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Weird and wacky in Bradford!

Clockwork teamaker...Mind the paraffin!

Now, you might think that gadgets are soooooo 21st century - after all, there are probably few people who leave their homes without their mobiles, mp3 players and all that other stuff we think we can't do without. But gizmos are really nothing new - in fact the things we carry around today are actually boringly USEFUL! But, if you take a trip to the Industrial Museum in Bradford just now you can discover a whole new side to the wonderful world of gadgets!

It's the utter oddness of most of the 250-plus items on show in Bradford that's so fantastic. From electric belts to pocket spittoons, egg top cutters and portable candle shades, it's like you've entered a different universe. One minute you're in West Yorkshire, then next you're in Weird World!

It's all thanks to the efforts of one man, Maurice Collins, who's been a collector of peculiar inventions since he was a child - and the exhibition at the Industrial Museum is the result. Museums Officer Neil Hinchliffe explains that Maurice is pretty obsessive!: "He gets them from anywhere and everywhere - from rubbish tips right through to travelling around the world, actually going to auctions and buying them. And then there's e-Bay, too, of course. He's been all over the place to get them...He's a mad collector, he has a fascination with the oddities people have produced over the years to help us along in life. Quite often they haven't helped us, but there have been some really inventive minds going into the weird and wonderful things that have been produced.

And with over 250 of these weird and wonderful objects on show, there are plenty to choose from! The list is long, but here's just a selection:

Motorcycle pipe: Mind the ash!

• A book-shaped travelling candle
• An exhaust car hooter
• A cotton reel tidy
• A self-pouring teapot
• A pocket spittoon
• Hair curling paper
• An egg iron
• A non-staple stapler

And so on..!

Neil has his favourites, of course, and number one among the odd objects is the motorcyclist's tobacco pipe! He says it's actually a very practical idea...sort of: "It's a pipe that points straight instead of being bent up. Obviously, if you're motorcycling along at 25 to 30 miles an hour and the pipe was bent upwards then the ash would fly out of the pipe and up into your eyes or onto your face. So what's been done here is that it's been made straight but with a little gauze at the end so that the draught hits the pipe, but doesn't burn all the tobacco at once. You look at it in today's climate and think, 'Hold on, do we want to be smoking anyway? Certainly not when you're driving a vehicle!' But this is my definite number one choice." 

Another of Neil's favourites is the clockwork teamaker: "Much to my disgust I've got a teamaker by my bed, but it's nothing like this! This particular one goes back to before electricity was on demand, so it's clockwork. In itself, that means problems: you've got to think how to heat the water so you've got a paraffin stove by the side of your bed! When the clock goes off, it rings the alarm bell and also works the mechanism which strikes a match, lights the stove and heats the water. So now you need somebody to invent a fire extinguisher for next to the bed...just in case!"

Another favourite for Neil is the lady's gun purse. These days, it might seem really odd to think that just anybody could legally carry guns around on the street - least of all a prim and proper Victorian lady - so this comes as a real surprise: "Back in 1880, the legislation regarding the ownership of firearms was totally different, so you were allowed to have this sort of thing. It was to stop muggings. It's a purse which meant a lady could fire a .22 cartridge [really, really small, in other words] if anyone wanted to steal it...At close range, it really would put somebody off stealing your purse. You're going to make a hole in somebody. The barrel's only and inch or so long so you're not going to be very accurate at a distance, but if you got hold of my collar and I shot you with that, you'd let go!"       

Lady's purse gun: Almost actual size!

Neil emphasises, though, that while many of the things on show at Bradford's Industrial Museum are pretty pointless (or, like the teamaker, they just make a simple thing incredibly complicated and even dangerous!) you still have to remember that we're looking at things from a 21st century perspective: "Time makes a big change as well. Things that might have been thought of as a brilliant idea in 1930, we'd look at now and say, 'Is that REALLY a good idea?" And Neil says that despite appearances, each and every one of these objects has been thought about and 'invented': "As well as being peculiar, an awful lot of the gadgets were tools, a way to make life easier. Some of the wackier and zany inventions, fair enough, they're there as a hobby or a pastime. But some of the objects are there to save somebody a job. It's all about making life easier. That didn't necessarily happen, but that was the idea!"

Wacky Gadgets runs at Bradford Industrial Museum, Moorside Mills, Moorside Road, Eccleshill, Bradford until April 15th 2007 - and it's FREE (just like the rest of the museum)! For more information ring 01274 435 900.