All kinds of innovative technologies that changed our lives are contained in this store including telephones, cameras, sewing machines, clocks, heaters, light bulbs, radios, televisions, typewriters, record players, and plastics. You can also see printing presses, engines, machines and other amazing contraptions dating from the industrial age to the present day.
Feature objects in the exhibition
Commodore 64 computer
The Commodore 64 is an important step in computing history: it popularised the up-take of the home personal computer. The Commodore 64 made computing accessible and fun, and although it was certainly not the only home PC on the market at the time, it was definitely one of the most affordable.
The C64 was released onto the market in 1982. It is said to have been the world’s best selling home computer – selling more that seventeen million units between 1982 and 1993. During its lifetime it certainly outsold both IBM clones and Apple computers. The Commodore 64 is the subject of many emulations – its popularity succeeding its lifetime by more than two decades.
Learn more about the Commodore 64 computer on the Powerhouse website
Volunteer Insights and Talking Points
The C64 was released onto the market in 1982. It is said to have been the world’s best selling home computer – selling more that seventeen million units between 1982 and 1993. Sales totalled some 17 million units.
Now that personal computers are used in the everyday by most people, it’s important to reflect on the brands and units that contributed to the landscape we now live and operate in.
How much does a computer cost to manufacture? Well! The Commodore produced many of its parts in-house to control supplies and cost. Improving the reliability, as well as reduce manufacturing costs, eventually, it cost only about $25.00 to manufacture, and the consumer price of the C-64 dropped to around $200.00.
Commodore was founded in the mid 1950s. It was a small company that sold and repaired typewriters; though did not manufacture typewriters. The company then began to sell calculating machines. By the 1970s Commodore was manufacturing calculators using Texas Instruments microchips.
Question to engage general visitors:
Why was the Commodore 64 more popular than its Apple or IBM counterparts?
Part of the Commodore 64 success was because it was sold in retail stores instead of electronics stores, and that these machines can be directly plugged into an existing home television without any modifications.
Question to engage younger audiences:
How much could you fit in this computer? (talking about gigs and space on units, reflecting on processing power with younger people could be really fun) Essentially with the commodore you could fit the equivalent of low bit games and a couple of word documents.
Question to engage enthusiasts:
Is anyone familiar with the zaney packaging for these kinds of units? “The packaging for the computer and transformer consists of a Styrofoam box, base and lid, with internal cut outs for housing the parts. The box is covered by a blue and white cardboard sleeve, which slips over the outside and is open at both sides. The sleeve features images of the computer on all four sides, with ‘Commodore 64 MicroComputer’ on the front and detailed images of the computer being used on the back.”
‘Robocow’ robotic cow
Robocow is a battery-operated robotic cow developed as an aid to train horses to work with cattle. It was designed and made by the National Centre for Engineering in Agriculture in Toowoomba, Queensland, between 1995 and 1999.
The impetus to develop Robocow came when Professor John Billingsley from the University of Southern Queensland was asked to design a robot that could help train cutting horses (cutting is when the horse prevents a single cow from rejoining the herd). This kind of training is usually carried out with calves; however, they quickly tire of running and dodging the horses. One advantage of using robots is that they will undertake repetitive work without tiring or becoming bored. To engage the horse’s attention, the robot had to look and move like a calf. Robocow’s motor, wheels, and steering mechanism were designed to mimic a calf’s jerky, sudden movements.
Robocow captures the imagination with its innovative use in a rural application. It also represents a stage in robotics that had advanced from programmed and mechanically automated robots to relatively independent thinking and moving robots, such as Honda’s ASIMO.
Learn more about the ‘Robocow’ robotic cow on the Powerhouse website
Volunteer Insights and Talking Points
This is a battery-operated robotic cow, called ‘Robocow’, developed in Australia at the National Centre for Engineering in Agriculture in Toowoomba, Queensland, in the late 1990s to help train cutting horses.
Robotics is a field of mechanical automation and computing that has fascinated scientists and the general public alike since the sixteenth century when the first automata were developed by Jacques de Vaucanson in France. It is an area of technology that has become as much a part of popular culture as it has of industry. Robocow captures the imagination with its innovative use and interesting design.
This is a Mobile device designed for training cutting horses to work with cattle. A cutting horse is used to separate a calf from a cow when a procedure is required to be performed on either cow or calf. Robocow is programmable and has been designed to closely resemble a cow. It has two wheels at the rear for stabilization, and one at the front for steering that can swivel 90 degrees. The top of the robocow is covered in moulded Styrofoam and brown fabric to resemble a cow’s torso, and the front of the material has been fashioned to resemble a cow’s head. It is powered by two motors – one to drive it, and one for the steering. Programming is done via a laptop computer which connects to the robocow’s hard drive memory by serial port. The power source is a single battery.
Professor Billingsley began his career as a mathematician in Portsmouth, England. He developed auto pilots for the aeronautical industry, and then went on to study control theory. He saw that the best way to apply control theory was to robotics. Professor Billingsley has developed many robots at the University of Southern Queensland, and advanced Australia’s standing in the area of Robotics.
Question to engage general visitors:
What is an advantage of the use of an automaton?
One advantage of using robots is that they will engage in repetitive work without tiring or becoming bored. To engage the horse’s attention, the robot had to look and move like a calf. The robot’s motor, wheels, and steering mechanism enabled it to mimic the jerky, sudden movements of a young cow.
Question to engage younger visitors:
What other animals could we build to help train them? Any ideas? why? (allows children to engage with the idea of being an inventor themselves)
Question to engage enthusiasts:
What are some of the materials used to make this unit? (design description/answer above – styrofoam)
Segment of the original transatlantic cable
This piece of cable is an original portion of the cable which connected for the first time Europe and America in 1858. It represents a pivotal point in the history of telecommunications.
It may not be a rare item but it is part of an incredible story. It is a story of grand plans, human folly and triumph, advances in technology and communication.
News of the success resulted in major celebrations and souvenirs found a keen and enthusiastic market. Remainders of the cable from the expedition was purchased by Tiffany, the jewellery company, which made them into little four-inch souvenir pieces. This portion is in the most splendid condition. It is still in its original wooden box and it has a little collar in its middle explaining what it is. It comes with a letter signed by Cyrus Field authenticating that it is part of the original cable.
Learn more about the Segment of the original transatlantic cable on the Powerhouse website
Volunteer Insights and Talking Points
News of the success of connecting for the first time Europe and America in 1858 resulted in major celebrations and souvenirs. Remainders of the cable from the expedition was purchased by Tiffany, the jewellery company, which made them into little four-inch souvenir pieces.
This piece of cable is an original portion of the cable which connected for the first time Europe and America in 1858. It represents a pivotal point in the history of telecommunications.
This portion is in the most splendid condition. It is still in its original wooden box and it has a little collar in its middle explaining what it is. It comes with a letter signed by Cyrus Field authenticating that it is part of the original cable.
It may not be a rare item but it is part of an incredible story. It is a story of grand plans, human folly and triumph, advances in technology and communication.
Question to engage general visitors:
This cable opened a whole new world of possibilities, what do you think they were?
Question to engage younger audiences: Question to engage enthusiasts:
What messages could you send to someone in another country?
Broom making machine
This millet broom-making machine was designed by Thomas Michael Cummings in 1920 and used by the Better Brooms Co. of Balmain and Redfern until about the 1950s. It bound strands of millet together with wire around a handle to form a basic broom in about three minutes.
This machine was produced during a period when small manufacturing works dotted the city and country areas of New South Wales, producing all types of goods from boots to butter and ice to cordial. At the time, the millet broom market was dominated by the Federal Broom Co. of Leichhardt in Sydney. Thomas Michael Cummings of Better Brooms Co. wanted to develop a broom-making machine that would keep production costs low and maintenance easy. Another machine was used to compress, flatten and stitch the millet together in three to seven ties further down the length of the broom.
Because this machine was designed and made locally and employed a simple method of manufacture, the time required to produce a broom was significantly reduced from twenty to three minutes. It also allowed for flexibility of production and a variety of products. Brooms could be made for specific requirements – toy brooms, for example. In the 1930s, some of the company’s broom styles had a distinctly royal flavour with the Windsor, Princess and Vice-Regal models being made.
Learn more about the Broom making machine on the Powerhouse website
Volunteer Insights and Talking Points
The business developed a small training facility for the Sydney trade-school ‘market’ in broom making, hence relations with technical education were established. There was a major reduction in time to produce a broom from 20 minutes at Federal Brooms to 3 minutes at Better Brooms.
At the time the Better Brooms company produced this machine, the market was dominated by the Federal Broom Co of Leichardt in Sydney. The Cummings machine is thought to be the first locally made broom machine, with larger presses manufactured in Europe and America.
Using this machine, the small scale of business kept costs well below the major competitor (Federal Brooms). There was ease in maintaining the machines to ensure continuous production. Furthermore, the materials (millet, timber handles, paint and wire) were purchased locally (Federal and Sabco, the two largest competitors, purchased materials overseas).
Brooms could be made to specific requirements (e.g. toy brooms) and cheaply without comprising quality.
Question to engage general visitors:
Do you think this was a good way to make brooms?
Question to engage younger audiences:
What do you think this machine made?
Question to engage enthusiasts:
What other broom manufacturing was in the market in the 1920’s?
British War Office wrought-iron armour plate test sample, 1870s
This 23.5 cm-thick, solid wrought-iron armour plate and armour-piercing shell were used for ballistics testing in the 1870s. The British War Office sought to determine how well the sides of naval warships, covered in metal plates, could withstand attacks. John Brown & Company Ltd in England made this plating. After 1854 metal plating made of iron, a relatively soft and malleable material, became common on warships in an attempt to make vessels resistant to projectiles such as cannonballs. However, in the 1860s developments in armour-piercing shells meant that iron plating became ineffective as a means of defence.
The Museum has two samples of test armour plate: this one, made of iron, and another one made of a composite of iron and steel. Tests undertaken in the 1870s showed that this wrought-iron plate was less able to repel a shell fired at it compared to a composite of iron and steel, which was stronger and more durable. This proved to the British War Office that iron and steel composites were more suitable for cladding naval vessels.
Learn more about the British War Office wrought-iron armour plate test sample, 1870s on the Powerhouse website
Linotype Machine
This is a printing machine called a linotype. It was made by German-born American inventor Ottmar Mergenthaler in about 1890.
A linotype machine was the printing industry standard for newspapers, magazines and posters from the late 1880s to the 1960s, when it was largely replaced by offset lithography and computer typesetting. The name of the machine derived from the fact that it produced an entire line of metal type all at once, a significant improvement over the previous method of typesetting, which used individual letters. The operator entered text on a 90-character keyboard arranged in ETAOIN layout, not the QWERTY layout we are familiar with today. The machine assembled matrices, which were moulds for the letters, in a line. The assembled line was then cast as a single piece of metal called a slug in a process known as ‘hot metal typesetting’. The matrices were then returned to the type magazine to be re-used.
The linotype machine revolutionised typesetting, especially for newspapers, making it possible for a small number of operators to set many lines of type on a daily basis. Previously, no daily newspaper in the world had more than eight pages. The content of newspapers could now expand and the news could be distributed more quickly.
Learn more about the Linotype machine on the Powerhouse website
Volunteer Insights and Talking Points
This linotype machine was made in New York by the Mergenthaler Linotype Co. and used to produce the ‘Bombala Times’ newspaper in the New South Wales town of Bombala.
Mergenthaler was hailed as the ‘second Gutenberg’ as the development of the linotype machine was the first major invention in printing since movable metal type in fifteenth century Europe four centuries earlier.
The name of the machine derives from the fact that it produces an entire line of metal type at once, a significant improvement over the previous method of typesetting using a composing stick and drawers of individual letters.
Because the operation of the machine was very loud, it was common for deaf people to be hired as operators.
Question to engage general visitors:
How long do you think it would take to print a newspaper on this printer?
Question to engage younger audiences:
What do you think this big machine did?
Question to engage enthusiasts:
How do you think the machine worked?