The Tingle Factor Box

That's Kinda Weird - Midget Submarine Souvenir Cards

Imagine, it is the night of May 31, 1942. You live a little house by the harbour. All is quiet in Sydney, and you are settling down to sleep when at about 10:30, an alarm sounds. It is a frightening sound, and you know it can’t mean anything good. You hurry out of bed and take shelter in the area set up for such occasions. Just a little shelter, protected by sandbags. It is a frightening night, but you don’t really know what is going on. It isn’t until later that you hear what has happened, that Sydney has come under attack by the Japanese!

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.

Is It For Doctors To Dry Bandages? Antique Pea Sheller

Imagine, you are living in the 1940s. You are lucky to have a small yard in which you can grow fruit and vegetables to feed the family, and with the children always so hungry it is great to have 'free' food always available! You grow all sorts of things, but you particularly love the pea and bean plants. So easy to grow, they produce lots of food and some of the peas and beans can even be dried when they are shelled and put aside to use later! Of course, you would probably hate them if you had to shell them all by hand, but you are lucky to have a pea sheller your mother gave you for a wedding present.

So They're Asian? - Dominoes

Imagine, you are a child living in the 1800s. You don't have a lot of time for fun, as you always seem to be working, but one thing you love is the quiet time with Mother and Father when you can just enjoy each others company. It is rare that Mother and Father have the time to play with you, but occasionally, they get down the treasured set of dominoes and play a game or two with you and your siblings. You don't know where the dominoes came from, you don't think your parents would have spent the money on a set, but you love it all the same.

It Looks Like Sandstone - Fossilized Shell

Imagine, you are wandering along a beach, looking at the shells. There are so many different, pretty colors, but you notice one which is a little strange. It looks funny, more a like rock than a shell and when you pick it up you realize that it is far too heavy to simply be a shell! You wonder, did somebody carve it, or is it a fossil, a shell like the ones you might have seen wandering along the beach thousands of years ago.

Awesome! Gas Protection

Imagine, you are a soldier in the First World War. You are proud to be fighting for your country, but it is so frightening. When you joined up you thought it would be over within the year, but the war is just dragging on and on. You have seen such horrors, and you know that any day might be your last. It's a terrifying thought. Most of all though, you are frightened of a gas attack. Gas is such a silent weapon, it could have done its damage before you know it is there.

When I took these gas protectors to show the children, they were fascinated by them. The early 'mask', simple eye shields, which possibly date to World War One, was difficult for the children to recognise as any type of protection against gas, but the World War Two era mask, looked as one child said, 'exactly like what you see in the movies!' They knew about gas attacks during the wars, but had only ever seen gas masks on television, in movies or behind glass in museums. To be able to hold them, feel how heavy the World War Two mask was, and how flimsy the early protection was in comparison, was as another child said, 'awesome'.

When we think of gas masks we tend to think of their use in wars, particularly in World Wars One and Two. Yet their history actually goes back over a century before the First World War. A gas mask is a respirator which filters gas from the air, leaving it clean to breathe. Sometimes they are also used to filter other impurities from the air. The first, very primitive example of a respirator was actually used by miners and was introduced into mining by Alexander von Humboldt in 1799. These masks were primitive, but could filter some of the deadly gases which were found in mines. This respirator was not a gas mask though.

The first ever 'gas mask' was patented on June 12, 1849 by Lewis Haslett and was used to filter dust from the air. Soon other versions were being developed by people including John Stenhouse in 1854, John Tyndall in the 1870s and Garrett Morgan in 1912. Morgans device was mainly for use in breathing in smoky environments, like fires, but was very successful. He even used it in 1916 to rescue people from the Cleveland Waterworks tunnels, which were filled with gas and smoke under Lake Erie. Of course, the most famous use of gas masks was to protect soldiers and civilians from poison gas attack during the First and Second World Wars. The first 'gas mask' used in war to protect against such gases was simply a cotton mouth pad, or even a urine soaked cloth. As the war progressed though, gas masks became more effective and better designed. In 1915 James Bert Garner, an American chemist became the man credited with inventing the gas mask as we know it. He tested his mask on two colleages in a gas filled chamber and, when it was proven to work, offered it to the British for use in the War. Although Garner created the first real gas mask, it is British scientist Edward Harrison who was credited with making the first gas mask which could practically be mass produced. He even received a thank-you note from Winston Churchill for his efforts! If you would like to learn more about the history of gas masks, click here.

So How Did They Work It Out? - Fossilized Shell

Imagine, you are wandering along a bush track when you look down and see a shell. You wonder what it could be doing here, how it got here. After all, you're a long way from the sea, and there aren't even any rivers nearby! When you look closer though, you see that it isn't a shell at all, or not a shell like the ones you find washed up on the beach. This one is huge, and it's full of rock. You realise it is a fossil, and where you are walking now, must once have been underwater!

So They're Like Blowing Really Hard? Fireplace Bellows

Imagine, you are a housewife living in the late 1800s. You work hard around the house to make sure things are clean, the children are looked after and that food is ready at mealtimes. You really aren't very good with the oven though. You have a wood fired stove, just like everybody else, but it doesn't seem to burn hot enough most of the time for cooking. You would love to buy one of those fireplace bellows to help make the fire burn really hot, but you just don't have the money. Perhaps for your birthday!

I Can't Believe They Are Still Around - Animal Cut Outs

Imagine, you are a child living in the late 1800s. It is coming up to Easter, and your father tells you he has purchased a present for you, and you must now be good while your Grandparents visit. If you behave well, he will give you the present he bought. You think it might be the sheet of ducks you saw for sale. You have quite a collection of little cut out animals which you have carefully cut out and stood up in little scenes, and you just loved the ducks you saw.

Are They Bug Eggs? Pin Cushion

Imagine, you are a mother living in the late 1800s. You have so much work to do around the house, looking after the children, washing, mending, cooking, cleaning, that it is important to have things sorted neatly and easy to find. It is easy to waste time looking for a pot, or a knife or a pin or a needle if you don't keep them in just the right place. That is why you are making this pin cushion. You had a lovely one, but it has become worn and you decided it needed to be replaced before your pins and needles fell out of it and went missing!

When I took this pin cushion to show the children, they were really very funny. They assumed it would be something exotic and fancy, some sort of brooch, or perhaps even something which, when 'soaked in water, turned into something else'. I think they were almost disappointed to discover it was something as mundane as a pin cushion! They were intrigued to see the 'bug eggs' which were falling out of the cushion though. They assumed the little brown grains must be some sort of bug egg, because they resembled the eggs of moths found in old cereal, and were stunned to realise that it was actually sawdust - the stuffing of choice in the late 1800s.

Today, pins and needles are cheap and easy to purchase, and when we lose them we simply buy a new packet. Our only concern about losing a pin or needle is whether we might later find it when we sit down, or have bare feet. In times gone by though, pins and needles, particularly metal ones, were very expensive and hard to even find! It was important that, if you had pins and needles, you had some way of keeping them safe and from going rusty. In the 1300s containers started to be made to look after them and to enable people to carry them around. These containers were often made of wood, ivory or silver, and were as much a display of wealth as a way to keep pins safe!

In the 1700s, people started to use pin-pillows to look after their pins and needles. These 'pillows' were usually made of expensive fabrics like satin, velvet or linen and before too long, they pillow itself became part of a more elaborate sculptural piece. Often a base of silver, porcelain or wood would be created and then the pillow would fit inside. These pin-pillows were more decorative than functional, and sometimes the pins themselves were part of the decoration, making the quills on hedgehogs, or themselves decorated. Later, pin cushions began to take on a more functional role, and some even had little clamps which could be used to hold fabric in place against a table. The pin cushion I showed the children probably dates to the 1800s and, though beautiful, is very simple. It was clearly made as a functional pin cusion, not as an elaborate decorative piece, though it is beautifully decorated with beads and very carefully made. Roy will have a go at recreating the design at some stage.