The Writings on the Wall

We’ve travelled back in time to 1898, to 1878 and to 1899, but now we’re going to go back even further, in fact so far that we might have to pack some sandwiches! Time Travellers adjust your dials, engage your minds, focus your energies, check your fuel and fasten your seatbelts, we are travelling way way back to 3,500BC!

We're zooming past the invention of the computer in 1840, past the very first Penny Black postage stamp in 1839, past the first hot air balloon demonstration in 1783, past the invention of the flush toilet in 1594 - which not many people were interested in and continued to chuck their waste out of the window! and we continue past the invention of the printing press in 1437 - before then people had to write everything out by hand - and if you were doing the school newsletters that's a lot of writing to do one for each pupil! now hold tight and remember this amazing invention of a printing press - we’re going beyond the known into the world of BC right right back to 3,500BC wow I’m not sure if even The Time Lord himself has been back this far in time!

We’re going to steer our machines to a place called Mesopotamia - you might remember we first heard about Mesopotamia when our time travelling journey began. The Cradle of Civilisation where the first writing was being developed - not much like the writing we use now, no A4 paper to scribble notes on to your mates! looks like you needed a chisel and a lump of clay. Imagine having to do that for your homework... !

Not long after, the Egyptians began writing on papyrus, a plant which you pick the stalks from, leave to rot, line up and bash around a bit until it all melts together and voila a bit of paper to write your hieroglyphics on. The letters we use today have evolved quite a bit from those early symbols with different cultures adding, taking away or changing bits slightly. Can you guess what the Hieroglyphics on the left here say?

Ok, hold tight, we're whizzing right back to 1437, back to that amazing printing press which was the beginning of a journey for this type you are reading now! From this point onwards we had the printed letter and the beginning of typography which is sort of the art or the study of type and typefaces - you might know them as fonts, those different letter shapes and sizes.

So lets celebrate that amazing invention by the Sumarians from way way back in their land of Mesopotamia and create our own Springfield Time Traveller alphabet! Sharpen your pencils Travellers and flex those creative muscles we're going from an A to Z for the pavement to embed!

"This lesson has been awesome, we went back in time for when writing was invented" Kyra Fretton

We've got a logo! Thank you Charlie Hands!
STT ... Springfield, inside Time, inside Travellers - how clever is that?!

Radar Masts

Click on the image to see our album of artworks on flickr

Look No Wires....

Ok so now we are stuck in 1878 and I don’t know about you but I’m finding it a bit hard not having much entertainment, so lets get back in our time machines and travel forwards, set your dials to 1899 - just a year after the Hoffman factory was built, so thats a 21 year jump! Fasten seat belts, check your rear view mirrors, switch all your power on, concentrate your minds, pull the throttle up and lets go.

Hang on tight, we’re going to go forwards past..... the first toilet paper being sold by a British company in 1880, the invention of Coca Cola in 1886, past the first thoughts of making glass contact lenses in 1888 - but it took another 60 years to actually make them! and also in 1888 the invention of the first paper drinking straw. Past the invention of the escalator in 1891, and the invention of basketball - which was invented by a Canadian PE teacher who wanted a sport for his students to play indoors in the winter.

So here we are in 1899 in Chelmsford where a chap called Guglielmo Marconi has arrived from Italy and opened the first radio factory in the world in a road just off Moulsham Street.

Now Marconi was working on some ideas to try and send a wireless signal over long distances and needed a big supply of electrical power - so why do you think he chose Chelmsford? yep he’d heard about our chap Colonol Crompton - the electrical whizz who was lighting up the streets with his power supplies - perfect for Marconi’s experiments!

So Marconi is designing and developing and inventing and experimenting like a madman and eventually in 1901 he proved everyone wrong and sent the first transmission of sound across the Atlantic. Everyone thought the radio signals would fly off into space and be lost forever but Marconi was convinced it would follow the curve of the earth and he was right.

From that very first experiment Marconi went on to develop wire...less transmission - (you might have heard some more mature folks call a radio a wireless - this is why) the name we know and use now RADIO was created by the Americans and comes from the word - radiation which describes the spreading out of signals through the air.

Are you keeping up fellow travellers ?!

Well the wireless signal became revoluntionery - it was used during the first world war to listen to messages and pass messages on and when the Titanic sunk the distress signals were sent by a Marconi trained wireless operator - and saved the lives of over 700 of its passengers and crew.

And then the idea of using radio as entertainment was talked about and boosh Marconi’s there experimenting and by 1920 the first entertainment broadcast was transmitted from Marconi's factory in Chelmsford by an opera singer called Dame Nellie Melba.

A bit of a Diva was our Nellie and rumour has it that when she was told her voice would be broadcast from the top of the tall radio mast she said "young man, if you think I'm going to climb up there you are greatly mistaken"!

Now, we're not going to start singing opera, but we are going to 'tune in' to our creative wavelengths and whisk up our own versions of the radar masts used to transmit signals. Lolly sticks, kebab sticks (without the spikes!), paper straws, elastic bands, modelling clay, and some good old masking tape - perfect for some sensational structures!

"I can't believe that Marconi chose Chelmsford to be the place to test his wireless out of the whole world!"

Light Sculptures

Click on the picture to see our Crompton inspired Light Sculptures on Flickr

Lighten up!

A whole weekend stuck in 1898! no television, no Nintendo DS's, no computers, no i-pods, no electricity...... ! Time to get back in our time machines and take another journey - but not forwards we're going even further back in time.

Dials set to 1878, backwards another twenty years, hold tight fellow time travellers; we are going past the invention of X-ray in 1895, past the first zipper! in 1890, past the invention of the dishwasher in 1886, past the very first roller coaster in 1885! wow I didn’t realise how long ago they were invented! and the same year the first petrol powered motorcycle, past the invention of the fountain pen in 1884, past the invention of the safety razor in 1880 (before then you risk serious injury when having a shave!) and we’re stopping just after the invention of the telephone which was in 1876. Ok slow down turn off your engines..... here we are in 1878. Did you notice how many inventions were going on in that short 20 year journey - wow! dishwashers, x-rays, pens, zips, motorcycles...... and thats just a small handful!

Ok so here we are in Chelmsford in 1878, and we meet another gentleman who decided to build a factory in
Chelmsford, meet Colonol Rookes Evelyn Bell Crompton - an English chap born in Yorkshire. Crompton was an electrical engineer and an inventor and he was a bit of a whiz with electricity. He built 31 trains for the worlds first tube line and he built the equipment for the first electric trains on Southend pier, he even provided lighting for Buckingham Palace! and his company, Cromptons, was one of the first companies to install electric street lighting in the country.

Just imagine how different the world would be without all that light! Time Travellers 'bottle' up your creative energies and lets get making - Springfield Street Lights, from strips to spots, bees to bugs, we tripped the multi-coloured light fantastic - and inbetween all this action we designed the most amazing futuristic street furniture - Chelmsford Borough Council look out!

Street Lights

Click on the image to see our Crompton inspired street light designs