Fridges and dishwashers and toasters Oh My!

[Lucien Nunes]

We have been very lucky to receive a brace of donations and loan items for the domestics display plus an unusual piece of test equipment, courtesy of Amberley Museum & Heritage Centre, John Narborough and Dick Saunders. I had been discussing with John (Curator of the Electricity hall at Amberley) the importance of domestic displays in presenting the topic of electricity to the public. This has been done par excellence there and I remarked that it would have to be a priority to gather suitable exhibits for Electrokinetica. He kindly offered to organise "a selection of items" which I said would be gratefully received. Fast forward a few months, to a call from John during which it transpired that he and his team had donated items from their own collections and arranged loans from Amberley Museum Trust of items not presently on show, to get our appliance displays off to a flying start. He suggested a visit to inspect and pick up said items using 'as large a vehicle as possible'.

Having decided that we needed volume more than weight capacity, Dave and I went in a Luton van. We spent a busy day sorting and packing with John's kind assistance, took a whistle-stop tour of recent developments at the museum, finally setting off Londonwards laden with heaters, lights, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, cookers, fridges, toasters, kettles, irons, clocks, radios.... and a Cuthbert Andrews 60kV test set. This highly photogenic piece of apparatus was originally installed in a high voltage test van. As configured by the electricity board's engineers, it comprises two HV transformers with valve rectifiers, a thyratron control module, operators console and a free-standing spark gap and meter. All the HV components mounted on the transformer unit are on telescopic insulators that allow the kit to be packed down to minimum size, reflecting its portable nature. It will make an excellent centrepiece for the HV instrumentation display. Had I paid more heed to John's recommendation we would have gone in a 7.5 tonner: the prewar washers, cookers and big fridges included in the selection would have put the Luton massively overweight, so these have yet to be collected.

What, you might ask, has happened about the progress of setting up displays generally at EK over the last few months, during which things have gone rather quiet? We are gearing up for our final heavy plant move-around. Nothing can happen now until that is completed, which will be as soon as Edward and a few others of us have simultaneous availability during August / September. At a stroke this will allow the main display areas to be de-cluttered allowing work to start in earnest again. In the meantime, anyone for a cup of Belling?

Lucien