MOTnews 54 (22/10/2004)

MOT's ID-DOC database nominated for second VGI ICT Innovation Award

On Friday 24 September, the second awards ceremony for the VGI Innovation Award took place in The Hague. This prize, which was set up by the Vereniging voor Geschiedenis en Informatica (Association for History and Information Technology), is awarded to the most innovative ICT application from the previous year in the field of history.

The MOT had already been nominated for this project earlier this year for the ID-DOC project. ID-DOC is an on-line database used for the identification of unknown hand tools. The site's address is www.mot.be/ID-DOC. Over 1,000 hand tools, which were once used by almost 200 professions, have now been included with an extensive description and an image.

Last Friday, the Museum was given an honourable second place after our Flemish colleagues from Ename, who received the award for their TimeScope 3 project.

TimeScope 3 is a large plasma screen on which multimedia heritage information is displayed. Using small bits of information, visitors themselves build the historical timeline that interests them most. The jury selected this project due to the fact that the window provides a historical experience to a very wide audience. More information on this topic can be found at www.enamecenter.org.

We wish to congratulate our colleagues for their success in obtaining the VGI prize and hope that TimeScope 3 will introduce numerous visitors to the fascinating world of archaeology.

GRANDMOTHER'S RECIPES

Maybe you have already experienced the following: you want to heat up some milk in a saucepan and before you know it, the milk boils over. The result: hard-to-remove stains on the hob and that characteristic smell which permeates the whole house.

Our grandmothers had a simple remedy for this: by smearing the edge of the saucepan with some butter, you can prevent the milk from boiling over. Give it a try yourself!

Of course, what you can also do is stir continuously while you are heating up the milk. If you don't want to be constantly watching the milk, you can try leaving a spoon in the saucepan. In days gone by, people used special anti-boil devices, a sort of ribbed disk in china or glass which was placed in the bottom of the saucepan. Amazingly, it worked! The milk boiler was also an efficient tool: this was a tall pan with a hole in its lid, and it was used quite often in the past.

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 tonight

Yarn was, and still is, spun using natural fibres from plants and animals. This yarn was then used to weave fabrics for clothing and household goods such as bed clothes, tablecloths, rugs, curtains, etc. You could also use this yarn to make ropes (we will have more information on this in the next edition).

You almost certainly know that wool comes from sheep, and those of you who are really clever may also know that linen comes from flax and that cotton is harvested from cotton plants, but do you also know about a tree used to make fabric?

Did you already drink tea made from the flowers of the linden tree? The bark of this tree was formerly used to make ropes. There are many medieval building accounts containing references to the purchase of linden bark to make ropes. In the 19th century, it was often used to make the rope which was used to lower the water bucket into the well.