this year I seem to have got a new hobby of visiting museums. it seems that when I visit them there seems to be something that makes me think about things, or just leaves me in awe of how they made them. For many years when I've wanted to find out about things, its been easy enough to just click on the internet and have the answers there, but seeing real objects just puts things into perpsective, so today I visited 3 of them (and walked about 6 miles too).
so the first one was the royal armouries
https://royalarmouries.org/visit-us/leeds
when you look at the suits of armour that are 600 years old and wonder how they managed to make them to such a standard.....dont thing they had bead rollers or english wheels then.
the second was Thwaites Mill.
https://www.leeds.gov.uk/museumsandgalleries/thwaitemills/Home
a water powered mill that operated until 1970. the two things that got me were the sound in the mill of the waterwheels and the noise of machiney, it was very relaxing, I could have listened to it all day. then I wandered into the workshop and they had 3 or 4 lathes amongest other machines, but what I didnt expect was a lathe with a 6ft faceplate, and 20ft long bed......and was powered by a water wheel.
and finally today I went to Leeds City Museum,
https://www.leeds.gov.uk/museumsandgalleries/leedscitymuseum
had no idea what to expect here, but there was a clock made by John Hargreaves (the guy who made the first clocks accurate enough to be used for navigation). this clock had a wooden movement as the oils in the wood would mean that the mechanism wouldn't need oiling.
they also have an exhibition of chippendale furniture there too, and stunning is an understatement of how they looked.
just really saying how inspiring it is to see old objects and technologies in today's disposable world. Anyone else feel like this. You never know what you will see and what will take you interest and get you thinking.
One thing that has annoyed me though its that this year Ive been to 4 differnt industrial museums with steam engines and none have been running......
...so next weekend I'll be off to Ellen Road Engine House.
https://sites.google.com/a/ellenroad.org.uk/www/home
so the first one was the royal armouries
https://royalarmouries.org/visit-us/leeds
when you look at the suits of armour that are 600 years old and wonder how they managed to make them to such a standard.....dont thing they had bead rollers or english wheels then.
the second was Thwaites Mill.
https://www.leeds.gov.uk/museumsandgalleries/thwaitemills/Home
a water powered mill that operated until 1970. the two things that got me were the sound in the mill of the waterwheels and the noise of machiney, it was very relaxing, I could have listened to it all day. then I wandered into the workshop and they had 3 or 4 lathes amongest other machines, but what I didnt expect was a lathe with a 6ft faceplate, and 20ft long bed......and was powered by a water wheel.
and finally today I went to Leeds City Museum,
https://www.leeds.gov.uk/museumsandgalleries/leedscitymuseum
had no idea what to expect here, but there was a clock made by John Hargreaves (the guy who made the first clocks accurate enough to be used for navigation). this clock had a wooden movement as the oils in the wood would mean that the mechanism wouldn't need oiling.
they also have an exhibition of chippendale furniture there too, and stunning is an understatement of how they looked.
just really saying how inspiring it is to see old objects and technologies in today's disposable world. Anyone else feel like this. You never know what you will see and what will take you interest and get you thinking.
One thing that has annoyed me though its that this year Ive been to 4 differnt industrial museums with steam engines and none have been running......
...so next weekend I'll be off to Ellen Road Engine House.
https://sites.google.com/a/ellenroad.org.uk/www/home