MOTnews 29 (01/02/2002)

Amateur photographers on the web!

The MOT now has a separate section on its web site, entitled 'photographs', (www.mot.be), which contains a number of lovely pictures of the Museum.

Are you a keen photographer and were you in Grimbergen recently with your camera, or are you planning to come here? Send the photographs you take of our buildings or our exhibitions to info@mot.be in digital form and we will put them on line for you.

The MOT at the Historical Book Fair

We often talk in this newsletter about ID-DOC, the online reference work used to identify hand tools. Anyone can consult the data file ID-DOC on www.mot.be and now the MOT is also presenting the use of ID-DOC in detail at the 11th Historical Book Fair in Saint Peter's Abbey, Ghent, on 9 and 10 February 2002. Do you have any questions about the system or would you simply like to see us at work? If so, be sure to come along to St Peter's Abbey, Sint-Pietersplein, 9000 Ghent, between 11.00 a.m. and 5.00 p.m.

TRUE or FALSE

You know from your own experience and from physics lessons at school that a stone will sink if you throw it in the water, whereas wood will float. However, we maintain that this is not always true. Sometimes stones float and wood will sink.

True or false? Find out in the next MOT News.

ANSWER to TRUE or FALSE in MOT News 28 (11/01/2001)

"Flanders" is quite well known: we have a real reputation as exuberant hedonists, we are - we say so ourselves - the inventors of chips and our sports stars appear in many surveys of the year 2001. In the past, too, certain Flemish things were already famous, although some of these products may now sound somewhat dubious. It so happens that in the past, Flanders was known for using human excrement as fertiliser in agriculture.

TRUE

Collecting human excrement to use as manure was very characteristic of Flanders in the past. Sewage was taken from the towns to the country using special trains, boast and sewage carts.

Abroad, human excrement used as fertiliser was even known as 'Flemish fertiliser'.

SAY WHAT?

In this MOT-news item we try to explain proverbs and sayings that have their roots in our technical history. Similar proverbs are found in different languages, but each language has it's own typical sayings. Therefore we do not translate this item in English.

KIDS-news: something to tell your children this evening

You are sure to have learnt about the importance of the invention of the wheel at school. Without the wheel, we would not have had any carts or, later on, any cars.

But the word "wheel" has more meanings than you would have expected.

The first "wheels" that were invented were not used for a primitive car or cart, as you might think. The very first wheels were potters' wheels. After all, potters need wheels as well, to be able to turn their pots. Potter's wheels existed for quite some time before anyone thought of making a vehicle with wheels.