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British council in China

The sheer size of China's population makes it an attractive nation for investors to commit capital to higher-end industries like healthcare, information technology, engineering, and luxury goods. China's robust business ecosystem, low taxes, and competitive currency practices are some of the reasons why the Chinese market is unmatched. We have chosen British council school as a global idea to be in Shenzhen city in china. However, their is some disadvantages of offering this business in china such as high priority for local business, market break in difficulty and raising cost for wages.

Benchmarking is the measurement of the performance compared to those other businesses. When scaling the British council as a business there are not a lot of competitors that provides the same services. Hence obtaining supplies from the 4 other branches that are already established in the country is a con that won’t take so many resources

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My first mobile phone. I never had any reception in the depths of the Norfolk countryside, but it was a beautiful, symbolic lifeline!

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This 2000s Bosch 509e mobile phone is made of a black and a translucent orange injection moulded polycarbonate and ABS. It has a protruding aerial and an LCD screen.

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I was really interested in science and growing up in the 80s this was one of my favourite programmes.

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I still miss this beautiful Nokia 7260 from the early 2000s. The ring tone was Cherry Lips by Garbage.

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My dad got a word processor in the mid 1980s. It sat on a special trolley in my parents' bedroom with a loud, seemingly perma-jammed, dot matrix printer. Dad began writing his memoirs of growing up in a back to back in 1920s Birmingham, typing with two fingers. My main memory is the green text on the black screen with a blinking cursor, impatiently waiting for the next words. Sadly, my dad died soon after so we never got more than a couple of pages.

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My first mobile phone was a big black phone which was best kept in a rucksack. It was in the end of 90s. My first library job was then. My first own phone was a Nokia which I got around 2004-2007. I used it a lot to text a lot of friends. It came up notes in the swimming halls that parents were not allowed to sit with the phone because they did not watch the kids. My first iphone was around 2009. A lot was swept in. Too much to handle in the beginning. The second gen of iphone I got around 2015 o 2014 and now I have the latest. I big change is form just having a cordphone and sometimes it is hard to handle with Facebook, especially that to to seem availiable all the time.

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How soft are your hands? In the UK the original iconic Kenwood mixer came on to the market in 1947. Its multi-functionality aimed to eliminate the need for a long list of kitchen utensils, and to save time and effort. Wartime colleagues Roger Laurence and Kenneth Wood with their company Woodlau Industries developed the first Kenwood electric mixer (the A200) after starting out with toasters.

The Kenwood A200 was one of the earliest Kenwood food mixers; a streamlined casing design with four speeds, double-rotary beaters, mincer, two bowls, fruit juice extractor set, small whisk and buffer for polishing cutlery. It was promoted in advertisements as “your servant Ma’am “ “so versatile, so efficient, so automatic,  so quick, and so very simple to use “.

The redesign of this mixer and created the  A700 Chef as something to leave visible in the kitchen and in addition have more multi-purpose gadgets to enlarge its range of uses. Launched at the 1950 Ideal Home Show with its iconic design as shown in this 1953 advert it has been streamlined and modernised over the years.

I have a very effective  Superior Chef A901 originally introduced in 1976 and bought a few years later and my daughter has inherited my mother’s Chef Mixer A701A introduced in 1962. Both in excellent working order still. Researching post war electrical kitchen gadgets has never been more fun!

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Cambridge Svalbard Exploration Archives, ref: CSEC E250_1969. 

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In the late 1960s after decades of geological research, Norwegian and Cambridge exploration parties benefited from helicopters & platforms on ice-strengthened ships. This ensured that reconnaissance of the eastern islands of Svalbard could be renewed.

The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences has over 60,000 objects and over 600 boxes of archive records documenting the geological work undertaken. Much of this material includes far more information than has been previously published.

You can listen to the Museum Archivist talk about the Svalbard archive here.

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Society of Antiquaries of London: 'A briefe apologie of certaine nevv inventions..', Hugh Plat, 1593 [Lemon Broadsides 91]

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Sir Hugh Plat's inventions in late-16th century England

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Sir Hugh Plat's inventions in late-16th century England

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This printed broadside gives descriptions of several new, useful, and rare inventions by Sir Hugh Plat or Platt (1552–1608) of Lincolns Inn, which were exhibited to privy councillors and the chief citizens of London. Woodcuts illustrate three: A boulting hutch, a new kindle of fire, and a portable pumpe. Other inventions include a rain coat: a light garment and yet sufficient against all rainie weather, and a fire-retardant wooden tub that could hold 30 gallons: a woodden vessel to boyle in. Hugh Plat was known for his writings on inventions, such as The Jewell House of Art and Nature, containing divers rare and profitable Inventions (1594), and for works on agriculture and gardening, including most notably his Floraes Paradise (1608). As recognition for his services as an inventor, Plat was knighted by James I at Greenwich on 22 May 1605.

Click here for catalogue record in the Society of Antiquaries online catalogue

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A briefe apologie of certaine nevv inventions

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Al-Coranus sive lex Islamitica Muhammedis, published in Hamburg in 1694 AD by Abraham Hinckelmann

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Although the advent of the printing press enabled widespread dissemination of texts, in the Muslim world textual production took longer to adapt to printing. More characters were needed to print Arabic script, as the complete font with the inclusion of vowel marks ran to more than six hundred in number. Along with mistakes in the text of this early printed version of the Qur’an, there was a stark difference between the aesthetics of the printed text and handwritten Qur’an manuscripts. Calligraphers and scribes themselves objected to the use of printing, as this would have resulted in a loss of their livelihoods. This highlights the varying impact of scientific developments on communities, with many reaping benefits of the advancements while some—namely those whose livelihoods depended on outdated technologies—were adversely affected.

Read the blog post on History Collections website to explore more items from the special collections housed at the Institute of Ismaili Studies.

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In the mid- to late 90s, my parents got my sister and me a bag phone to use in our cars in case of emergencies. It plugged into the cigarette lighter (yes, those too!) in the car dashboard if you wanted to use it. It was incredibly expensive - I think more that a dollar a minute for call time - so the stressed so much that it was for emergencies only, nothing else, that when I actually did have a car crash on black ice one winter, I stopped and thought through whether or not that constituted an emergency before calling emergency services! (I was ok, just bashed around.) We used this up until around 2002ish.

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The id chip operated cat flap is a life-changing (for my cats) bit of kit. No can can steal their food or scent mark their territory (this is good for cat owners too). You could always emulate @daphneflap and set up a bot powered by Raspberry Pi to tweet whenever your cat uses their door. (Rebecca Read)

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An illustration of optical phenomena from the Latin translation of Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham’s Kitab al-manazir (Opticae Thesaurus), sixteenth century

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In the mediaeval Islamic world, numerous mathematicians and physicists were preoccupied with the science of optics (‘ilm al-manazir). Ibn al-Haytham’s ground-breaking work in the field of optics, Kitab al-manazir explored the nature of vision by demonstrating that seeing results from the introduction of rays of light into the human eye, rather than the emission of actual light rays from the eye. Known as Alhazen in Europe, Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham was born in Basra in the tenth century and later moved to Cairo during the Fatimid Caliphate. Owing to his work on human visual perception, he is considered the father of modern optics. Read the blog post on History Collections website to explore more items from the special collections housed at the Institute of Ismaili Studies.

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Staying in touch pre-email and mobile phones

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Staying in touch pre-email and mobile phones

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Seems so old-fashioned now but I still remember keeping in touch with a distant loved-one via letter and pay-phones between a university lobby and my parents' stairs in the early 1990s! And then getting first email address at University of York (1995), seemed so much more streamlined than modern email! :-)

(Kate Wilcox)

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The history of the bicycle is one of technical as well as social advancement.
"Velopedia" is the online archive of the German society Historische Fahrräder e.V.. This project aims to digitize historical and scientific documents on the subject of bicycles. The archive currently holds over 2000 documents and is constantly being expanded. It aims to include documents from the iron-tyred beginnings of the velocipede up to modern carbon racing bikes.

When women started using bicycles in the 19th century, society considered it to be not only scandalous but also detrimental to women's physical and mental well-being. However, opinions soon changed, and the health benefits of cycling in the fresh air became apparent.

Women's dress, with long skirts and corsets, was hardly suitable for the new pastime. Looser clothing and pantaloons or divided skirts, known as "rational dress", made cycling less of a life-threatening feat.

The bicycle played a role in allowing women freedom of movement, enabling them to travel farther under their own power (quite literally). They no longer had to sit at home while their male relatives went out and about independently.

This amusing little book, available to read at the German Historical Institute London, gives a potted history of cycling for women.

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I was a Erasmus student at Leicester University in 1996 and being slow to pick up new stuff I wanted to continue writing my essays in WordPerfect just so used to it. I couldn't deal with Word then. I managed to find a kind member of staff in the IT department that located a computer that still had it and I was happy. It was also the days where my fellow students back in Denmark asked me to write more emails. They did not like wasting time going to the Computer room find a free seat, sit down, dial up, log in and check their emails just to find there weren't any. It does seem like a century ago.

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Computing Science at De Montfort University, 1963.

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Computing Science at De Montfort University, 1963.

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Determined to blaze a modern trail, the Leicester College of Technology (predecessor of De Montfort University (DMU)) was among the first higher education institutions in the UK to have a computing department. Computing Science was first taught at the College in 1963 in the department of Mathematics. The course used an Elliott 803 machine which took up nearly a WHOLE room and used reams of paper tape. While we don't have a photograph of the Elliott, we do have one of the Honeywell 200 magnetic computer, featured above, which was installed in 1967. Find out more on this and other STEM developments in our exhibition 'The Story of STEM at De Montfort University, 1884-Present' developed by staff at DMU Special Collections.

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Experimental archaeology: The Roman saddle

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Experimental archaeology: The Roman saddle

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The illustrator and experimental archaeologist Peter Connolly demonstrates his reconstruction of a Roman saddle in an event at the Institute of Archaeology commemorating the institution’s jubilee on 29 April 1987. The amazed audience included Princess Anne, Donald Strong, Professor John Evans, Sir James Lighthill and John Wilkes.

Read more in this blog post from the Institute of Classical Studies Library

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Connolly at the Institute of Archaeology_ small

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An advert for Dunn’s coffee essence in A Shilling Cookery for the People by Alexis Soyer (1855), from the Elizabeth David bequest of historical cookery books held at the Warburg Institute.

Technological and industrial advances in the 19th century led to many changes in food and diet. Coffee essence was the first instant coffee, patented in 1840 by Edinburgh pharmaceutical company T. & H. Smith and Co.

Elizabeth David’s historical cookbooks are being digitised on the Warburg Digital Library, or visit the Warburg Institute to find out more about the history of tea, coffee and chocolate at classmarks FOG 180-186.

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In 1928, at St. Mary's Hospital, London, Alexander Fleming FRCS discovered penicillin. This discovery led to the introduction of antibiotics that greatly reduced the number of deaths from infection. Howard W. Florey FRCS, at the University of Oxford working with Ernst B. Chain, Norman G. Heatley and Edward P. Abraham, successfully took penicillin from the laboratory to the clinic as a medical treatment in 1941. The large-scale development of penicillin was undertaken in the United States of America during the 1939-1945 World War, led by scientists and engineers at the Northern Regional Research Laboratory of the US Department of Agriculture, Abbott Laboratories, Lederle Laboratories, Merck & Co., Inc., Chas. Pfizer & Co. Inc., and E.R. Squibb & Sons. The discovery and development of penicillin was a milestone in twentieth century pharmaceutical chemistry. The Royal College of Surgeons of England has a large collection of rare scientific journals that can be searched here: and over 10,000 biographies of fellows here.

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Society of Antiquaries of London: John Lofting's 'New Sucking Worm Fire Engine' (print ca.1714-27) [Harley Collection v. 5]

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The ingenious "Sucking Worm Engine" for fighting fire (1690s)

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The ingenious "Sucking Worm Engine" for fighting fire (1690s)

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The disaster of the Great Fire of London in 1666 spurred a need for better fire fighting technology. The Dutch engineer and entrepreneur John Lofting patented his "sucking worm engine" in the late 17th-century, a wired suction hose that could carry water over distances and throw it as high as 400 feet. The engines were used at several royal palaces and were praised by Christopher Wren. This print of the engine shows it being used in a variety of scenarios, including putting out fires in different stories of a building, on a ship, and in a distillery. There's even an alternative use suggested - watering a garden!

Find out more on our Collection Highlights page: https://www.sal.org.uk/collections/explore-our-collections/collections-highlights/john-lofting-fire-engine/

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Advert from the Royal Blue Book (1873) at the Institute of Historical Research Library

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Image courtesy of Churchill Archives Centre

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We at the Churchill Archives Centre faced a new digital preservation challenge when we were given this laptop (used 1996-2000). The laptop would only write to floppy disks, so we had to think creatively about how to remove the data.
Our digital archivist removed the hard drive using a screwdriver. We had purchased a hard drive to USB adapter - fitting it together with the hard drive proved a little fiddly! The archivist downloaded the entire hard drive. Now the contents of the laptop is ready for an archivist to appraise and catalogue as part of a wider collection.

For more on our science and technology collections, see: https://www.chuarchivestories.uk/stories/listening-in

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Elevation of the City Wall at the Ribeira waterfall in Porto, in front of the Barcas Bridge. Available in Archives Portal Europe: https://www.archivesportaleurope.net/advanced-search/search-in-archives/results-(archives)/?&repositoryCode=PT-00000000438&term=Eleva%C3%A7%C3%A3o+do+Muro+da+Cidade+no+caes+da+Ribeira+no+Porto%2C+em+frente+da+Ponte+de+Barcas&levelName=clevel&t=fa&recordId=PT%2FTT%2FMR&c=C432614570

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Milling plant for cereals and barley, filament and distillery for brandy and sugar cane, located on Rua da Princesa, in Funchal. Available in Archives Portal Europe: https://www.archivesportaleurope.net/advanced-search/search-in-archives/results-(archives)/?&repositoryCode=PT-00000000438&term=Planta+de+moagem+de+cereais+e+cevada%2C+filamento+e+destilaria+de+aguardente+e+cana+de+a%C3%A7%C3%BAcar%2C+situada+na+Rua+da+Princesa%2C+no+Funchal&levelName=clevel&t=fa&recordId=PT%2FTT%2FMR&c=C432614729

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From Archives Portal Europe

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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Archivo de la Corona de Aragón (Spain), ACA,DIVERSOS,Sentmenat,Planos,58

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Plan of the electrical installation for the lighting of Villa de La Escala owned by the M.I.S. Marchioness of Dou. Available in Archives Portal Europe: https://www.archivesportaleurope.net/advanced-search/search-in-archives/results-(archives)/?&repositoryCode=ES-8019-ACA6&term=ALUMBRADO&levelName=clevel&t=fa&recordId=ES-08019-ACA-UD-120547&c=C479838647

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Archivo Histórico de la Nobleza (Spain), MICHELENA,C.4,D.580-581

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Telegram from the Count of Michelena, Ramón de Michelena y Padrés, to the tenor Angelo Masini, who is in Faenza, asking him when he is going to go to Milan because he needs to meet him, and informing him that he is staying at the Hotel Europa. Masini's reply telegram commenting that, for business, he will not be able to travel to Milan until Sunday. Available in Archives Portal Europe: https://www.archivesportaleurope.net/advanced-search/search-in-archives/results-(archives)/?&repositoryCode=ES-D706&term=telegrama&levelName=clevel&t=fa&recordId=ES-45168-AHNOB-UD-4024795&c=C475626476

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This work showed how the medics of the late eighteenth century could potentially save a life. This plate is from the Description of the construction and uses of a portable apparatus for the recovery of the apparently dead : as recommended in an essay on the subject by Charles Kite ... and approved by the London Humane Society. Dating from 1789 this extended advert, for an early medical device, refers to Charles Kite’s work on the subject. The pipes shown work like bellows providing artificial ventilation by manual pumping, an alternative to mouth to mouth resuscitation, which had fallen out of favour at the time. Description of the construction and uses of a portable apparatus for the recovery of the apparently dead  is part of our

UKMHL Collection of digitised pamphlets

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Archivo General de Indias (Spain), MP-INGENIOS,109BIS

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Available in Archives Portal Europe: https://www.archivesportaleurope.net/advanced-search/search-in-archives/results-(archives)/?&repositoryCode=ES-41091-AGI10&term=m%C3%A1quina&levelName=clevel&t=fa&recordId=ES-41091-AGI-UD-1931454&c=C626330318

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Details of a wool carding machine (19th Cent.)

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Details of a wool carding machine (19th Cent.)

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Available in Archives Portal Europe: https://www.archivesportaleurope.net/advanced-search/search-in-archives/results-(archives)/?&repositoryCode=ES-8019-ACA6&term=m%C3%A1quina&levelName=clevel&t=fa&recordId=ES-08019-ACA-UD-120547&c=C479838465

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 Centro Documental de la Memoria Histórica (Spain)

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A man shows different models of radios, Paris 1936. Available in Archives Portal Europe: https://www.archivesportaleurope.net/advanced-search/search-in-archives/results-(archives)/?&repositoryCode=ES-37274-CDMH1&term=radio&levelName=clevel&t=fa&recordId=ES-37274-CDMH-UD-2621447&c=C707053642

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Archivo General de la Administración (Spain), AGA,33,F,01229,017,1

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Workers watch on television the opening speech of the Constituent Legislature by the Head of State, Juan Carlos I. Available in Archives Portal Europe: https://www.archivesportaleurope.net/advanced-search/search-in-archives/results-(archives)/?&repositoryCode=ES-28005-AGA4&term=televisi%C3%B3n&levelName=clevel&t=fa&recordId=ES-28005-AGA-UD-167505&c=C565218445

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Patent application for a culinary blender (1887)

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Patent application for a culinary blender (1887)

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Extension of the term to correct errors in the patent application for an invention for a culinary blender. Available in Archives Portal Europe: https://www.archivesportaleurope.net/advanced-search/search-in-archives/results-(archives)/?&repositoryCode=ES-28079-AHN9&term=BATIDORA&levelName=clevel&t=fa&recordId=ES-28079-AHN-UD-178138&c=C475772513

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Archivo de la Corona de Aragón (Spain), ACA,DIVERSOS,Sástago,539,nº 10, plano 1 

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Kitchen oven designs with two and four burners

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Kitchen oven designs with two and four burners

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Kitchen oven designs with two and four burners for the former house of the Marquis of Monistrol in Sant Feliu de LLobregat called Torre Blanca. Available in Archives Portal Europe: https://www.archivesportaleurope.net/advanced-search/search-in-archives/results-(archives)/?&repositoryCode=ES-8019-ACA6&term=COCINA&levelName=clevel&t=fa&recordId=ES-08019-ACA-UD-120547&c=C479838473

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National Archives of Austria, Reference code: AT-OeStA/HHStA SB FA Taaffe 25-1-3 - from Archives Portal Europe 

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A letter from Peace Nobel Prize Winner Bertha von Suttner to Lady Taaffe using a typewriter. Von Suttner writes that she has bought a typewriter, and although she knows that Lady Taaffe does not like letters written on a typewriter, she is doing it now because this is the first letter she writes with this machine.

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IET Archives - Reference: SPT/RB/8Vo/500

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In 1816, Sir Francis Ronalds designed and built the first large-scale demonstration of the electric telegraph in his garden. This telegraph consisted of a single wire encased in glass tubing, which was then placed in a wooden trough in a trench filled with earth. The wire was kept charged using a friction machine. At each end, clockwork dials were used to indicate the letter or figure being transmitted. It was slow, but it worked. Ronalds never patented his invention, but Charles Wheatstone, who saw the telegraph as a child, and William Crooke later patented the first working electric telegraph.

IET Archives

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Household chores are an unavoidable part of everyday life. But taken-for-granted technologies like the humble vacuum cleaner have changed cleaning our homes for good. Read the Science Museum’s story about its invention and development, from, from the early horse-drawn suction devices to modern robotic cleaners.

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Household chores are an unavoidable part of everyday life. But taken-for-granted technologies like the humble vacuum cleaner have changed cleaning our homes for good.

What do you think of when you think of housework? You probably imagine loading the washing machine, hanging out the laundry, doing the dishes-or hoovering.

Many of the basic tools used for cleaning throughout history would still be familiar to us today, from cloths to brooms, brushes and buckets. But more recently, technological solutions to household dust and dirt-like the vacuum cleaner-have altered our expectations of what 'clean' really means.

The invention of the vacuum cleaner

In 1901, if you were lucky, you might have witnessed a startling scene on the streets of London-one which would quickly revolutionise how most of us clean our homes.

Hubert Cecil Booth (1871-1955)

Engineer Hubert Cecil Booth was rolling his new vacuum cleaner onto the wealthier streets of town.

First employed by Maudslay, Sons and Field in Lambeth in the 1890s, at the time he was better known for designing suspension bridges and fairground Ferris wheels (including Vienna's famous Riesenrad).

But in 1901 he turned his skill to carpet cleaning after witnessing the demonstration of a new machine at London's Empire Music Hall.

He realised that the machine on display had a fatal flaw. It was designed to blow out air in the hope of raising the dust from the carpet and into the collecting bag. The inventor told him that the method Booth suggested instead-sucking up the dirt through a filter-was impossible.

Challenge accepted, Booth set off on a mission to produce a machine that would suck, not blow.

After allegedly near-fatal tests-in which he choked after putting a handkerchief 'filter' over his mouth and sucking up dust from the arm of a chair-Booth formed the British Vacuum Cleaner Company and launched his new device. This was the huge beast of a machine seen doing the rounds of wealthy Londoners' homes at the start of the 20th century.

The first vacuum cleaner in action

Channelling a red and gold fire engine aesthetic, according to journalist and author Jane Furnival, the distinctive horse-drawn vacuum cleaner and its liveried operators arrived at your house, immediately advertising to the neighbourhood that you were holding a 'vacuum tea party'. A visit wasn't cheap-the cost was the same as the annual wages of a 'tweeny', a junior domestic maid.

To conduct the miraculous cleaning, long hoses were fed through windows, the petrol-powered motor (and later electric engine) was started and air was drawn by suction from the hose and nozzles through a filter.

Booth's vacuum cleaner at work, 1903

Locals outside were encouraged to marvel at the amount of dirt and dust collected through a special glass chamber on the side of the machine-another cunning marketing strategy.

Vacuum cleaning as a luxury

After a flurry of disapproval and a string of court cases, both against the disruption the machine caused on the streets (including frightening horses) and from a series of disgruntled inventors, Booth finally convinced judge and jury that his powerful machine was the only vacuum cleaner at the time that actually worked.

Cleaning everywhere from Buckingham Palace to the Royal Mint and Crystal Palace-where 26 tons of dust were removed from the girders during a First World War outbreak of spotted fever-its credentials were soon established as a reliable cleaning machine.

The Crystal Palace at Sydenham, 1854-a vast space to vacuum

Vacuum cleaners were purchased by Russia's Tzar Nicholas II, Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II, the House of Commons and the popular Dickens & Jones department store in London.

Despite the drama and theatre of Booth's machine, the basic technology and the suction principle was the same as in most vacuum cleaners today. Vacuum cleaners soon got smaller, more portable and-most importantly-cheaper. Smaller motor-powered vacuum cleaners, famously from Hoover and Electrolux, began to appear before 1915.

For wealthier households, the annual evacuation so servants could complete their spring cleaning became a thing of the past. Rich homeowners purchased the new vacuum cleaners, eager to be seen as early adopters of the technology, or looking to retain domestic help made scarce by the First World War.

Poster promoting Booth's British Vacuum Cleaning Company Ltd, 1906

Hoovering for the masses

The British association of the vacuum cleaner with the word 'Hoover' came from the American company's advertising strategies and dominance in the British market. Asthmatic American inventor James Spangler sold his idea for an electric broomstick-like cleaner-with cloth filter and dust-collection bag attached to the long handle-to William Hoover in 1908.

His invention proved to be arguably the first truly practicable domestic vacuum cleaner. The Hoover Company's huge British factory, built at Perivale near Wembley in the 1930s, produced smart-looking machines which appealed to the modern consumer.

Testing hoovers on a rolling carpet device at the Hoover factory, Perivale, 1948

But vacuum cleaning still hadn't quite made it to the masses.

Given the high costs involved in purchasing new electric appliances together with the lack of electrical power provision, most people continued to clean their carpets, rugs and curtains in more traditional low-tech fashion until after the Second World War.

Many 1950s householders would still have identified with Victorian housemaid Miss Kirby's description of carpet cleaning: armed with dustpan, a selection of hand brushes and a long-handled sweeping brush you 'just got down on your hands and knees and brushed'.

Vacuum cleaners from throughout the 20th century in our collection:

The future of the vacuum cleaner

The introduction of electrically powered household appliances from the late 19th century provided a vision of a leisure-filled future for homeowners-and less drudgery for servants and home helps.

Powered carpet cleaners, washing machines and dryers, electric or gas irons and dishwashers all gradually appeared-more recently joined by smart and robotic technologies. But despite these time and labour-saving devices, households are spending about the same time on chores as 100 years ago.

iRobot Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner

Why? Factors such as higher expected standards of hygiene, the number of laundry loads and the increasing amount of time we spend on domestic tasks such as pet care and childcare have all played their part.

The work might be less physical, but we're doing just as much of it. And despite some change in the gender chore gap, women are still doing more of it than men.

So will the current raft of smart appliances and gadgets-from robotic vacuum cleaners to self-cleaning windows and ovens-finally give us that long-promised future of R&R? Only time will tell.

Find out more

Books

Adrian Forty, Objects of Desire: Design and Society Since 1750, 1986

Jane Furnival, Suck, Don't Blow, 1998

Shoukei Matsumoto, A Monk's Guide to a Clean House and Mind, 2018

Rosie Cox, Rose George, R H Horne, Robin Nagle, Elizabeth Pisani, Brian Ralph and Virginia Smith, Dirt: The Filthy Reality of Everyday Life, 2011

Susan Strasser, Never Done: A History of American Housework, 2000

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The invention of the vacuum cleaner, from horse-drawn to high tech | Science Museum

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Hoovering is an everyday chore, but the early vacuum cleaner was a technological feat that brought huge changes in how we clean our homes.

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Wireless radios in the diary of Anthony Heap

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Wireless radios in the diary of Anthony Heap

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In The London Diary of Anthony Heap (held in the Institute of Historical Research Library), the author recounts the various struggles he and his wife, Marjorie had with various wirelesses between 1941 and 1942 - we've picked out one of these here:

[29th Dec. 1941] M[arjorie] took the faulty radio set back to the shop today and left it to be brought back and fixed up later in the week. Before doing so, however, she’d tried to put it right herself and fused the electricity supply in the process. With the result that we are without electric light this evening, for despite repeated phone calls to the supply company, an engineer has failed to come along and repair it.

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Kenneth Grange: designs that changed our lives

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Kenneth Grange: designs that changed our lives

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You may not know his name, but you may well have used one of his products. Find out more about the extraordinary work of Kenneth Grange, designer of the Kenwood Chef food mixer and its accessories, a Kodak camera and the Inter-city 125 railway locomotive. Watch the video from the Science Museum Group to learn more. The Science Museum also holds a Kenwood Archive, containing press cuttings, photographs, trade catalogues, and much more.

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What do a Kenwood Chef, a Kodak camera, and Inter-city 125 have in common? I Sir Kenneth Grange

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Typewriters and assistive technology for blind and partially sighted people 

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Typewriters and assistive technology for blind and partially sighted people 

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Typewriters are one of the most important and accessible technologies of the 19th century, and they continue to have a huge impact on the way we communicate today. For those of us used to computers and other digital technology, the typewriter might seem old-fashioned, slow or difficult to use—but it actually has its roots in ground-breaking accessible technology which not only made correspondence faster and easier, but opened up access to education and communication for blind people. Read the story from the Science Museum.

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Typewriters are one of the most important and accessible technologies of the 19th century, and they continue to have a huge impact on the way we communicate today.

For those of us used to computers and other digital technology, the typewriter might seem old-fashioned, slow or difficult to use-but it actually has its roots in ground-breaking accessible technology which not only made correspondence faster and easier, but opened up access to education and communication for blind people.

Here, we'll explore how various types and styles of typewriters developed, and how the origins of typewriters show that accessible technology is good for everyone.

The origins and inventors of the typewriter

We don't know exactly when or who invented the first typewriter, but it's thought that the initial concept emerged in 1714 with a patent written by British engineer Henry Mill for a "Machine for Transcribing Letters". Only a vaguely worded description of this machine remains and there is no evidence to suggest that Mill, busy with his work as engineer-in-chief of the New River Water Works, went beyond the patent application stage.

...an artificial machine or method for the impressing or transcribing of letters singly or progressively one after another, as in writing, whereby all writings whatsoever may be engrossed in paper or parchment so neat and exact as not to be distinguished from print.

Henry Mill, British patent for "Impressing Writing on Parchment &c." (1714)

The next (controversial) contender for the title of first inventor of the typewriter was Italian Pellegrino Turri (1808), who allegedly built a device for his blind lover Countess Fantoni da Fivizzano in order for them to communicate. No drawings of this machine have survived, but in the state archives of Reggio Emilia in Italy there are letters which were written on the device by the Countess.

Although the evidence around this device is sparse and sometimes conflicting, it's notable that a device which may be considered the first typewriter was actually designed for a blind person to communicate with.

Opportunities for blind and partially sighted people would have been limited in the early 1800s, when tools for communication and education were mostly available to the wealthy, who could afford personalised technology or private tutors. However, it was around this time when attitudes began to change-in line with Enlightenment values of improved and increased access to education. Various schools began to spring up throughout Europe, America and other places, where blind and Deaf people were taught to engage in established or traditional ways of learning such as reading, writing and speaking, so they could communicate more easily with hearing people. Early assistive technologies were important to these efforts.

Reading by touch: Developing tactile communication systems for blind people

Over the past 200 years there have been a variety of different methods used by blind people to learn reading and writing. A popular method that has remained influential is the use of tactile communication systems such as the Frere system and Braille.

The Frere system was developed by James Hatley Frere (1779-1866) before Braille was introduced in the UK. It used a set of embossed graphic signs that represented the 26 sounds of the phonetic system that the method relied on. Although the bi-directional nature of the method meant that reading time was saved, the Frere system was said to inhibit pronunciation and was therefore not widely used.

There are a number of books written in the Frere system in our collection. Many of these books are religious texts, illustrating the importance of religion in education in the 19th century. Children from poor backgrounds were often taught to read and write using the bible, and it follows that education for blind and partially sighted people would also use this method.

Louis Braille is best known for the hugely influential tactile writing system named after him. The Braille system was inspired by the 'Night-Writing' method developed by Charles Barbier, a soldier in Napoleon Bonaparte's army, which allowed soldiers to communicate safely during the night without a light by using a raised twelve-dot system.

Louis Braille developed his own method aged 15, having lost his sight at a young age. Braille is a system in which raised dots in a six-dot cell represent each letter of the alphabet, as well as equivalents for punctuation marks and symbols to show letter groupings, Braille is read by moving your hands from left to right along each line. Despite its contemporary popularity, Braille did not become universal in Louis' lifetime-he died in 1852 and it was only adopted in France and England in the late 1800s and later worldwide.

The Braille system has been replaced by the development of accessible digital technologies such as screen readers, but experts still argue for its relevance as a flexible, nuanced and efficient form of communication for blind and partially sighted people.

Typewriters for blind and partially sighted people in the 19th century

By developing writing systems that relied on touch and combining them with technological developments like typewriters, communication was made easier and quicker for everyone, while providing greater autonomy and potential employment opportunities for blind and partially sighted people.

During the 19th century, blind and partially sighted people were largely educated in specific schools that specialised in teaching disabled children. The quality of education provided at these schools varied widely.

Some schools, like Henshaw's Blind Asylum in Manchester and the Royal Normal College for the Blind (later the Royal National College for the Blind), provided education and, where possible, employment opportunities comparable to their mainstream counterparts, yet remained segregated from mainstream schools. Others, according to the blind activist and surgeon John Bird, were like prisons. Friends with Louis Braille, Bird argued for the improvement of education for blind and Deaf people and rallied for their inclusion in mainstream schools.

The development of a device that allowed blind and partially sighted people to communicate in written form to those who could see was therefore a huge step forward in gaining greater autonomy and access to a rapidly developing world of communication and technology. Not only did this create the potential for entering mainstream education, but provided increased opportunities to contribute to a workforce that was becoming increasingly reliant on written communication.

Two different examples of early typewriters for blind and partially sighted people are the Hughes 'Typograph', a pseudo-typewriter designed specifically for blind and partially sighted people first introduced around 1850, and an adapted Hammond typewriter with Braille keys, made around 1895.

Viewed as highly innovative pieces of technology, typewriters were celebrated at the Great Exhibition and World Fairs around the world. Hughes' 'Typograph' was awarded medals at the exhibitions in 1851 and 1862. This machine enabled blind people to write without having to view the keys and instead used raised characters which could be read by touch.

Hughes' typograph was one of the more successful early typewriters designed for blind and partially sighted people and was a standard tool in schools such as Henshaw's Blind Aslyum in Manchester throughout the 1850s. Hughes himself was the first Governor of Henshaw's, which was founded by Thomas Henshaw to provide sheltered accommodation for elderly blind people as well as education for blind children. At Henshaw's, blind people could take up training and paid employment in occupations such as music, piano-tuning, manufacturing and braille shorthand and typewriting.

On a visit to Henshaw's, Queen Victoria was "filled with astonishment and admiration" when a student named Mary Pearson typed the phrase "Her Most Gracious Majesty".

Another tool of communication for blind and partially sighted people was the Hammond Typewriter, the first of which were produced in the early 1880s. In comparison with the Hughes 'Typograph', the Hammond typewriter was adapted for tactile use rather than a typewriter specifically designed for use by blind and partially sighted people.

By the 1870s and 1880s, typewriters were entering popular usage. James Hammond's typewriters were popular because of their print quality and the ease with which the typeface was changed. One adaption, as shown above, was the addition of Braille tactile features as well as a Braille typeface, which meant the Hammond typewriter could be used in the education and employment of blind and partially sighted people.

In 1875, Sir Francis Campbell-co-founder of the Royal National College for the Blind and the first blind person to climb Mont Blanc-visited America, where he observed typewriters coming into general use and quickly realised their potential for the education and employment of female pupils at his college

The Hammond Company and inventor James Hammond donated typewriters to the Royal National College for the Blind, including typewriters for the college's Christmas gifts to students, as well as prizes in contests.

Female students at the Royal Normal College for the Blind in Upper Norwood, England participate in a typing class.

Standing in the back of the classroom in the above photograph are Francis Joseph Campbell and James Hammond, the inventor of the typewriter the students are using.

Initially, typewriting was only taught to blind and partially sighted pupils who might be employed by a relative who employed people in their office, but typewriting soon became part of the curriculum. Typewriters were used by college pupils for notes, lessons, essays and later for paid employment by pupils. Later still, other complementary subjects such as tabulating, duplicating and other copying were taught so that pupils would develop skills which enabled them to work in a commercial office.

This was the beginning of new forms of technology being used as part of the education and employment of blind and partially sighted people which continued into the 20th century and through to the present day.

Assistive and accessible technology today

Technological innovation has continued to be important. Inventor and educator Sidney Smith developed technology and teaching tools and programmes for blind and partially sighted people in the 1970s and 1980s. Smith was a teacher in Manchester who worked with the Open University and the department of Trade and Industry to install his devices and training techniques in eight local schools in 1984.

Smith developed this Braille training computer keyboard to teach Braille to children. The device uses lights as visual aids to provide feedback to the child when writing Braille. This was seen as a simpler way of learning than by using a Braille frame on its own.

One of the most influential developments in assistive technologies into the 21st century has been the improvement of accessibility software on computers and other electronic devices. This has included screen readers which use artificial speech to read text out loud, adapted keyboards and voice recognition technologies. Other examples of assistive technologies include video magnifiers which use a camera and a screen to magnify things electronically and reading aids with scanners that use optical character recognition to convert print into electronic text, read by synthetic speech technology.

Braille is still used to make everyday objects accessible for blind and partially sighted people -for example, the new £10 and £20 notes include braille markings in the top right corner.

The history of typewriters shows the huge benefits of thinking about the access needs and requirements of every individual at the conception of design, rather than as an afterthought-and that accessible technology is good for everyone.

In striving to create equal opportunities for all, the invention of the typewriter has helped get closer to solving the age-old human problem of how we communicate effectively with each other.

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The arrival of electricity brought us illumination at the flick of a switch. How has this technology changed our everyday lives?

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Typewriters and assistive technology for blind and partially sighted people | Science Museum

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Typewriters are one of the most important and accessible technologies of the 19th century, and they continue to have a huge impact on the way we communicate today.

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A First World War Camp oven being built by a woman. Image: 6602/2825 (Building_a_camp_oven,_1915_(Ref__Q_PH3_6). Sometimes the most important technologies are also the most basic. This image is used as a part of an online exhibition about students and Queen Elizabeth College, see: King's Collections : Exhibitions & Conferences : Student days (kingscollections.org)

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Students demonstrating a concertina and a wind fiddle or bellows fiddle, both invented by Wheatstone (Ref: K/PH7/1/7). Charles Wheatstone was credited with the invention or refinement of musical instruments including the nail fiddle, wind fiddle, harmonium, and most notably the concertina. This image is also used in an online exhibition about Charles Wheatstone. See: King's Collections : Exhibitions & Conferences : The Cryptograph (kingscollections.org)

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Cryptograph and cipher devised by Charles Wheatstone. (Ref: K/PP107/11). Sir Charles Wheatstone was regarded as an expert on codes. In the mid-1850s he devised a wheel cryptograph and invented a cipher. Wheatstone's cipher, later known as the ‘Playfair cipher,’ continued in use into the 20th century. This image is also used in an online exhibition about Charles Wheatstone. See: King's Collections : Exhibitions & Conferences : The Cryptograph (kingscollections.org)

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Nurses at King's College Hospital wearing protective clothing to sterilise bandages, c. 1960. Protective clothing played a useful role in attaining higher standards of hygiene and cleanliness in medical areas. This image resides in King’s College Archives (KH/NL/PH9/5). It is also part of an online exhibition titled “Microbes and Matrons”, see: King's Collections : Exhibitions & Conferences : From Microbes to Matrons (kingscollections.org)

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Anesthetists' table designed for King's College Hospital, 1912-1915. A very basic technological advance that had massive benefits. The extra shelf means that more instruments can be transported, and the wheels make it more mobile for staff. This image was used as part of an online King’s Exhibition about drawing, “line and form”. See: King's Collections : Exhibitions & Conferences : Line and Form (kingscollections.org)

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Jenner faced ridicule when he developed a vaccine for smallpox but his dedication to spreading the practice of variolation changed the world. Follow his campaign in the Royal College of Surgeons of England Library and Archives collections or read our blog post

Vaccination, Medicine and the Masses.

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Our online exhibition: The printed page, examines the revolutionary changes that the advent of printing with moveable type engendered. The development of this technology, from around 1450 in Europe, allowed the dissemination of information to be much more widely realised.

As the book trade developed in Britain, it became centred around Fleet Street, just to the south of King's College London's Maughan Library, and we feature items printed within the locality, like this 18th century chapbook. This area has been associated with printing since the 16th century, when early printers such as Wynkyn de Worde (d1534/5) and Richard Pynson (c1449–1529/30) set up their premises in the vicinity of Fleet Street.

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The use of antiseptic substances in surgery has saved countless lives. Much of the credit rests with Joseph Lister (1827-1912), who developed this carbolic spray dispenser in 1874. At the time it was believed that wounds became infected by airborne particles; later this belief was disproved and Lister discontinued the use of a spray in the operating theatre in favour of antiseptic dressings, but the crucial ingredient in both methods was carbolic acid, or phenol, whose antiseptic properties Lister understood and harnessed.  More on this in our Learning from Lister online exhibition, curated by staff at the Foyle Special Collections Library, King's College London

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Squeezing a stress ball to relieve the frustrations of the workplace seems a very 21st century practice, but this advertisement shows that the rubber stress ball has its origins in Victorian times. It’s from the library of Charles Wheatstone, now held at the Foyle Special Collections Library, King’s College London.  We feature it in our online exhibition here

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This is the first long case clock built by Thomas Earnshaw in 1795. He had previously been a watchmaker and when asked to make this clock by the Astronomer Royal he exclaimed he did not even know how many gears it should have. This clock was still rated as one of the best clocks in the world decades after its completion and was fundamental to developing the technology to allow ships to find their accurate positions at sea.

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My sister playing on our first ever home computer: a BBC Micro (c. 1984). The game might look like Space Invaders, but it's actually 'Weetabix Versus The Titchies' - we had to collect coupons from breakfast cereal to get it.