Darning Mushroom - hand torch

We went to the science museum yesterday.

There is loads of good stuff there - the space gallary (with a genuine
x-ray space telescope), but I thought my readers would be equally interested in a small domestic object in the making the modern world display. It is a "darning mushroom hand torch", according to the display label.

I have been unable to find any information about it on the science museum website, or elsewhere on the 'web, just those four words. I don't know whether it was sold as a torch which was shaped like a darning mushroom, or was intended for use as a darning mushroom. It made me think of the Knit Lite knitting needles and crochet hooks, with lighted tips. But not as much fun.

Also in this display was a Singer sewing machine in that rather pastel green that was popualar in the fifties. It seemed greener in real life.


(FWIW, the hairdryer is extremely similar to the hairdryer I grew up using.)

Another place we visited was Albemarle Street, where the Royal Institution has its' headquarters.

In Albemarle Street is Brown's Hotel, where the first British phone call was made. Brown's Hotel was set up by Lord Byron's butler and his wife. Lord Byron was the father of Ada Lovelace, who is well-known for her writings about Babbage's Difference Engine. There is a working model of the Difference Engine in the Science Museum, where I saw it yesterday. Also in the science museum is a darning mushroom hand torch...