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Inventor A.W. Reid Leads the Way
Some very clever inventors have lived in Taranaki and this week's story is about another one. Alexander Walker Reid brought electric lights to Stratford and invented a milking machine in the days when most farmers milked by hand. A.W. Reid was a mover and shaker, especially when driving his home-built, steam powered car.
Rewind to the 1890s
True or false?
1. The first cars will not arrive in New Zealand until early next century.
2. Before the end of this century New Zealanders will be fighting in this country's first overseas war.
3. A New Zealand rugby team has already been overseas.
4. The old age pension begins during this decade.
5. The first ANZAC Day is held during this decade.
Consequences
Electricity is quite new on the lamps and lights timeline. The first lamp was invented around 70,000 B.C. Click on this website to find out about these six early lamps and lights. Jot down a consequence for each new invention and compare your ideas with a classmate. (A consequence is something that probably happened because of the invention.)
1. The first lamps
2. Man made terra-cotta or pottery lamps
3. The central burner
4. Small glass chimneys
5. Whale oil
6. Gas lamps
Inventor's flowchart
Thomas Edison demonstrated his light bulb in 1879. He called it the Edison incandescent lamp and you can see the advertisement for it on the website above.
Draw a simple flowchart that demonstrates the invention process and the invention of the light bulb. Use the four phrases below as captions in your flowchart and draw the pictures to go with them. (Work out the order for the captions first.)
The captions are: Make it, Design it, Use it, Need it. (Two more captions could be added to the process these days. Can you think what they might be?)
Word wise?
These words are all in this week's story. Choose the meaning that you think is best and then check your answers as you read the story.
1. fait accompli (a ) the logical action that will happen or (b) something about to come to an end
2. new fangled (a) very complicated or (b) so new it's weird
3. prestige (a) humbling or (b) honour
4. executor of a will (a) the person who makes sure details in the will are followed up on or (b) the person who decides what will go in a will
5. stern (a) strict or (b) lenient
6. perfectionist (a) someone who plays instruments like drums and cymbals in an orchestra. or (b) someone who sets extremely high standards and tries to carry them all out
7. evolve (a) change gradually over time or (b) turn around and around
8. modified (a) to change in some way or (b) swapping something for a better model
9. stately (a) shabbily dressed or (b) dignified
10. prophetic (a) saying what will happen before it happens or (b) someone with strong religious beliefs
Read on!
Read the first two parts of the story through to 'New horizons' and look for the answers to these questions as you read.
1. What would have lit Stratford if electricity hadn't come to town?
2. Which word best describes Stratford people when deciding on electricity? Suspicious or trusting?
3. Which town was the first to have electricity?
4. In the end, who decided whether to have electricity or gas?
5. Which big New Zealand city had electricity around about the same time?
Shutterbug
Click on the two links below from the Puke Ariki photograph collection. Read the details for each photo carefully and then click 'view full size photograph'. Find some evidence in the photos that tells us the dates listed for each photo are not exact?
Letter to the editor
The resident agent for the Taranaki Herald had a bit to say about the new electricity supply. He might have even put Stratford people off the idea! Write a reply to his comments that A.W. Reid might have sent to the newspaper. It should be brief and to the point. Mr Reid was a busy man but the comments in the paper probably annoyed him. Be sure to say how the electricity would improve the town.
Find the source
The next two parts of the story, up to 'Head of steam' tell you where AWR grew up and how he learnt his engineering skills. You can find out about his family and how he came to Taranaki. All this information came from Ian Reid, Alexander Reid's grandson.
Decide on a source for each of the following pieces of information. Sources are the places people get information from. The internet is a source. So are books, people, newspapers and family trees. Official records are sources of information too. Examples are births, deaths and marriages, land deed records and shipping records.
So where might Ian have looked for these things?
1. Where his grandfather was born.
2. When and how he came to New Zealand.
3. Where the young Alexander's family settled and where he got his education.
4. How he learnt his engineering skills.
5. Who his grandfather married and when.
6. How many children his grandparents had and where the family lived.
7. When he started his electrical company.
Go the steam car!
The world's first self propelled road vehicle was steam powered. A Frenchman, Nicholas Cugnot, invented it in 1769 and it hauled artillery for the French army. It moved along at two and a half miles per hour and had to stop every 10 minutes to build up steam power.
So A.W. Reid didn't invent steam cars but he did build them and the next two parts of the story tells you all about this. Read through to 'Modern milking' and you'll see the part that matches the cartoon above.
What if a story appeared in the Taranaki Herald about this little mishap? Make up two headlines to match the story. Sub editors are the people that write the headlines so your two headlines will be from two sub editors.
Headline 1. A grumpy sub editor who thinks all cars should be banned.
Headline 2. A positive sub editor who likes new ideas and creative people.
The think tank
Here's a photo of A.W. Reid's workshop. He's sure to have studied plans in here before putting together his marvellous inventions. Draw a plan for the engine part of his steam car. Just follow this description and draw up the matching design. Label your plan too. You may want to pair up with a classmate to do this one.
Steam engines powered cars by burning fuel that heated water in a boiler, creating steam that expanded and pushed pistons that turned the crankshaft, which then turned the wheels.
Nice machine!
An American named Colvin made a milking machine in 1862. It just kept sucking and it hurt the cows. Farmers found milk and blood in the milk cans.
Taranaki was the birthplace of the New Zealand machines. The AWR machine wasn't the first but find out why it was one of the best. Read 'Modern milking'.
Design an ad
Design and write a newspaper advertisement for the AWR milking machines. Good ads have a headline, a picture (below) and list some "benefits," - things that say why the product is so good. They also say where it can be bought.
That's a good idea
Finish the story now and pair up with a classmate and see how many reasons you can list that show AWR's poptop caravan was a good idea. Line up your list of reasons against another pairs. Who has the most good ones?
An epitaph for AWR
Epitaphs are written on gravestones and they often gave an idea of the type of life the person led. They sometimes began, "Here lies..." Write one for Alexander Walker Reid.
Fast forward to 2004
Stratford Ratepayers had to vote for electricity or gas in 1897 and Taranaki's roadmakers face another big decision now.
Earthworks have uncovered an amazing Taranaki settlement from the 1850s and Transit New Zealand has to decide whether they will divert a $12.5million Bell Block bypass, to protect a unique archaeological site.
The 1850s Maori settlement - Te Horopuriri is the only site of its kind to be excavated in New Zealand and thousands of amazing items have been found. One discovery is a piece of slate with a detailed drawing of a warrior firing a musket from the trenches.
This site will tell us about an important time in Taranaki's history that we don't know that much about. Te Horopuriri is one of 19 settlements that were fortified during the Puketapu feud in 1856. More than 20 professional archaeologists have been called in and besides unfired bullets and musket balls they have found gun trenches and bomb proof shelters.
Transit is paying for this archaeology project and it's the most expensive and most hi-tech one that has ever been done in New Zealand. Excavations keep getting bigger and bigger and now people are saying the new highway should go somewhere else. Puketapu hapu spokesman Grant Knuckey has suggested the site should be preserved and New Plymouth's coastal walkway should be extended to meet it.
In the hotseat
Form a group of four. What if you were the Board of Directors for Transit New Zealand? What do you do? Keep paying for more exploration or do you say, "You have found enough, the road must go through?" Discuss and decide.
One stay, three stray
When your group has made their decision then one stays while three of you stray to three other groups to share your ideas. See if other groups agree with you.
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