MOTnews 39 (6/12/2002)

LOFT OR PLAYROOM?

For most people, the winter season brings a feeling of calm. That's also true for the MOT, where two of the three sections are temporarily closed to individual visitors. But that doesn't mean that we have gone into hibernation, far from it! MOT is actively working on building and conversion works so that we can present a whole range of new activities to our visitors in the spring.

One of these 'conversion projects' is for our woodworking exhibition. In the Guldendal section of the MOT, which contains the wood exhibition, we are now building a "new floor". The aim is to create an additional loft where children (together with their mums and dads), will be able to try out many different activities with wood. We will keep you informed of the progress on this project, and of course in the spring you will be most welcome to visit our loft/playroom.

TRUE OR FALSE

Although it is no longer summer, you will certainly remember the funny shaped inflatable boats that you played with at the coast in July or August.

Inflatable boats are a twentieth century invention.

The answer will be given in the next MOT news.

ANSWER TO TRUE OR FALSE in MOT NEWS 38 (08/11/2002)

Barbed wire was invented by cowboys.

TRUE (but they couldn't have done it without our help)

The first patent for barbed wire in more or less the form we know it today is in the name of a person named Kelly, and was manufactured in the United States in 1868.

Barbed wire perhaps made America the land of "boundless" opportunities for the cattle farmers, but for this invention the Americans had to build on skills learned in Europe in the Middle Ages.

The technique for making good metal wire had been around in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries and was taken by migrants to America and slightly adapted. There it was seen as manna from heaven, as it enabled the big ranchers to fence off their land with barbed wire. There was too little wood for fencing off such large areas, and the use of hedges as fencing over such enormous distances and in the climate of the "far west" was no easy undertaking.

Metal wire has been around ever since the start of metalworking, but for thousands of years it was worked into wire by beating. Then came an improvement to the manufacture of metal wire with the "drawing plate", through which metal wire can be pulled. We find mentions of such a drawing plate in a German work from the 12th century. Moreover, in the 16th century it became possible to draw metal wire using water power, which meant that they had very good quality metal wire in Europe as of the 16th and 17th centuries.

However, it was the Americans who added the "barbs" to make it barbed wire and thereby conquered the "far west".

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.

The museum is overflowing with activity and we are now proud to present our MOT afternoons. Why spend Wednesday afternoon sitting around bored with a coke in one hand and Game Boy in the other? Come to MOT and for three hours see how exciting, pleasant, surprising and fascinating the "older" techniques can be.

Since November, we have been organising a MOT activity every Wednesday afternoon from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. for children aged between 9 and 12 (price: EUR 2.50 per child per afternoon).

The December programme is given below. The January programme will be included in a following MOT news.

• 11 December: making a real Harry Potter broom
• 18 December: baking Christmas cakes

You can register with our educational assistant, Petra Vandermeiren, on 02/270 8111 or via info@mot.be .

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