Design and Technology Collection

We have a 1908 art nouveau silver ladle in our Design and Technology Collection.

Art Nouveau was an international movement in art and architecture which was particularly popular between 1890 and 1910. It was inspired by nature, and featured the curves of plants and flowers. The ladle in our collection has a narcissus flower on its head, and leaves on its stem.

This 1906 Singer Sewing Machine with Pedal Table is part of our Design and Technology Collection.

Singer Corporation is an American manufacturer of sewing machines, which was first established as I. M. Singer & Co. in 1851 by Isaac Merritt Singer with New York lawyer Edward Clark. The company marketed the world's first practical sewing machine. This machine had a straight eye-pointed needle and transverse shuttle, an overhanging arm, a table to support the cloth, a presser foot to hold the material against the upward stroke of the needle, and a roughened feed wheel extending through a slot in the table. 

Singer came up with the the idea of using a treadle similar to that of a spinning wheel; all other machines at the time used a hand crank to generate power.

One shelf in our Design and Technology Collection cabinet is devoted to the development of music technology. It contains four items which show the changes to recording and listening to music in the twentieth and very early twenty-first century.

The first item is a vinyl 45 (or 7 inch). The names are derived from its play speed, 45 rpm, and the standard diameter, 7 inches (18 cm). The 7-inch 45 rpm record was released 31 March 1949 by RCA Victor as a smaller, more durable replacement for the 78 rpm discs.

The second item is a cassette tape, which is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. It was released by Philips in 1963, having been developed in Hasselt, Belgium. Compact cassettes came in two forms, either already containing content as a prerecorded cassette, or as a fully recordable "blank" cassette.

The third item is a compact disc, a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony and released in 1982. The format was originally developed to store and play only sound recordings but was later adapted for storage of data.

The final item is an iPod. The iPod is a line of portable media players and multi-purpose pocket computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001. Only the iPod Touch remains in production.

This Davy Lamp from Aberdare is part of our Design and Technology collection.

The flame safety lamp was invented by Sir Humphrey Davy in 1815, to address the problem of explosions caused by naked flames coming in contact with flammable gases in mines. The Davy lamp was fuelled by oil or naptha (lighter fluid), and the wick was contained in a metal gauze cylinder. If the lamp is placed in an explosive atmosphere, such as a mixture of air and methane gas as commonly found in a coal mine, the explosion that takes place when the flame contacts the gas is contained within the gauze mesh and does not cause a danger to the miners.

There were many manufacturers of Davy lamps, and many variations in the detail of their construction. The lamps normally had a cylindrical glass screen around the gauze, and a protective steel bonnet with air inlet holes. Early versions gave out less light than a naked flame candle, but designs improved so that by the 1930's some types were several times brighter than a standard candle flame.

The lamp provided a crude test for the existence of gases, as the flame changed shape or burned with a blue tinge in the presence of flammable gases. In addition, the lamp could be used to check for low oxygen levels or concentrations of gases such as carbon dioxide, as in these conditions the lamp flame would be extinguished. The lamp succeeded in reducing the incidence of explosions, but accidents still happened, such as when a lamp was dropped or broken.

This candlestick telephone is part of our Design and Technology collection.

Candlestick telephones gained popularity in the 1880s as the telephone became an important piece of technology for modern businesses. A standard candlestick phone included a base, stem, mouthpiece, and receiver. The phone’s heavy receiver, or speaker end, rested on a hooked perch when not in use.

Our candlestick telephone, like the majority of early candlesticks, has only a single switch for dialing an operator (some intercom or office phones had additional buttons for calling between locally networked telephones).

Due to the threat of contagious diseases like influenza and tuberculosis shortly after World War I, telephone producers developed mouthpieces made from glass or porcelain, which were thought to be more sanitary than Bakelite or rubber. These parts could be easily cleaned by unscrewing and boiling them, and employees of large companies sometimes carried their own mouthpieces to work.

Eventually, round 10-hole dials were mounted onto the center shaft of candlesticks, eliminating the need for calling an operator before dialing out. This rotary dial was patented by Almon Strowger in 1891. By the 1920s, dials were relocated to the telephone’s base, beginning a shift in telephone design that would ultimately lead to the cradle telephone.

This is one of two Roman spindle whorls in our Design and Technology collection.

Before the use of spinning wheels, spinning was carried out with a spindle and a whorl. The spindle, or rod, usually had a swelling on which the whorl was fitted. A wisp of prepared wool was twisted around the spindle, which was then spun and allowed to drop. The whorl adds momentum to the spindle. By doing this the fibres were extended and twisted into a yarn.

They occur in a range of shapes and materials. Spindle whorls are often the only evidence preserved of spinning. Roman women were expected to be involved in cloth production: spinning, weaving and sewing. The goddess Athene was known for her skill in spinning, and the Fates, often depicted as three old women, were thought to spin threads which represented the fates of human beings.