Child's Penny Farthing - A statement of Significance

Child’s Penny Farthing Cycle
MOV ref. bar code 00014653

The penny-farthing or high wheel cycle as it was also known, was first built in 1869 by a Frenchman named Eugene Meyer. It marked the beginning of a new age for cycling, offering an efficient mode of transport with regards to the speed and distance that could be travelled. Not only does this machine represent an important development in bicycle design, it was a part of cycling becoming a social activity and a sport. This is demonstrated by the fact that it brought with it clothing fashions for riding, and more importantly, ushered in the dawn of cycle racing. The ‘ordinary bicycle’ as it was named was essentially enjoyed by the affluent that had the money to purchase such an item, and the time to devote to using it in a social and sporting context. Considering this makes the notion of a child’s penny-farthing even more significant. This would have been an expensive toy, and perhaps an indicator of the importance given to learning to ride such a machine by a father.
Ridden sitting virtually on top of the front wheel, it is a direct drive design, with the pedals directly connected to the hub of the drive wheel. In the pursuit of performance the wheel was made larger to increase speed and reached a size of 60”, halted only by the limitation of the riders inside leg measurement. The result was a machine whose aesthetic looks would be instantly recognisable against proceeding bicycle designs. This golden period for the penny-farthing lasted only 16 years until the development of the Rover Safety Bicycle in 1885 that utilised a drive chain and gear, and the now common diamond shaped frame. After this the penny-farthing quickly faded from general use, but has remained as a novelty bicycle and a special interest to enthusiasts.

The Bush Mechanics Car.

This car played a pivotal part in an ABC television show called The Bush Mechanics. The program showed a team of aboriginal (indigenous) mechanics making their way around the country on mini missions, making the impossible possible. The show questioned mechanical ways and solutions we thought to be normal and coming up with amazing solutions to situations we would normally deem impossible.

All the shows characters were self taught mechanics who brought forward a new definition of education. Whether it was finding a solution to a flat tyre situation when you've got no spare or overcoming many mechanical obstacles on the notorious Tanami Track it seems they always found a way out of trouble.

The car from the series is now in the museum has remained untouched. It is in the same state that it was in, the day it was driven in there. It has uncanny character and presence which gives it an almost loving feeling, something with such character that tells a story with in itself.

For every scratch on the bonnet, for every piece of wood replacing something mechanical, they all play a vital role in retelling the places it has visited and the adventurous times it has seen.

Turkish Bath Bowl

In Ottoman times the Turkish bath bowl was used to scoop

water out of the basin in the Hamam or Turkish bath. This

public bath was a cultural institution, a place where believers

could fulfill the Islamic precept of cleanliness, but also place

in which to mingle, socialize and gossip. Women would proceed

from their harem to the Hamam with great ceremony, showing

off their ornately embroidered towels ivory inlaid slippers and

bath bowls decorated with different designs.

Traditionally it was also customary among wealthy families

to present the bride with a silver bath bowl, as a significant part

of a woman's trousseau, demonstrating the social status of the woman.

A popular design used on the bowls was that of the jointed fish,

a symbol of sacred fertility. The designs often told where

the bowl was made. Bath bowls were made from different materials

and different sizes, and were also used by men and children.

These days the Turkish bath bowl is still being used in Hamams.

OGDEN lawn mower

**This is an example - none of the information has been checked. But is gives you some ideas on how a statement of significance can be written - but it has to be much better than this - I knocked this up in about 2 minutes**

The Ogden Power Mower

The Ogden Power Mower is an important example of the role that suburban lifestyle played in Australian industrial design and manufacturing in the years after the close of the second world war. This was a period of comparative affluence for people that had been children in the great depression of the 1930s and had sacrificed a great deal in the war years. Products such as this mower represent the hope and pride of that generation and the faith in material posessions as a way towards a safer and happier future. New homes of the time had large gardens and the "lawn" became a primary site for family interactions and an indicator of social standing. Men took great pride in their lawns and it was common to spend saturday mornings tending to the lawn and its edges. These domestic cultural practices spurned a new era for product design, manufacturing and marketing - and helped to reinvigorate the machine and metal fabrication industries that had grown to support the war effort.
The Ogden mower is also important in that it is a "transitional object". It's evolution is clearly visble in that it is essentially a common push mower that is given additional power from a small Villiers type two stroke internal combustion engine. This mower technology was rapidly replaced by propeller type lawn mowers that had no capacity to be used without the motor running. In this sense the Ogden mower is an important early , and short lived, example of a hybrid powered device, made redundant by a growing cultural obsession with convenience, automation and petrochemicals and with the financial capacity and social mandate to upgrade as a way of seeing in the boom years of the 1950's.