The 1910 food processor – just one of the many ingenious contraptions on display. Courtesy of Royal Cornwall Museum.
Exhibition preview: Inventors Lab, Royal Cornwall Museum, opens Saturday July 11
If you have ever dreamt of inventing something that will change people's lives and earn you a fortune, don't miss a visit to the Inventor’s Lab at the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro on Saturday July 11.
To celebrate the launch of a fascinating exhibition that proves our forebears could be just as gadget-crazy as we are, visitors are being invited to take part in activities that include making contraptions and junk modelling.
They will also be able to watch David Kemp, a local sculptor and storyteller, assemble his Dilemic Horn – an incredible device that is credited with inspiring new inventions.
It is old inventions, however, that take pride of place in the Ingenious Contraptions exhibition. Maurice Collins, a retired businessman from Muswell Hill, London, has cherry-picked more than 100 must-have items from his collection of 1,400 historic gadgets. He said his collection was a celebration of "ingenious products that attempted to solve human difficulty."
One example is the food processor - nowadays we think nothing of throwing ingredients into a bowl, turning a switch and waiting only seconds for whatever culinary miracle we’re after.
The food processor was in fact invented in 1910 and although it might have demanded a little more in the way of physical effort, the principal of grinding things like vegetables together was virtually the same.
Another invention in the exhibition was created to stop people from going hopping mad, the flea catcher. Invented around 1890, it was made of wood, filled with something sweet like honey and hung around a person’s neck.
Instead of targeting nice juicy skin, the fleas apparently made a bee-line for the goo – resulting in a sticky end for the insects and a good night’s sleep for their lucky former victim.
With so many ingenious contraptions to marvel at, there are great hopes for similarly inspired ideas when visitors have a go in the Inventor's Lab. The launch event runs from 2.30pm to 4.30pm on Saturday July 11. Entrance is free.
For more information go to the Royal Cornwall Museum website or call 01872 272205 and dial ‘0’.
