The Tingle Factor Box

I Wonder How Often They Broke? Carved Emu Egg

 

Imagine, you have spent days working on a beautiful carving. You have carefully moved and crafted the piece, ensuring that you don't press too hard at any time - after all, you don't want to press too hard and risk snapping a piece off. You work carefully on the intricate details of people, plants and animals. All this, just to carve a piece of wood - imagine the skill needed to successfully carve an Emu Egg!

 

When I took this intricately carved Emu Egg, a gift to my Great Aunt from an Aboriginal stockman in Bourke, to show the children their immediate reaction was 'I wonder how many it took before they managed to not break one'. Some had never seen an Emu Egg before, carved or otherwise and were amazed by the size (one thought that being an egg laying Emu must be quite painful!). One Emu egg can have as much egg in it as 8-12 chicken eggs. They were also amazed by the idea that they could possibly be strong enough to carve without breaking. Certainly, the artist must be extremely careful in their work, in case hours of effort is lost through breakage.

Kalti Paarti, or Emu Egg carving is a highly skilled art which became popular in the mid 19th century and is kept alive today as part of the living Aboriginal culture. It is an intricate process, which first involves collecting or buying the eggs. Emu's are now protected under Australian law, so artists must have a license. Next, the eggshell must be pierced and the 'egg-inards' as one child called them, have to be removed. This can be done through egg blowing, though I have been told that traditionally, it can also be done by piercing the egg and leaving ants and other insects to clean it. If you can verify this, I would love to know!

Next, the egg is carved. Emu eggs are a very dark greeny blue, almost black and, as the egg is carved, lighter colours, right through to white can be revealed. By using these differing colours, all occuring within the shell, the image can be made '3-D'. There are two main 'schools' of carving. Paakantji artists, from Western New South Wales tend to produce scenes which move around the egg, like the one I showed the children. Wiradjuri artists tend to create more of a cameo effect, carving a scene or item within a specific area of the egg. 

Imagine, you have spent days working on a beautiful carving. You have carefully moved and crafted the piece, ensuring that you don't press too hard at any time - after all, you don't want to press too hard and risk snapping a piece off. You work carefully on the intricate details of people, plants and animals. All this, just to carve a piece of wood - imagine the skill needed to successfully carve an Emu Egg!

 

When I took this intricately carved Emu Egg, a gift to my Great Aunt from an Aboriginal stockman in Bourke, to show the children their immediate reaction was 'I wonder how many it took before they managed to not break one'. Some had never seen an Emu Egg before, carved or otherwise and were amazed by the size (one thought that being an egg laying Emu must be quite painful!). One Emu egg can have as much egg in it as 8-12 chicken eggs. They were also amazed by the idea that they could possibly be strong enough to carve without breaking. Certainly, the artist must be extremely careful in their work, in case hours of effort is lost through breakage.

Kalti Paarti, or Emu Egg carving is a highly skilled art which became popular in the mid 19th century and is kept alive today as part of the living Aboriginal culture. It is an intricate process, which first involves collecting or buying the eggs. Emu's are now protected under Australian law, so artists must have a license. Next, the eggshell must be pierced and the 'egg-inards' as one child called them, have to be removed. This can be done through egg blowing, though I have been told that traditionally, it can also be done by piercing the egg and leaving ants and other insects to clean it. If you can verify this, I would love to know!

Next, the egg is carved. Emu eggs are a very dark greeny blue, almost black and, as the egg is carved, lighter colours, right through to white can be revealed. By using these differing colours, all occuring within the shell, the image can be made '3-D'. There are two main 'schools' of carving. Paakantji artists, from Western New South Wales tend to produce scenes which move around the egg, like the one I showed the children. Wiradjuri artists tend to create more of a cameo effect, carving a scene or item within a specific area of the egg. 

I Didn't Realise Health Insurance Was Such An Old Thing! Hospital Saturday Fund Appeal Badge

Imagine, you are living in the early 20th century. You are very fortunate to be living in NSW, because just a month ago, your husband became very ill, and had to spend time in hospital. You don’t know how you could have payed for his treatment, if it weren’t for the Hospital Saturday Fund. When your husband first suggested paying a weekly subscription to the fund, you thought it was silly, but now, you thank your lucky stars that he had the foresight!  

When I showed the children this little badge, with the words ‘Hospital Saturday Fund Appeal’, they had no idea what it meant. Of course, the children recognised that it was a badge, but they had never heard of the Hospital Saturday Fund, and had no idea what it could be. They were surprised to discover that it was an appeal which helped fund hospitals and their maintenance. The children were even more surprised though to discover that the Saturday Fund was where one of Australia’s largest Health Insurance companies had it’s beginnings! The children had thought that health insurance was a modern thing, and were fascinated to discover that actually, it had a remarkably long history. 

 

HCF, or the Hospitals Contribution Fund of Australia, is today the largest not-for-profit health insurance company in Australia. Yet the company has a long and fascinating history, dating back well over a century. In 1873, in England, the first Hospital Saturday Fund was established. At the time, there was very little coordination of health services, and what hospitals there were, were often overcrowded and in real need of money for maintenance. A meeting was held in Hyde Park London, in 1873, where it was decided that a fund should be created which all people who were in payed employment would contribute to on a weekly basis. The monies raised by this fund would then go to maintaining hospitals and providing health care. As Saturday was payday, the fund was called The Hospitals Saturday Fund. The Fund was officially recognised and received its Certificate of Incorporation in 1890. 

Three years later, in 1893, Frank Grimley established the Hospitals Saturday Fund of NSW. On one day a year, a drive was held to collect money for the fund from the public and businesses, and then the money was distributed between the various hospitals who were participants in the fund. The money was used to maintain the hospitals and provide medical services to the community. Then, in 1900, the Hospital Saturday Fund of NSW introduced new service - basic health insurance. People could pay a weekly subscription cost to the fund to pay for this benefit and then, if they needed hospital treatment, their care would be payed for by the fund. This was the very beginning of health insurance in Australia. In 1932, this idea was expanded on and formalised with the creation of a new fund. This new fund was created following negotiations between the Hospital Saturday Fund of NSW and the Hospital Commission of NSW, and was, essentially, created by the merger of the two existing groups. Over time, the new fund, called the Metropolitan Hospitals Contribution Fund, became known simply as HCF.

What's A Coddled Egg

Imagine, you are a housewife living in the 1960s. You have a busy life, what with looking after the household and the children, and sadly, this week it has been worse than usual. The children have all been sick, one after another, and you have had your work cut out caring for them. Your trusty egg coddler has had its work cut out too - one of the few things the children have been able to stomach is a soft egg!

When I showed the children this old egg coddler, they had absolutely no idea what it could be. Today, there are so many modern appliances designed to cook eggs in whatever way you desire, but this old fashioned egg coddler was completely foreign to them. Indeed, the children did not even know what a coddled egg was!

A coddled egg is essentially a lightly cooked egg. Strictly speaking, many will say a coddled egg must be cooked a coddling dish, like the one I showed the children, but food historians disagree. In fact, strictly speaking, a coddled egg is any egg which has a barely solid outer white and warm, but not set yolk - so very soft boiled eggs certainly qualify. Yet today, coddled eggs, or at least eggs described as coddled, are relatively rare, and possibly most often used in dressings like Caesar Salad Dressing, where the egg is slightly cooked to create a thicker dressing (and reduce the possible dangers of a raw egg). Just like eggs themselves though, some sort of coddled egg has probably been eaten since the beginning of human history! Certainly in Ancient Egypt, Classical Greece and Ancient Rome, soft cooked eggs were well known. 

By the Medieval period, there was probably no food eaten more often than the humble egg, other than perhaps bread. Both were relatively cheap and commonly available and the combination of the two created a satisfactory meal complete with carbohydrate and protein. Of course, there were many different ways in which eggs could be prepared, from frying to roasting, but throughout history, right up until very recently, soft cooked eggs were the preferred type. In fact, they were believed to be easier to digest. This perceived ease of digestion is probably why coddling dishes were first created. Coddling dishes became common in the 1890s, and were possibly first created by Royal Worcester. Today, many people prefer their eggs cooked beyond the very soft or coddled stage, often because of the fear of salmonella which can live in the yolk. 

England Really Is On The Other Side Of The World! Globe

Imagine you are a child, learning about the world. You have been learning about some of the amazing places around the world, and you find the whole thing fascinating. Some of the concepts are a little difficult to imagine, like England and Australia being on opposite sides of the world, but your Mum showed you her old globe last night, and that made the whole thing much clearer. 

When the children saw this little globe, they were fascinated by it. Globes, though once common, are not something children see all that often, and they found it amazing to see the world in miniature. They felt it made many concepts, such as relative distances much easier to understand - ‘England really is on the other side of the world’ as one child put it.

Globes, or three dimensional, spherical objects which represent the earth, have a remarkably long history, especially when we consider that for centuries, many people thought the world was flat! The earliest surviving globe dates from 1492, though many believe there were others which predate this, even dating back to the ancient world. Yet this earliest globe is not a navigational tool, or even really a map (perhaps unsurprising in some ways, since many still believed the world itself was flat, not spherical). The earliest surviving globes were owned by powerful rulers and kings, and they were a symbol of control, particularly control over the lands they ruled. These globes were decorative symbols of power, not accurate or practical maps. 

By the 17th century, globes had become more popular, and as a result more were made, but they were still mainly decorative items. However, new discoveries in the world were added to the maps displayed on many globes, so they served some purpose. In addition, this is where the evolution of the globe as a navigational tool and a map really began. By the 18th century, globes were being used to record and display new discoveries of land and they were also becoming useful tools for astronomers. The voyages and discoveries of many famous explorers (including Captain James Cook) were displayed using globes. Globes were still expensive and exclusive items though, mainly seen in institutions and wealthy homes. In the 19th century, this all changed. Globes began to be used in the classroom for teaching geography, and as a result globes became smaller, more affordable and began to be produced in new ways to allow for mass production. By the 20th century globes were mass produced using everything from wood to plastic, and they were cheap enough to be widely available. Of course today, with the advent of GPS and other modern technologies, the cycle has almost gone back to the beginning, with globes once again mainly being used as decorative items.

He's Like Us - Ginger Meggs Annuals

Imagine you are a child living in the late 1950s. You have been working hard around the house, earning a little money which you have been putting away for a very special purchase. There is a Ginger Meggs annual coming out and you really, really want a copy. You have even almost saved enough now!

When I showed the children these two Ginger Meggs annuals, their reactions were quite intriguing. Many of the children recognised the character, and were surprised to see him appearing in a cartoon from ‘so long ago’. They seemed to think that the mischievous small boy was a relative newcomer to the cartoon world, and were amazed to discover that he actually dates back right to the 1920s!

Ginger Meggs may seem like quite a familiar figure - the mischievous boy is certainly recognisable in todays society! Yet he was born right back in 1921, when he first appeared in the first edition of the comic strip ‘Us Fellers’. His creator was Jimmy Bancks, and the comic was published in the Sunbeams pages of the Sunday Sun newspaper. Monty Grover, who was the chief editor of the Sunday Sun itself had asked a number of artists to draw a comic based around a group of boys and a girl. The boys would get into trouble, while the girl would get them out of it. Us Fellers was just one of the comics which was featured in the Sunbeams section, but by March 1922, it had become a permanent feature of the front cover. 

Of course, Ginger as he was first introduced was rather different to the boy we recognise now. His original name was Ginger Smith, but when Bancks took over not just drawing but also script writing for the comic, things began to change. Within a year Ginger Smith had become Ginger Meggs, he had a god Mike and a brother called Dudley. He also had a best friend (Benny), girlfriend (Minnie), rival (Eddie Coogan) and an arch nemesis - Tiger Kelly. Ginger as we know him had burst onto the scene all within the space of a year. Bancks drew a number of other characters over the years, including other comics which bore quite some similarity to the famous Ginger, yet none were as successful. By 1924 a Ginger Meggs annual was being produced, and it would continue production for another 35 years. In addition, by 1925 Us Fellers was being run in newspapers all across Australia and a film was made which was seen Australia wide. The success of Ginger continued, and by 1929 he was syndicated overseas, and Bancks was one of the best paid black and white artists in Australia. During the Second World War, so popular was the character that Ginger Meggs was even painted by soldiers on the sides of tanks and army trucks! Bancks died in 1952, but left control of his character to his daughter Sheena. A new cartoonist, Ron Vivian, was found and Ginger continued to capture the hearts of audiences. Other cartoonists have since drawn Ginger, but regardless of who is drawing him, Bancks timeless figure of the mischievous little boy remains a favourite, both for Australians and worldwide. 

It Must Have Been So Hard To Make - Beaded Easter Egg

Imagine you are living in the Ukraine and it is rapidly approaching Easter. You have been working so hard to ensure your eggs are ready to gift to family and friends, but there is one which you are concerned about. Will you be able to finish it in time? The beaded Pysanka is taking longer than you thought. You just hope it is ready in time!

When the children saw this beautiful, beaded Easter Egg, their reaction was one of absolute amazement. Although they have seen Easter decorations, which are becoming more popular in the West recently, they had not seen such an intricately made egg, and thought it was just stunning. The children also commented on how ‘difficult that egg must be to make - it must have taken hours!’

 In the Ukraine, there is along tradition of decorating eggs as ornaments and gifts for Easter. In fact, there are even ceramic, bone, clay and stone eggs which have been excavated in the Ukraine and date to about 1000 years ago! However, perhaps the most famous of the pysanka, or Ukrainian Easter Eggs are those which are real eggs which have been carefully decorated. Although it is a real egg which is decorated in this way, the eggs are ornamental as opposed to being specifically for eating. Most are decorated using hot wax to mark out a pattern, and then dye to colour the non-waxed sections of the egg. 

 

Of course, creating eggs in this was is time consuming and difficult, especially since they will be either broken open and eaten, or even just thrown away. As a result, many in the Ukraine still make non-edible eggs which can be used for years. The beaded egg I showed the children is an evolution of biserky, which is an egg, coated with wax and with beads embedded into the wax as decoration. As time went by, Ukrainians learned to make nets of beads which could be fitted over an egg and reused. Today, many are sold with wooden eggs inside, purely as a decoration, or like mine, with a clear, glass egg, allowing the light to shine through and illuminate the patterns.

I Didn't Think These Lamps Were Real! 'Genie' Lamp

Imagine you are a child living in the early 1960s. Your father returned home today from a business trip which took him overseas to all sorts of exotic places. One of the wonderful places he saw was India, and he brought you something magical home – a lamp. It’s just like the ones you see in story books, but so far, no matter how much you rub it, no genie has appeared. It is fun to imagine though!

When I showed the children this oil lamp from India, their reactions were very amusing. Immediately, the children started rubbing all over the lamp, in the vague hope that some sort of magical spirit would appear. The older children, of course, thought this was unlikely, but I noticed that even they had a quick rub ‘just in case’. Of course, no Genie emerged from the lamp, but the children were fascinated none the less. One even said that ‘I thought they were just in books and movies. I didn’t think these lamps really existed!’

Genies have a long history, dating back many thousands of years. Their real name is Jinn or Jinni, which are Arabic words which were Romanized to ‘genie’. Jinn are descended from a whole line of creatures and figures associated with the Middle East and Africa and originally were seen as spirits who could take on the shapes of humans or animals. Often Jinn were blamed for diseases, or for the condition of lunatics who were thought to be tormented by them. However, most of what we know about Jinn, or Genies, comes from Muslim culture. Although Jinn date back long before the Qur’an was written, they have an important place in Muslim culture and the Qur’an specifically talks about them. According to the Qur’an, Jinn are creatures of free will made by God from smokeless fire - Muhammad was even said to be Prophet to men and Jinn.

Jinn, according to Muslim lore are not evil, but they are demonic and trick people into committing sins, something like the idea of the ‘devil on my shoulder’. This is where the idea of the ‘tricky’ genie comes from. Even today, we think of genies as being tricksters, not evil, but not entirely truthful either. Knowing exactly what to ask the Jinn to do, and how exactly to say it, is important, as the natural personality of the Jinn is to try to retaliate against the person who controls it, and not actually provide what is being asked for. It is also the Muslim tradition which first introduces the idea of binding Jinn to an object. Solomon bound Jinn as servants to him, using a ring to control them, until one Jinn stole the ring. Eventually, Soloman retrieved his ring, and as a punishment, he trapped that Jinn inside a vessel made of brass. It is really the tale of Aladdin which cements the idea of genies living in lamps though. The stories in Arabian Nights had been around for hundreds of years, but the first Europeans really know of them were the translations made by a man called Galland in the early 1700s. He added a few stories of his own which had never been included in the traditional tales before this time. One of the new tales was Aladdin – and his genie in the lamp.

It's A Bit Like Magic - Film

Imagine you are a father living in the 1960s.You have a wonderful family, and absolutely love to take photographs of them, so you can have a record of your children growing up. Even more exciting though, you have recently purchased a film camera. Now your pictures won’t be simply still images, you will be able to see your wonderful wife and children moving around and enjoying life – and what’s more, you’ll be able to see your children as little ones, even when they are grown. Technology really is amazing!

When I showed the children this reel of home movie film, they did not have any idea what it could be. To the children of today, movies are presented on discs like DVD’s and Blue Ray, and even home video footage is digital. Film is something they no longer encounter. When they realised what it was though, the children were fascinated by the film, particularly after discovering that if they shone a torch through it, they could project the images onto a white wall in a darkened room. As one child put it, ‘it’s a little bit like magic!’

The history of home movies on film is closely tied to the history of film itself. As early as 1898, film formats such as Birtac were created to allow amateur hobbyists to film their own footage. Yet, even though these very early formats were cheaper than the professional films, they were still quite expensive, extremely fragile, and sometimes even burst into flame as they became older, as they were nitrate film. During the early 20^th century, many inventors and film companies had tried to introduce new film formats, but it was the 16mm safety film introduced by Eastman Kodak in 1923 which really made home movie making accessible. This safety film no longer had the risks associated with nitrate film, and was much cheaper. It could even be used in multiple different cameras and projectors, which meant people were not tied to a specific product. It was still too expensive for many families to use regularly though.

Then, in 1932, Eastman Kodak introduced another film format – 8mm or Standard 8 film. This put four frames of film into the area which was needed for one frame of standard 16mm film. This again made it much cheaper for home use, and finally brought home movies into reach of the average family. In 1935, kodachrome film was introduced (also 8mm format) which allowed home movies to be made in colour. This was the standard film used for many years, until 1965 when Kodak again introduced a new form of film – Super 8. This format was the same width as a standard 8mm film, but the perforations at the side of the film were smaller, allowing frames to be larger and clearer. The film also came in cartridges which was easier to load into the camera. Then, in 1975, film was finally on the way to being superseded. Beta VCR and VHS (videos) were introduced, and the videocassettes were very cheap in comparison to film. They could even be reused, which made them extremely attractive indeed. Home cameras which could record using the new video technology took a little longer to appear, but were quickly adopted. Although you can still get film for 8mm cameras, including super 8, they are used almost exclusively by enthusiasts and collectors today.

It's So Beautiful - Millefiori Paper Weight

Imagine you are a child visiting your grandmother. You love to visit her, and her home, which is full of so many amazing and beautiful things. You have always been fascinated by her paperweight. It looks like it is an empty sphere with beautiful glass flowers inside, but you know it is much to heavy to be anything of the sort. Still, it is just beautiful. 

When I showed this simple millefiori paperweight to the children, they were amazed by it. They struggled to imagine how so many beautiful different patterns had been captured in the glass dome. What surprised them most though was my description of it as a ‘paperweight’. They could not imagine using something so beautiful in such a way, and thought it was simply a decoration. They were even more intrigued to discover that, in the modern world, decoration is indeed the paperweights main focus. 

According to some, the history of paperweights traces back thousands of years, when they were created almost by accident. According to this theory, ancient glassworkers in places like Egypt and Rome would, instead of discarding scraps of coloured glass, join them together and encase them in clear glass. However, everybody seems to be in agreement that paperweights as we know them evolved in Venice in the mid 1800s. Glassmakers in Venice displayed paperweights at the 1845 Industrial Exhibition in Vienna, and may well have been creating them for some time before this.

Of course, it wouldn't be long until other countries were producing their own paperweights. At the exhibition though, a number of French traders recognised the potential of the simple, decorative items. Within a year, French glassmakers were producing their own paperweights, as were the glassmakers in Bohemia, who bought their canes of glass readymade from the Venetians. Soon enough Britain and America had also started production of their own weights. Paperweights continued to be produced and collected into the 20th century, and remain popular today. In fact, some of the companies who pioneered the objects in France, like Baccarat and Saint Louis, still producing the objects today!

I'm Glad I Didn't Have That Teacher! School Book

Imagine you are a child living in the early 20^th century. The school holidays are almost at an end, and soon you will be returning to school. In some ways, you look forward to it. You have missed seeing your friends every day, and look forward to enjoying time with them again. You don’t look forward to classes though, especially English lessons. You enjoy learning, but no matter how hard you try, you often find ‘unsatisfactory’ written across your work. You only hope this year, you will succeed in attaining good grades!

When I showed the children this old workbook containing English work, and dating from the early 20^th century, they were quite intrigued. They thought the writing was beautiful and were amazed to discover it was the work of a child. The thing which amazed and shocked them most though were the grades written in the book. The grades are written in red ink, and sometimes the word ‘unsatisfactory’ is used. To the children today, who are familiar with teachers providing support and encouragement, even if their work is not excellent, such a word seemed shocking and somewhat cruel. As one child said ‘I’m glad I didn’t have that teacher’

The history of schooling and education goes hand in hand with the history of writing. As civilisations developed systems to record information, up to 6100 years ago, they also developed places of learning in which this system – writing and reading – could be taught. The teachers in these early schools were, more often than not, scribes who served the court and priests. Most civilisations and cultures did not view education as something which all children needed though. Often, only boys were formally educated, and even then the goal of education for most civilisations was to prepare the child for their role as an adult. This led to very different education systems, even within a single civilisation. Take Ancient Greece for example. For Spartans, education was geared towards military service, including being taught to withstand pain but for Athenians, it was thought that boys should know the art not just of war, but of peace and this included learning music, reading and writing.

In the Middle Ages, most schools were run by Cathedrals, monasteries, churches or the palace and most children who attended them were preparing for a life in the clergy (though there were a few children educated to be clerks). Education was very much based on religion. In the 16^th century, schooling became more widespread with almost all churches having a school and education being free for those who were poor. Then, in the 17^th century, interest began to grow in what was known as universal education. Government began to take an interest in education and schools began to open which were separate from the church. In addition, these schools would educate both boys and girls. By the 19^th century, most children received at least a rudimentary education. However, well into the 20^th century, education was geared towards preparing children for their role in life, and thus girls were taught skills such as sewing, looking after the home and cooking, while boys were more likely to be taught more advanced mathematics and sciences. Today education, at least in the west, is more or less equal, with both girls and boys offered the same opportunities to learn.