Bygones

We took Mum and Dad to the Bygones Museum at Claydon. It was great listening to them.

"That's just like granny's old place - It even smells the same!"

"Look at that - I had one of them!"

There was a comptometre (I have no idea if that is how you spell it). It is a sort of early calculator, and looks like a typewriter keyboard, but with rows and rows of number keys. Apparently, there was one in Dad's first accounting firm. They had to hire a comptometrist to operate it; apparently this was a highly skilled profession. Dad would write down figures on a piece of paper, pass them to the comptometrist, and the paper would be returned with all the sums calculated and neatly written down.

There are even some things that I remember, like a device for making cream out of warm milk and butter. You pump a handle which emulsifies it and it turns into what I used to call 'pump-handle cream'. It was delicious, too.

It's a fabulous museum. I must return with sketchbook sometime.