The Tingle Factor Box

Roy Creates A Fun Hopping Halloween Frog

 

 

This week, with Halloween nearly upon us, Roy decided he would like to make something simple and fun to play with, and perhaps even decorate a party. He remembered that I have a hopping frog in my room which I made many years ago, and thought this could be just the thing, and of course, lots of fun at a party, where the little paper frogs could race! He asked if I remembered how to make the origami frog, and with a bit of practice, we had a little frog hopping around. So this week, Roy Creates A Fun Hopping Halloween Frog!

 

You Will Need:

 

• Squares of thin paper in the colour of your choice. Roy decided to make his frog green, but you can use whatever colour you like. 

 

Method:

 

• Start by folding the paper in half, so you have a rectangle, with the coloured side of the paper to the outside. 

• Fold the top corners of the rectangle down, and then unfold them. Flip the paper over and repeat. 
• You should have a cross shape where the corner folds meet. Fold this down so you have a crease across the centre of the cross, and then unfold. 

• Now you want to fold the edges in along those creases so that the tip of your rectangle looks like a triangle. Look at what Roy is doing above if you need help!

• Fold the bottom corners of your triangle up so that the tips of the corners are even with the tip of the triangle. These will be your frog’s front legs. 

• Fold the base of the paper up to meet at the bottom of the frog's legs.

• Fold the sides of the paper in so that they meet in the centre, as the photo above shows. 
• Fold the bottom of the paper up so that it touches the base of your frogs legs, and then unfold again. 

• Now you have a crease along where the fold was, and you need to put your fingers behind the crease and pull so that you have two triangles sticking out the side, as shown above. 

• Now, fold the triangles down so that they meet in the centre. 

• Fold the bottom corners of the triangles out to make back feet. 

• Lastly, fold the bottom half of your frog back up, then fold half of the resulting flap back down, so you have a zig zag fold. 

• Now your frog is ready to go jumping all around. Just press your thumb down on the back of the fort gently and let go to see it jump!

What Would It Measure? Powder Measure

Imagine, you are a man living in the early 1900s. You are going out shooting today, and hopefully you will be able to bring home some fresh meat for your wife to use in various meals. You are all ready to leave, except for one thing. You can’t find your powder measure. Without it, you certainly can’t go shooting. You’ve been searching high and low, and finally you find it in the pipe stand – your wife must have mistaken it when she was cleaning up!

When I showed the children this powder measure, they could not work out what it would have been used for. They quickly realised that the little scoop measured something, and even noticed the little measuring marks on the side, but the exact purpose of the scoop eluded them. When I explained that it would once have been used to measure gun powder, they were intrigued, but they couldn’t understand why you would need to measure anything if you were going shooting.

Black powder, or gunpowder has a remarkably long history. The very first black powder was created in China, but it was not created as a weapon. In fact, ironically, black powder is thought to have been created in the 9^th century when Taoists were trying to make a potion which would bring immortality. By the 14^th century though, they had perfected the explosive potential of gunpowder, and their ‘invention’ was beginning to spread around the world, particularly with Mongol invaders. Yet it wasn’t until the 15^th century that effective weapons which could use gunpowder began to be created, and even after gunpowder had been created and proven to be extremely effective, weapons like swords and arrows continued to be popular. Firearms like guns and cannon began to become more commonly used in the 17^th century.

So what exactly is black powder? Black powder is a mix of three things, potassium nitrate (or saltpetre), sulphur and charcoal and when ignited or set on fire it releases gasses which, under heat, expand and create an explosive force. If the reaction is confined in the barrel of a gun or cannon, the force becomes even stronger and is able to propel ammunition out of the barrel, whether that ammunition is a tiny bullet or an enormous cannon ball. Of course, to propel different sized and weighted projectiles requires different amounts of powder, and this is where a powder measure comes in. Powder measures were, and continue to be, used to measure a specific amount of gun powder for use for a specific type of projectile. The measure I showed the children dates from the early 1900s, but even today, very similar measures can be purchased, often made of plastic.

Roaming Roy Goes For A Ride: Scenic Skyway

This week, Roy decided it was time to head to the Blue Mountains and examine one of the iconic attractions to be found in the area. There are many famous attractions, from natural beauty to wonderful historic hotels, to shopping precincts full of fascinating shops. Yet one which Roy has been interested to visit is Scenic World. Most famous for the Scenic Railway, Roy wanted to get a closer look at something a little different – the old skyway car on display in a small park area, and which I had told him about riding as a child.

If you would like to visit Scenic World, it is located in the Blue Mountains, in Katoomba. Scenic world is located at the corner of Violet Street and Cliff Drive, and there is plenty of parking to be had if you plan to drive. Otherwise, Scenic World is only 3 kilometres from Katoomba Railway Station, and there are regular bus services to the main building at Scenic World. There is plenty to do at Scenic World, with the famous incline railway, a skyway, cableway, and even rainforest walk, as well as cafes and even walking tracks.

The Skyway may not be the ‘main attraction’ which brings people to Scenic World, but it is certainly one with a long and fascinating history. The scenic railway itself was doing a brisk tourist trade when, in 1952, in a Sydney machinery merchant yard, Dickson Primer was wondering what to do with the remains of an ash dumping aerial tramway from Glen Davis. At the same time, an English syndicate had been trying to get people interested in the idea of a hotel and aerial tourist attraction, like the skyway. They suggested Govett’s Leap, but couldn’t get people interested. They proposed instead to create a ropeway from Reid’s Plateau to Lady Darley’s Lookout, passing across Katoomba Falls. The problem was though, that they didn’t own any of the land they needed. The plan for the aerial ropeway was one which caught the attention of the Mayor of Katoomba, Aub Murphy. He asked Harry Hammon who, along with his sister, operated Scenic World and leased the land at the Western end of the proposed ropeway, if he would be interested in getting involved. Harry was, but the land problem still existed, though now it was associated with the eastern side of the ropeway. The Minister for Lands, Gus Kelly, promised to take care of the problem if Harry would just build the ropeway.

A deal was soon struck with Dickson Primer for the machinery from Glen Davis, and an engineer, Bill Wingrove, was engaged to work on installing the ropeway. In February 1958, just 8 months after work to install the rope began, the Skyway opened. Nothing like this had ever been done in Australia, and skyway has always been a wonderful tourist drawcard, but within a short time, the wires began to break. The only rope in Australia which was up to the task was a newly developed rope designed for mine haulage by BHP in Newcastle. The new rope was duly installed and the skyway was up and running again. This rope only lasted two years, but third time did indeed prove lucky and the same rope was used for nearly 40 years, between 1962 and 2001. As for the skyway bogies which were used to carry passengers, originally the skyway operated using steel bogies which ran on two wheels, but these were modified in 1962 to 8 wheeled bogies in order to reduce strain on the rope. The cabin was covered with plywood, and the original paint scheme was pink! The skyway was decommissioned and replaced in 2004, but you can still see, and even climb aboard, the original cabin in the grassed area adjacent to the multi-storey carpark at Scenic World.

Roy Creates Sweetly Spiced Cinnamon Cookies

This week, Roy decided he wanted to make something sweet and spicy with a little nutty deliciousness thrown in. He had quite the craving, but no idea what it was a craving for! He began to flip through his old cookbooks to see if anything caught his eye and, eventually, something did. He came across a recipe for cinnamon cookies made with almond meal, and sprinkled with poppy seeds, which sounded delicious, and when he tried them, they really satisfied the craving. So this week, Roy Creates Sweetly Spiced Cinnamon Cookies.

You Will Need:

• 120 grams of plain flour
• 1 egg
• 120 grams of butter or margarine
• 60 grams of almond meal
• 60 grams of sugar
• ½ a teaspoon of cinnamon
• Poppy seeds and melted butter for garnishing

Method:

• Mix together the flour, almond meal, sugar and cinnamon
• Add the butter and mix thoroughly
• Add the egg and mix until you have a very soft dough

• Transfer the dough to clingwrap, and roll into a log
• Chill for at least 1 hour
• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius and line biscuit trays with baking paper
• Unroll the dough and cut into 5mm wide discs and place them onto the prepared trays. Shape gently with your fingers, if desired

• Brush the biscuits with melted butter and sprinkle with poppyseeds
• Bake to 15 minutes or until golden and cooked through
• Transfer to cooling racks, cool and then store in an airtight container.

What Is It? Mystery Item

This week, for the Tingle Factor Item, we are doing something a little different. Over the years, I have shown many items to the children, most of which have a clearly defined use. Yet over the years there has also been a growing collection of Mystery Items, which have been donated, but whose use is completely and utterly unknown. This week’s item is one which has been of particular curiosity to the children.

When I showed the children, and indeed many adults, this item, their responses have been quite intriguing. People have tried very hard to discover what it was used for, or even a hint which might reveal its purpose, but all to no avail. Some of the children have suggested an association with the military as they have noticed a similarity between the shape of one part and a bullet. Others have suggested it is just one part of a larger object while another still suggested it was a tool for marking leather.

History is full of mysteries, and many of these mysteries are closely associated with objects. Some objects are clearly associated with a specific use, but how or why they were created, or even how they came to be found in the locations where they were discovered, are true mysteries. For example, the Maine Penny, which is a genuine Norse coin from the early 11^th century, was found during excavations of Native American ruins in 1957. The mystery here is how did the coin come to be in America when there is no other evidence to suggest Vikings made it to America at all.

Other items though are more mysterious still, with people puzzling over why they were made at all, and what they were used for. For example, hundreds of giant stone spheres dating back up to 3000 years and found all over Costa Rica have had scientists and archaeologists alike puzzled. The question is, how were they created, why and how did they come to be moved from the quarries where they were created. Other mysteries may be smaller, but no less perplexing, and this is the case with the item I showed the children. What exactly is it, and what does it do? If you have an idea, we’d love to hear from you!

Rover Takes Flight - Qantas Heritage Collection Part 2

 

This week, Rover is returning to Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport to continue to discover more about the fascinating history of Qantas. Rover was fascinated by the little museum he discovered at the airport, and even more so by the rich history of Qantas which he discovered. 

 

If you would like to visit the Qantas Heritage Collection, it is located on the mezzanine level of the Sydney Domestic Terminal at the Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport. The museum is actually very near to gate 13, and is open to the public between 9:30am and 4:30pm on Monday to Friday. You can visit the collection for free and not only examine the wonderful, permanent collection, but also gaze out over the planes which are coming and going from the terminal. The view is superb!

 

The introduction of the luxurious flying boats to the fleet soon brought major changes for Qantas itself. Where Qantas had, essentially, been based in Brisbane since the company was formed, the flying boats began and finished their journeys at Rose Bay in Sydney. This was the catalyst for Qantas’s move from Brisbane to Sydney in 1938, and the move was completed, according to Norm Roberts, one of the station engineers for Qantas, using just two flying boats and in a single afternoon! The flying boats, many of them the famous Catalina’s, remained in service until 1958, when the last of them were sold. After the Second World War, Qantas began to look to not only rebuilding their passenger service, but also extending and modernising their fleet of aircraft. In 1946 they put in an order for four new, long range, pressurised aircraft with Lockheed. These aircraft were the famous Constellations. 

 

The first of the Constellations arrived in October of 1947, and on December 1 Qantas commenced the famous Kangaroo route from Sydney to London. The flight, then, took 4 days. Also in 1947, the Australian Government made the decision to purchase all remaining Qantas shares, putting the formerly privately owned company in the control of the Government. In 1954 Qantas was given the honour of carrying Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh on their Australian tour, and in 1956 the fleet, now with 34 propeller driver aircraft, carried a record number of passengers, all heading to Melbourne for the Olympic games. 1956 was an important year for Qantas, the year when they made their longest continuous trip, from Athens to Darwin, carrying the Olympic flame and also the year when the Boeing 707-138 Jetliners were ordered. A year later Qantas House in Sydney was opened as the new headquarters of the company and in 1958 Qantas began their round the world service, circumnavigating the world in 6 days and becoming a familiar sight in the airports of 23 countries. The future of Qantas was assured, and today their fleet of planes continue to be a familiar sight world wide. 

Roy Creates Delicious Double Chocolate Biscuits

This week, Roy decided it was time to restock the cookie jar. His Grandpa had noticed that there were no delicious, homemade morsels for him to enjoy with his cup of tea, so Roy thought he had better rectify the situation quickly. He flipped through his cookbooks, looking for something which would be just perfect for his Grandpa, and when he saw the recipe for double chocolate chip biscuits, he thought it sounded just the thing. So this week Roy Creates Delicious Double Chocolate Biscuits.

You Will Need:

• 1 scant cup of sugar
• 120 grams of butter or margarine
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon of desiccated coconut (yes, just 1 teaspoon)
• 1 cup of self raising flour
• 1 packet of chocolate bits
• 1 tablespoon of cocoa

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius and line biscuit trays with baking paper
• Cream together the butter and sugar

• Add the egg and coconut and cream them in

• In a small, separate bowl, mix the cocoa with a little warm water to make a paste.
• Mix the cocoa paste into the butter mix thoroughly
• Add the flour and mix in until well combined

• Add the chocolate chips and combine
• Drop small spoons of the mix onto the prepared trays (you can fit 12 to a tray, as they do not spread a lot)
• Bake for 15 minutes or until they are cooked and smell delicious
• Let the biscuits harden on the trays before transferring to a cooling rack
• Store in an airtight container and enjoy

Wish It Was Still Published Today - The Humorists

Imagine, it is a Friday in 1937 and you are preparing to go out on a very important trip. You need to head into the local town to purchase a very important magazine, one which your husband reads each and every week. Where some husbands may focus on the news of the day, or perhaps the financial papers, your husband has a real love of all things humorous, and today is the day when his absolute favourite magazine comes out – The Humorist. He will be so pleased to come home and find it sitting in his chair!

When I showed the children this old magazine, they were quite intrigued. Most assumed it was some sort of newspaper or something ‘serious’, because it was not glossy and did not seem particularly exciting. They were amazed to discover that magazines once were really not very different in appearance to newspapers, and even more surprised to discover that they could have such humorous content. The children commented that they ‘wish they still published it today – it looks funny!’

Although the children may think of magazines as a relatively recent development in the history of printing, weekly magazines were actually a central part of life for many people from the Victorian times and into the 20^th and 21^st centuries. Magazines were the first form media which really appealed to and sold to the masses, and before television came along, they were the main way in which many products advertised. Magazines also developed and modernised much more quickly than newspapers, quickly adapting to faster typesetting methods, the ability to include multiple images and even to colour printing. They were also the first type of popular media which could claim to sell over 1 million copies in a single week. In fact, in many ways, they were the forerunner of the modern Tabloid Newspaper.

Yet many weekly magazines did not carry ‘news’ at all, and The Humorist is just one example of this type of magazine. The Humorist was a large format magazine, printed on what is now known in the industry as newsprint – the type of paper used for newspapers. The magazine began to be printed in about 1922 and it was 24 pages of cartoons, funny stories and jokes for just 2d. This was perhaps particularly appealing at a time which is usually associated with The Great Depression. Sometimes there were also competitions, as the edition I showed the children shows, while at other times coupons for gifts were included in the magazine. In 1940 The Humorist was amalgamated with London Opinion.

Rover Takes Flight - Qantas Heritage Collection

Recently, Rover was heading off for a holiday, seeing some family who live a long way away, and this trip required an aeroplane. Rover was a bit nervous – he had never flown before, but he had also heard some wonderful stories about a museum hidden away in the airport. He thought the museum might be the perfect way to distract himself from his nerves. He was very impressed by the little museum when he visited and thought others who were travelling might also like to visit the Qantas Heritage Collection themselves.

If you would like to visit the Qantas Heritage Collection, it is located on the mezzanine level of the Sydney Domestic Terminal at the Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport. The museum is actually very near to gate 13, and is open to the public between 9:30am and 4:30pm on Monday to Friday. You can visit the collection for free and not only examine the wonderful, permanent collection, but also gaze out over the planes which are coming and going from the terminal. The view is superb!

Today, we may think of Qantas and Sydney Airport as simply part of Australian life, but it was not always so. The story of Qantas begins in 1919. Flying Corps officers W. Hudson Fysh and Paul McGinness, both Gallipoli Veterans had heard that the Federal Government was to give a huge monetary prize to the first Australians to fly from England to Australia in 30 days or less. At first, they planned to enter, but their sponsor died and instead they took an assignment from the Defence Department to survey the race route and leave supplies for the competitors in places between Longreach (Queensland) and Katherine (Northern Territory). Their trip was arduous, and they soon decided that an air service was desperately needed in order to link the remote outback towns and settlements.

The pair found that many of the graziers were enthusiastic to support their endeavour and Fergus McMaster, a wealthy grazier himself was soon not only backing their venture, but convincing business acquaintances to invest too. By 1921 the Qantas fleet had two biplanes  and by the end of 1922 they were operating an airmail service, but the planes were still only able to carry a few passengers at a time and all services were domestic. The first overseas flight would not take place until 1935, with flying boats capable of making comfortable passenger flights overseas introduced in 1938. During the Second World War, Qantas supported the war effort, evacuating people and making vital flights to maintain links between the allied forces. It was also during the war that the Kangaroo symbol we are all so familiar with today was adopted.

Come back next week to find out what happened next!

Roy Creates One Pot Wonder Curried Mince Pasta

This week, Roy decided he wanted to make something delicious and satisfying for a family dinner with his Grandma and Grandpa. He knew his Grandpa really liked mince, and his Grandma suggested he try a recipe which she used to make, and which he really enjoyed. Grandpa was also quite excited at the idea of trying it again. The problem was, Grandma never followed the recipe for the meal, but luckily she was happy to help out with the cooking, and show Roy the right way to do it. The results were delicious and Grandpa was very pleased. Roy thought others might enjoy this satisfying one pot meal, and got Grandma’s permission to share the recipe. So this week, Roy Creates One Pot Wonder Curried Mince Pasta

You Will Need:

• 2 onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 tablespoon of curry powder
• 500 grams of beef mince
• 2 tins of crushed or diced tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon of Worchestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
• 1 and ½ cups of beef stock
• 1 cup of small pasta (Roy used shells)
• Fresh parsley or basil to taste

Method:

• Chop the onions and garlic

• Put the onions, garlic, curry powder and mince into a large pot and fry off in a little olive oil.
• When the meat and onion mix is browned, add the diced tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce and tomato paste. Simmer until cooked

• Add the pasta and stock and cook for 15 minutes, or until the pasta is cooked. You may need to add a little more water to the mix for the pasta to cook completely
• Stir through the parsley or basil and serve
• Enjoy!