Monthly Archive for September, 2009

Meet the curator- Nick Lomb

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00z35924Photography by Sotha Bourn © Powerhouse Museum all rights reserved

Name
Dr Nick Lomb

What is your speciality area?
By training I am an astronomer, but my full official title is curator of astronomy, timekeeping, navigation, meteorology, surveying and the history of Sydney Observatory.

How long have you been working at the Museum?
I was acquired by the Museum, sort of came with the furniture, when the Museum took over the running of Sydney Observatory, on 1 July 1982. By that time I had been at the Observatory for over three years, having started there on 19 February 1979.

What is your favourite object in the collection?
I have many favourites and it’s hard to reduce the list to just one. There is the historic 29-cm lens telescope still being regularly used in Sydney Observatory’s south dome. There is the Earnshaw 520 chronometer used by the explorer Matthew Flinders in the first circumnavigation of Australia and with a fascinating subsequent history. And I cannot ignore the beautiful repeating circle from Parramatta Observatory made by the firm with the wonderful name of Reichenbach, Utzschneider und Liebherr in Munich, Germany in the early 1800s. Then there is the Strasburg Clock model that is demonstrated every hour at the Museum.

What piece of research or exhibition are you most proud of in your career at the Museum?
The last exhibition is always the favourite. Currently this is the From Earth to the Universe exhibition that opened on 11 September 2009 at the Powerhouse Museum (most of my previous exhibitions have been at Sydney Observatory). The exhibition looks fantastic, but subtly incorporates a fair amount of astronomical information. As visitors experience the journey from the solar system through the neighbourhood of our own galaxy and then to the realms beyond they pick up information on astronomy and our Universe. So far the public and Museum staff reaction to the exhibition has been enthusiastic.

Meet the curator- Ian Debenham

Published by Ian Debenham 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

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Name
Ian Debenham

What is your specialty area?
In a former life, I was a Licence Aircraft Maintenance Engineer with Qantas who left and obtained an Honours Degree in Ancient History – Roman economic history to be precise. At the Museum, I work primarily with the aviation collection and, because of a long association with boats, I look after the maritime collection. I have also had a long association with cars and I assist my colleague Andrew Grant in this collection area.

How long have you been working at the Museum?
Almost thirty years now, although I had an uncle who worked at the Museum as an Assistant Botanist, so some of my earliest and my most treasured memories are of visiting behind-the-scenes at the Museum. It’s like I have been here forever!

Favourite object in the collection?
With such a long memory of the Museum, it’s hard to identify a favourite object especially, too, when we have such icons as the Hargrave collection, the Boulton and Watt engine and No.1 locomotive. There is also our fantastic collection of aero engines to consider, but I’d have to say, that the Boeing PB2B-2 Catalina “Frigate Bird II” is very dear to my heart because I like large round engined metal aeroplanes; I’ve met several of the crew who went with it to South America and back and I have met members of Sir P G Taylor’s family who are all delightful people. Sadly, I didn’t get to meet ‘P G’; a real hero in my opinion. The flight of “Frigate Bird II” from Sydney to Valparaiso, Chile and back was a great achievement.

What piece of research or exhibition are you most proud of in your career at the Museum?
The research that forged a definite link between Lawrence Hargrave’s box kite and the Wright Brother’s “Flyer”. The evolution of the design moved from the Hargrave box kite through Octave Chanute’s “ladder kite” to his “Katydid” and thus the biplane glider, whose layout formed the basis of the “Flyer”. For years people have searched for this link, but I found it! Hargrave was no longer the ‘old kite flyer’, but he was a necessary link in the development of the successful aeroplane. History had denied him that richly deserved accolade for so long.

Is that my old G-O-G-G-O?

Published by Margaret Simpson 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Photo N¼: 00x07392Photography by Sotha Bourn © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

Having our collection available to search on line, featured in TV shows like ‘The Collectors’, and in the media, has seen many people contacting us with information about our objects. Sometimes they are researching their family history or the object was previously owned by them or their ancestors.

I got a call from a very excited couple in Queensland who caught a fleeting glimpse on TV of our Goggomobil Dart when it was featured in the Museum’s Modernism exhibition. We have little history about the use of this gorgeous little Australian-made sports car and I jumped at the opportunity of showing them the car to see if we had found its early owner from the 1960s. They flew down especially to visit our Powerhouse Discovery Centre where the Goggomobil is now in storage. I asked if the husband could put pen to paper to make some notes about driving the car and he was delighted to oblige. Unfortunately, the Goggo wasn’t his, but the following recollections will bring it back for all those who were teenagers in the 1960s fanging out to the beach with the wind in their hair in an MG, Triumph, Morgan, Austin Healey, Lotus or even a Nota Fang. He recalls:

It was 1965, or thereabout, that I first saw my bright red sports mini “E-type Jag”, as I called it. I was 18 at the time and it was the last of many cars I had in my short driving life, before I got married, and a necessity if I was to keep going out with my then girlfriend!

You see, I was a bit of a Fonzie from “Happy Days” except with red hair, more like Ritchie. I rode a very noisy 250CC Honda Scrambler bike around town, dressed in flying boots; a real pair of Levi 401s bought from the only shop that imported them from America; a Bond’s see-through T-shirt and a black flying jacket. This did not impress the future father-in-law, who made me push my bike around the corner and well away from his place, before I was allowed to start it up! So hence, the need for some wheels!

Photo Nº: 00x07388Photography by Sotha Bourn © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

The Goggo was my first car with seatbelts and it was even fitted with double roll bars, one behind the seat and one on the bonnet in front of the windscreen. This meant I could race my friends, who drove Morris Minors and Austin A40s, and thrash them from the lights when we drag raced down Church Street, Parramatta on Friday nights. Being a western suburbs boy from Parramatta, I thought the Goggo looked like a hot racer! A real perk for me was that my father used to be the groundsman on Parramatta football oval and we lived in the small house on the gate. This meant after dark, I had access to the roads when the park was closed, so I used to race around Parramatta Park at night with the roof down!

It is hard to believe, but I would often fit my girlfriend’s sister and one of my mates in the back seat for the run up to K14 lookout for a bit of a smooch and a milkshake at the local hangout. I can’t remember the name of it now, but the lady who owned the shop always stuck up for us when the police came in looking for the kids who had just sped past them up the hill! People would go into hysterics when we pulled back the roof and out squeezed four people!

Goggo3Photography by Andrew Frolows © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

A surfie mate of mine from work gave me an old long board with a broken nose, so one day we brought it down with us to Wollongong for a surf. While we thought we looked really cool, the surfie chicks were not impressed. We were the Parramatta boys surfing in our jeans, or should I say, trying to surf in our jeans!

The Goggomobil had some bad points. Firstly, no fuel gauge (although a great excuse if you got the girlfriend home late!); it oiled up the spark plugs if you thrashed it too hard and you would have to get out and change them yourself and the gear lever worked sideways. You were also below the sight of truck mirrors and I remember one day driving through Parramatta when a large semi-trailer decided to change lanes when I was alongside him. I frantically tooted my little horn as I passed between the front and back wheels of the truck – luckily he heard me, but we almost became a red pizza! But, on the good side – the seat backs lifted off and you could turn it into a double bed. This was great at the drive-in and once the roof was locked on, no one could get out! The Goggo is also really light and one day while driving down Lane Cove Road, we lost a wheel! Three of us just picked the car up and carried it to the side of the road while we located our wheel and some of the bolts.

Goggo4Photography by Andrew Frolows © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

It’s great to reminisce, but I honestly wonder how I survived those days and I must have been the worry of my mother’s life! The Goggo was one car that survived me and I cannot remember for the life of me what became of it. I was excited to see the car the Museum has and for a moment thought it might have been my old car, but it does not seem to have the roll bars. I often see the insurance ads on TV about the Goggo and have a bit of a chuckle to myself. I would love to get my hands on another one, but the problem is I would probably not fit behind the wheel and have a lot of difficulty getting out again! Old age can be sad!

- An old Goggo owner

We’d love to hear from you! Do you have any stories you’d like to share about your experiences with a Goggomobil? Perhaps you think the Goggomobil in our collection used to be your own?!

Sydney International Exhibition 1879

Published by Geoff Barker 0 Comments Tags: , .
Statue of Queen Victoria by Marshall Wood in the Garden Palace, 1879-1880

Statue of Queen Victoria by Marshall Wood in the Garden Palace, 1879-1880. Source Powerhouse Museum.

One hundred and thirty years ago, on the 17 September 1879, the Sydney International Exhibition opened the doors of its main building the ‘Garden Palace’. Like other international exhibitions held around the world it proved an enormous success, even though Australia was so isoolated from Europe and America.

The Commissioners of the Sydney Exhibition certainly felt it had “undoubtedly emphasized a new era in the history of the Colony, and projected the value of Australia on the minds of the inhabitants of those older countries”. But it was the 1,045,898 visitors that passed through its gates were perhaps the most eloquent testimony to its triumph.

Macquarie Street entrance to the Garden Palace, photographed by Messrs Richards and Company, 1879-1880.

Macquarie Street entrance to the Garden Palace, photographed by Messrs Richards and Company, 1879-1880. Source Powerhouse Museum.

The main feature of the Sydney exhibition was an ornate building, the ‘Garden Palace’, which was over 244 metres long and had a floor space of over 112,000 metres. Designed by the Colonial Architect James Barnet the building included 4.5 million feet of timber, 2.5 million bricks and 243 tons of galvanised corrugated iron; all of which was lost when the ‘Garden Palace’ was destroyed by fire in 1882.

This was also a devastating blow for the Powerhouse Museum, or the ‘Technological, Industrial and Sanitary Museum’ as it was then known, for the many of the exhibition objects had been earmarked as the first acquisitions for the new museum. Only a few items were rescued after the fire; a piece of molten glass and a piece of metal from the statue of Queen Victoria.

Molten metal shard from Queen Victoria's statue.

Molten metal shard from Queen Victoria's statue. Source Powerhouse Museum.

This catastrophic event only proved to be a stumbling block for the Museum’s curator, Joseph Maiden, who set about rebuilding the collections. Just over a year later, on 15 December 1883, the Technological Museum, with 5000 new objects, was opened to the public in the Sydney Domain’s Agricultural building, situated right next to the remains of the old ‘Garden Palace’.

Death in the Museum- part one- green burials

Published by Erika Dicker 17 Comments Tags: , , , .

LifeArt Coffin

LifeArt Coffin

Photo courtesy of LifeArt

I am in the middle of acquiring a coffin, and not just any coffin, one that is environmentally friendly.

This LifeArt coffin is not only spectacular looking, it is also made from almost 100% recycled materials, and will break down easily once in the ground. It has just been on display in the Museum as part of the Sydney Design 09 festival.

The act of burying the dead dates back to the very first Homo-sapiens who dug out shallow graves. Since then different cultures and religions have evolved to perform a variety of rituals and burial practices such as cremation, sky burials, mummification, burial at sea, or even cryonics!. But one of the most popular in western culture today is to bury a body inside a coffin, or casket, in a cemetery

Coffins have traditionally been made to protect the body, and thus been made out of strong materials such as steel and hardwood. These coffins not only take up a large amount of ground space (something most countries are running short of) they use a large amount of non-recycled material and can contain environmentally harmful chemicals that can leach into the ground.

Since I’ve been researching coffins I have been exposed to a few new ‘green’ ways to be buried:

The Swedish have come up with something called Promession, which is a way to freeze dry human remains. The body is submerged in liquid nitrogen, then slighty vibrated, the end result is a fine powder. promession-steg2promession-steg3
The powder can then be used to help plant a tree, placed in an environmentally friendly casket, or buried directly into the soil.promession-steg6 Image courtesy of Promessa

A Queensland council has taken the idea of natural burials one step further. You can now be buried in a cardboard coffin (or without a coffin at all) in bushland, and the position geo-tagged, so family and friends could return to the site. Information such as family pictures, biographies, and even letters can be attached to the GPS marker and retrieved with a handheld GPS system.

While it’s not for everyone, cardboard coffins are a good way to be ‘green in death’ as well as in life!

I want to be returned to the earth as naturally as possible after I die, being buried in bushland doesnt sound like a bad idea!

I want to know what you would like to happen to you after you die? Does your religion or culture dictate what will happen to your body? would you make an effort to ‘go green’?

The Bosdyk Dolls House- part three

Published by Lindie Ward 5 Comments Tags: , .

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The detail in the Bosdyk Dolls House is astounding. The picture above is of the top level of the house, the attic. Lets take a closer look:

Frans Bosdyk made most of the furniture for the house. However, details such as the textiles and interior designs were worked on by his wife, Christina. If we zoom in you can see that no detail was too small to escape her notice.

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In this room on the left hand side of the wall is adhered the tiniest measuring tape that you could imagine, along with sewing supplies and dress patterns.

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On the other side of the room hangs a little poster entitled “How to measure for pants” alongside tiny paper cut patterns.

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The scraps of material neatly put away…

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…and my personal favorite, the sewing thread and needles
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…And you thought moving house was hard!

Published by Melanie Pitkin 1 Comment Tags: , .

The Powerhouse Museum’s NSWGR steam crane locomotive 1082 was recently moved to a new home at the Museum’s Powerhouse Discovery Centre: Collection Stores at Castle Hill from its long-term storage location within the Large Erecting Shop at Eveleigh (Redfern). The locomotive was constructed by Robert Stephenson-Hawthorne in 1950 in Leeds in England and entered service in Australia on 10 February 1950. It was used for handling scrap metal and engine components, either by chains or the use of an electro-magnet, which was powered by a generator set (missing from 1082) on the left-hand side of the locomotive beside the crane mount. With a lifting capacity of 7 tonnes, the locomotive itself weighs 35 tonnes so, as you can probably imagine, moving it was no easy feat!

Staff from the Museum’s Registration and Conservation Departments worked alongside the mobile crane, transportation and railway contractors in the transfer. Because the overhead cranes in the Large Erecting Shop had been decommissioned by the railways some years before, the locomotive had to be moved outside and a mobile crane hired in for the lift. Because of tight clearances and a lack of space at the back of the shed, there was only room for a single crane and the low-loader. In order to give the low-loader enough room to reverse beneath the slung load, the mobile crane had to be positioned a fair distance away which, in turn, meant that its lifting capacity had to be increased to compensate. In the end, a 160-tonne mobile crane was organised to lift a mere 35 tonnes!

The need to shunt the locomotive into place (which means moving it along the track using another locomotive for power) meant that a fair amount of preparatory work was needed to ensure it moved smoothly without damage to bearings, valves, cylinders or wheels, even over such a relatively short distance. The connecting rods were removed, the bearings and axle boxes were freed up and the lubrication system to the bearings was checked to ensure good oil flow. A week prior to the transfer, 1082 was shunted from its long-held position behind a number of other vehicles at the end of 1 Road (track) in the Large Erecting Shop and placed at the front of the shed for ease of access.

On the morning of the movement, a diesel locomotive was used to shunt it from its temporary placement on 1 Road and all the way up to the other end of 2 Road, where it was pushed out through the back doors and positioned beneath the mobile crane, which was set up in the narrow driveway that runs along the rear of the workshop.

The mobile crane lifted the loco onto a low-loader, which proceeded off-site, en route to Castle Hill. It was originally anticipated that the load would be too high to transport during the day and that the truck would have to wait until 2am before it could begin the journey out of Sydney, but, once loaded, we discovered it could actually be transported there and then! A hydraulic control line problem with the low-loader, however, saw the movement delayed anyway and the loco didn’t arrive at Castle Hill until 3am!

Despite the wet weather, as you will see in the pictures, the loco was successfully unloaded at Castle Hill by two cranes, and moved into its new home by 7am. 1082 is now more accessible to the public and can be viewed on special open days at the Powerhouse Discovery Centre site.

Jennifer Edmonds, Heavy Engineering Conservator

Who was John Slade?

Published by Anni Turnbull 0 Comments Tags: , .

AnniesJohnSlade

Slade was an errand boy and in 1825 sentenced to be transported to the Colony of New South Wales for the period of his natural life. We know his crime was house breaking and after serving 22 years of a life sentence he was given a conditional pardon for good behaviour.

This kind of pardon meant individuals were not allowed to leave the penal colony to which they had been transported until the term of their original sentence had expired, from 7 or 14 years to life.

Convicts were transported to New South Wales for a wide variety of offences. Most commonly it was theft which included pick-pocketing, sheep and horse stealing, highway robbery, burglary, housebreaking and receiving stolen goods.

This image of the pardon you see above is part of the Museum’s celebration of this years theme for History Week – scandals, crime and corruption.

Happy Wattle Day!

Published by Lynne McNairn 4 Comments Tags: , , .

00212902© Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

When you live in the suburbs and make long journeys along bus lanes or railway lines its hard not to notice wattle in flower at this time of year. Wattle of course is our national flower and gave us our green and gold sporting colours.

September 1st is officially National Wattle Day and this made me look up Wattle in our collection database. One lovely object is a hand embroidered silk valance made by Isabella Murray. Isabella Murray was the daughter in law of Sir Henry Parkes (often called the Father of Federation).

The valance features sprays of a ferny leafed wattle. Flowers were a popular embroidery motif with the journal ‘Castner’s Monthly and Rural Australian’ advising in November 1886 that ‘flowers must be true to nature – in fact nature must be as carefully copied as possible’. Native plants often featured and in the lead up to Australia’s Federation in 1901 wattle was increasingly common”.

Isabella was not lucky in her marriage to Sir Henry’s youngest son Varney

The family was often short of money as Varney had a chequered career as an architect, politician and businessman. Although not a distinguished architect, his practice seems to have flourished in the early 1890s, when he designed the ‘Marble Bar’ for George Adams’ hotel in Pitt St and other buildings in the city. However he was extravagant, lost money in various unsuccessful ventures and was declared bankrupt in 1895.

Varney was notorious for his extra-marital affairs. Isabella left him to live in Edinburgh in 1899 and sought a divorce three years later. This was not granted and she returned to bring up her family alone, settling in the suburb of Waverley. A resourceful, independent woman, Isabella found employment and raised her three children frugally but successfully. She lived with her daughter Mary (even after Mary’s marriage) until her death in 1927”.

It is not known at what stage of her life Isabella made this valance but it is nice to think of her sitting her parlour stitching away and I’m sure she would have enjoyed making it.

The valance is currently on display at the Powerhouse Discovery Centre at Castle Hill

Lynne McNairn
Registrar