| History Mystery ANSWERS Exhibit 1 d
Though it says GS it has nothing to do with the famous
Light Opera creators. It is not a walking stick for a
VERY little old man, nor a Bush christener (see the Banjo
Paterson poem) but a cattle brand.
Exhibit 2 c
Though it DOES look a bit like a perfume aotomiser, a fly
spray hand pump,
and possibly a teapot, but it is in fact a blow torch.
Exhibit 3 b
This is a mouli grater, not a record player or CD
player, not a line winder, and certainly not a knitting
machine.
Exhibit 4 a
The first sound records were cylinders about this size,
but this is not one of them. It can't be a telescope,
because there is no hole to look through. It is a kind of
slide rule, and we can show you full instructions.
Exhibit 5 c
These tiny pins were not for making clothes or shoes or
holes in paper, but for playing records. One was
installed in the record player for each record - the
"needle" wore out in one go! Later there were
diamond needles, which lasted much longer!
Exhibit 6 d
This was for sending slow SMSs! When the lever was down,
electrical contact was made and a beep would sound.
Telegraph workers became expert at sending morse dots and
dashes efficiently with a machine like this!
Exhibit 7 d
You have seen the modern toy called a viewmaster, with
stereo pictures to view? This is one of the first of
these toys.
Exhibit 8 b
Notice there is a thing like a crayon and another thing
with a gemstone handle and an initial imprinted in
reverse on a flat part? The handle sometimes comes off
the letter (sorry). This was what was used to seal
letters before prestick and lick-stick envelopes were
made. People melted some wax off the "crayon,"
dropped it on the envelope flap, and pressed their symbol
on the warm wax. No-one could secretly break the seal and
restore it unless they had the same press symbol.
Exhibit 9
This is an old spring scale, that could be carried around
to weigh things quickly, eg the farmer might weigh out a
portion of oats in a sack for each of his work horses to
eat, or a bag of fruit could be weighed at market.
Exhibit 10
The frog is the delicate part of the horse's hoof, and if
a stone lodged between the shoe and the frog, the horse
would go lame. A tool like this was useful to dislodge
the stone so the horse was not in pain any more.
Exhibit 11 a
Every kitchen had a meat mincer like this in the days
when meat was home-grown. It was clamped to the sturdy
kitchen table and the tough parts of the meat were fed
through and made into sausages or hamburgers. It does
have a slight resemblance to a inch for winding ropes, a
vise for a workbench, or a Hills Hoist handle, though.
Exhibit 12 d
It IS second-hand, but could never have been an oven
mitt, and there are no bionics in it to make a bionic
hand. It was used to straighten gloves after washing, as
irons were nearly useless, and they needed to be smooth
to go on smoothly.
Exhibit 13 a
More recent history, though most school children today
have never seen one
- it is an early floppy disc for a computer, now
superseded by CD ROMs and DVD ROMs and hard discs for
storing data and programs on.
Exhibit 14
At first glance it looks like a horse shoe - but which
horse ever had a hoof this shape? It is in fact the shoe
of a bullock.
Exhibit 15 c
No, it's not a spirograph drawing tool, and certainly not
a vase or egg cup or peeler or even a spring. It is a
simple yet very effective candle holder.
Exhibit 16 d
Not for stirring, scraping or brushing, just for
noise-making! This was given to mothers of new babies in
the 1950s with a little advertising on it and
instructions to use it to attract baby's attention or to
signal a coming feed. Maybe an older child could shake
the toy while mother shook the bottle?
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