or will serve and protect Britain and their allies. Then, closer they come, and you can make out the grandest of them all, HMS Hood, the battlecrusier. What a ship, and what a pleasure it is to see it sailing into Sydney Harbour.

It's So Heavy - Survey Mark

Imagine, you are browsing in a junk shop. There are all sorts of interesting things, many of which you don't even recognise! You see a funny shaped metal peg on one of the shelves and decide to take a closer look. It has words and numbers embossed in the metal, and you identify it as a survey mark (mainly because some of the words say 'survey mark'). You wonder how it came to be in the junk shop, and what its story could be. It is only a few dollars, so you take it home with you to try to find out.