From the desk of Kim Gough, Program Developer, Royal BC Museum
One of the most popular features on our Facebook site is the online version of our signature fundraising event “Artifact or Artifiction”. In our online Facebook version we post an image and a statement and ask folks if it is true or false. I propose we try another version of the game. Below I have posted a picture of an artifact, but instead of me posting a statement that may be true or false; I want you, gentle reader, to provide the statement. You don’t have to be accurate; in fact it’s more fun if you aren’t! Have fun and let the creative juices flow.
Posts
In the spirit of waste not, want not, this press will juice stale pancakes so that the flour can be reconstituted in a new batch.
ReplyDeleteIt's a pancake-making machine that makes giant pancakes, used at Victorian birthday parties!
ReplyDeleteIt's the latest in hair-straightening implements! Just place over an open fire. When the flats get warm enough to evaporate drips of water, raise the handle, insert your lovely flowing locks, then press on the handle to safely and efficiently straighten your hair for the latest flat-ironed looks!
ReplyDeleteThis single page print press dates from the mid-19th century and was used to churn out early broadsheets promoting the idiosyncratic wonders of British Columbia's geography, climate and politics. A later modification of this particular instrument involved electrification which permitted its additional utility as a panini and espresso press, anticipating the foundations of much of the province's current economic activity.
ReplyDeleteIt's a gameboard press. Churns out all the chess, checker, and backgammon boards you want to play with ...
ReplyDeleteCould it be a press to make records? for the phonograph or gramophone?
ReplyDeleteAn early model of a hair straightner. Of course it only worked for those with exceptionally long hair, but it set us on the road to straight hair for all!
ReplyDeletemmmmm, pancakes!
ReplyDeleteThis artifact was patented in BC by a Welsh immigrant and entrepreneur in the late 1800's. It was used to press and shape pelts to make traditional Welsh hats and other similarly shaped top hats. The ‘Milner press’ was eliminated from service when straw hats and boaters became the norm in the early Edwardian period.
ReplyDeleteIt may look like a pancake machine, but in fact it is an early 20th century industrial waffle machine. Made in Belgium at the turn of the century this waffle maker was used to make waffle en mass to send all over Europe.
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone who participated - I enjoyed reading your comments. It gives me a new respect for our curators who fib at "Artifact or Artifiction" - it's harder than it looks. The picture I posted is a platen press. This press is from the 1750s and came to BC in 1856 and was used in different areas around the province to print newspapers until the 1890s. This press uses a plate instead of a roller to press paper to inked letters. Who knows, it might even press a good panini.
ReplyDelete