Categories: uncategorized
Date: 14 September 2008 12:22:44
Walked up the road yesterday afternoon, in what turned out to be very pleasant weather, to another 'Grösste Fest Aller Zeit' (biggest festival of all time... not). As part of Heritage Open Days, the Methodist church was having a Victorian day to inform people about the background of the big Victorian house next to the church, which they have recently turned into a community centre. As always with their events, it was beautifully done, with exquisite flower arrangements in the rooms, delicious and cheap cream teas, and the spectacular gardens (including ancient copse) to roam in. There was also Victorian entertainment - songs, poems and monologues (inevitably, we had Albert and the Lion, as well as The Charge of the Light Brigade and Byron's 'The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold').
However what I really wanted to see, and arrived just in time for, was a talk by Maurice Collins, the collector, on Victorian and early 20th Century gadgets and appliances. He had a wealth of wonderful gizmos to show us, and we had to guess what each of them was for. Ones I remember include the Codd bottle for sparkling drinks (from which we get the term 'codswallop'), the nit comb cleaner which looked like a miniature Bullworker, a 'sanitary hair puffer', a secret camera hidden in a cosmetic bag, an air-operated candle snuffer and a rotary nail-buffer which was very ingenious and allowed the user to polish both hands at once. There were also various items one can still get today, such as a dynamo torch, and a projector clock (one that projects the time on the ceiling), known for reasons I will leave you to surmise, as a 'brothel clock'. Often the major difference with today's doofers is that what was then powered by clockwork or a wind-up handle, is now electrical or electronic.
It was a fascinating and entertaining hour, and if you are in London, I strongly recommend you visit the exhibition of his collection which is currently at the British Library.
Sadly, I was too tired (having tried the mean machine again the night before) to go to the vocal concert I had planned to go to in the evening. Oh well, I've got a CD of the group.