National Museums Liverpool Blog - Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Now it’s coming to the end of the year. Your reindeer antlers are drooping after the office Christmas party, the sequins on your party dress are fading and you’re wondering what happened to that pile of sprouts you hid behind the piano to avoid eating them (and avoid upsetting your host). So while you consider if you can stomach another mince pie, why not have a think about your favourite National Museums Liverpool exhibition from 2007 and vote in our online poll!

Did ‘Doves and Dreams’ inspire you way back in Spring of this year? Or did you enjoy getting an intimate glimpse of The Beatles with Michael Peto’s revealing photography exhibition? Have your say and come back to find out the results in January. Once you’ve voted, you can also check out our program of events for 2008 here…

Note: Now These Days Are Gone, Victorian Visions, Magical History Tour and Merchant Palaces are continuing into 2008.

That hardy soul, John Moran, donned his duffle coat and ventured out into the freezing night last week in search of meteors. And in case you missed the shower this Shadow and Substance animation shows what they should look like.

The last time I wrote a piece about one of the annual meteor showers was the 13th August Perseids, and back then I had to comment on what other people had seen, as I had no chance because of the cloud cover.

This time I'm happy to report that I had quite a successful Geminid meteor hunt. My viewing conditions were far from perfect as I was surrounded by street lights. Nonetheless within 30 seconds of bending my neck upwards, I had seen two Geminids streak just below their target constellation Gemini. As it was a very cold night, I had wrapped up well but was still only able to stand outside for about an hour before finally succumbing to the cold.  In the first half hour alone I had seen 7 and the final half hour I saw 3 more. The actual date of the Geminids maximum was to be 14th December but since this window started at 10.30pm on the 13th I thought I'd start looking from my back garden, which is more or less in the city centre of Liverpool, hence all the street lights, and my plan was to take a drive somewhere nice and dark on the 14th. I'm very glad I decided to have a go from the garden as the next day on the 14th there was the usual depressing cloud cover that normally defeats me.
 
The Geminids are one of the most abundant meteor showers of the year, with a Zenith maximum rate of 75 meteors per hour. They are also quite unique in that their parent comet isn't a comet at all but an asteroid called Phaeton, and because of this the stony material that forms the shooting star is denser and so can take longer to burn up in our atmosphere giving us a better chance of making our wish before it burns out. A colleague of mine was driving to work on the morning of the 14th and as she was looking out of her windscreen she saw probably one of the last Geminids of the night before it started to get light.
 
So as you can imagine I'm feeling quite smug about actually getting the chance to see one of the better annual meteor showers of the year. And my smugness isn't due to the fact that I got to see them while others didn't, but because I usually end up cursing the weather for spoiling the opportunity, and always feel that it deliberately clouds over just when I get excited about it. So the score for the year is Weather 9 v John 2.
 
One more thing, don't forget about the last meteor shower of the year, the Ursids, which peak on the 23rd December and has an hourly rate of 5. Although this is quite low they can be quite rich and so are still well worth a look.
 
John.

This beautiful builder’s model of the Empress Queen is to me, Stephen Guy, one of the finest in the Merseyside Maritime Museum. It may not be the most skilfully made or the most detailed but it perfectly captures the style and dash of the original ship.

Image courtesy of Liverpool Daily Post And Echo

Jagged pieces of seaweed-infested and barnacle-encrusted metal clearly visible at low tide are all that remain of the beautiful paddle steamer Empress Queen. The 2,500-ton, 360 ft long Isle of Man ferry boat was built in 1897 and was powered by mighty triple-expansion engines. She was the fastest and most powerful paddle steamer afloat.

The Empress Queen was well known to the travelling public as she was on the regular service between Liverpool and Douglas, when the Isle of Man was known as 'the playground of Lancashire'. She was a great favourite because of her fast runs and the ease with which she carried her 2,000 passengers to fun-filled weeks or fortnights on Mona’s Isle.

When the First World War broke out the Government saw she would be ideal for transporting troops and she was chartered for this purpose. She saw successful service travelling between Southampton and Le Havre, ferrying troops across the Channel to and from the Western Front in northern France. Everything went well until 1 February 1916 when the Empress Queen met her end. She was returning from Le Havre with some 1,300 “liberty men”, as soldiers returning from the trenches were known. The Empress Queen ran ashore in thick fog at about 5 am on the Ring Rocks at Bembridge, Isle of Wight, about a quarter of a mile from the cliffs.

She ran well up on the flat rocks and lay nearly upright with the bows on the rocks and the stern afloat. The weather was calm, the ship was close to land and there was no danger to life. The troops were taken off by destroyers and all sorts of craft from pleasure boats to fishing smacks which came alongside in reply to her calls for help.

At first it was thought it would be relatively easy to salvage the Empress Queen but it proved an impossible task. All that was retrieved were large amounts of metal from the engine room and other parts of the ship. Details on the model include the paddle wheel cowls decorated with the Legs of Man.

A new Maritime Tale appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo.

You wait ages for a great Christmas themed performance on William Brown Street then two arrive at once. Not only is the BBC Three Liverpool Nativity taking place there on Sunday, as I reported yesterday, the characters from 'A Christmas Carol' will be invading World Museum Liverpool over the weekend as well.

The theatrical invasion is in anticipation of the retelling of the famous Dickens story in the museum's Treasure House Theatre later this month. This Saturday and Sunday members of the National Museums Liverpool Youth Theatre will be roaming the museum in costume as Dickens characters, chatting to the public and sharing a good dose of Christmas cheer or ‘humbugs’. So come along and join in the Christmas spirit - or spirits, depending on who you meet!

The Treasure House Theatre’s production 'A Dickens of a Christmas' premieres on Thursday 27 December and is on every day until Monday 31 December with performances at 1pm, 2pm and 3pm. See the World Museum Liverpool What's on page for further details.

And while I'm on the subject, here's some trivia about the author to impress your family with over Christmas dinner. Did you know that Charles Dicken's daughter Kate was the model for the painting 'The Black Brunswicker' shown here? Usually on display in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, the painting is currently on loan to the fantastic Millais exhibition at Tate Briatin in London.

Anyone walking up William Brown Street this week will have noticed a large stage being constructed for BBC Three's Liverpool Nativity which is being broadcast live on Sunday.

Frankincense never looked like this in my school nativity

It's a long time since I've seen a nativity play but I remember the last guests to arrive at the stable were the three wise men, who had travelled from far away to get there.

BBC Three have taken the 'moving the mountain to Mohammed' approach to choosing a location by building their stage right outside the workplace of at least three wise men and women - namely World Museum Liverpool. I don't know if any of our wise staff will be invited to this nativity but at least they don't have far to go if they do - they might even beat the shepherds.

They wont have to look far for inspiration for gifts either as the three traditional gifts brought by the wise men are all well represented in the collections. There is some frankincense and myrrh in the botany collections and plenty of gold in the antiquities collections, like this Anglo-Saxon gold medalet for example.

Personally I always like to get sweets at Christmas, so I quite like today's page on the National Museums Liverpool online advent calendar, which shows a special Christmas card from the famous local sweet factory Taveners.

Update 14/12/2007: Here's a photo of the nativity stage as it looked yesterday afternoon, on Flickr.

The Thornycroft compound steam engine. Image courtesy of the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo

The technical side of engineering holds for me, Stephen Guy, many mysteries but I am fascinated by working steam engines which I find strangely soothing.

Steam power transformed the world of shipping as it did when land transport moved on to railways – pioneered by British innovators and inventors. When James Watt gave the world its first efficient steam engine in 1769 he provided the means for ships to eventually carry cargo reliably to all corners of the world. Sailing ships had to make the best progress they could depending on the winds. Only with the advent of steam was it possible to introduce dependable timetable services.

Single cylinder engines between 1800 and 1850 worked at low pressures of less than 20 lbs per square inch (psi). More economical compound engines, introduced in 1854, extracted useful work from higher pressure steam (up to 60 psi) by passing it through two cylinders. Triple and quadruple expansion engines took this principle further in later decades.

Long after the introduction of steam, merchant sailing vessels remained profitable on longer routes. Early steamships had limited cargo space because they had to carry so much coal. Clipper ships such as the Liverpool-built Fiery Cross dominated the trades in China tea and Australian wool.

The 1869 opening of the Suez Canal was crucial because it shortened voyages and steamships became economically viable. Coaling stations were built at intervals, the colonies of the British Empire providing many suitable locations so that steamers could reach all parts of the globe.

A memorable Royal Naval tug o’ war was staged in 1845 to test the power of the propeller. The screw steamer Rattler beat the otherwise identical paddle steamer Alecto. Not only was the propeller shown to be more effective but it was also less vulnerable than paddles and therefore more suited to naval duties.

Continuing improvements to the efficiency and reliability of steam engines ensured that, by the end of the century, steamships no longer had to carry sails to bring them home in the event of an engine or boiler failure.

There is a fine set of real and model engines at Merseyside Maritime Museum to illustrate the power of steam. A Thornycroft compound steam engine is from the 63 ft-long torpedo boat No 71 of 1880. Model engines include: side lever engine (1836), an oscillating engine used on paddle steamers (1847), triple expansion engines (1887 and 1937) and a compound engine (1890). The largest oscillating engines ever built were those on Brunel’s legendary giant Great Eastern (1858) with four cylinders of 74 inches in diameter.

A new Maritime Tale appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo.

All say 'juicy'. Copyright Juice FM

Yet again the Walker has won an award, this time it was the Visitor Award at the Juice FM Style Awards on Friday night. For the last 6 weeks Liverpool has been voting through street surveys, web votes and focus groups for who they want to see crowned the people's style favourites. The Walker fought off the Tate Liverpool and Albert Dock to claim that accolade. Tracey McGeagh (Director of Marketing and Communications) and Reyahn King (Director of Art Galleries) collected the award which is now on display in the gallery foyer. The image shows Tracey and Reyahn in the centre with Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace from Big Brother on the left and Naomi Mills from Shipwrecked on the right.

Update 06.12.07: Forgot to credit Juice FM for the use of the photo - thanks very much chaps! 

Detail of Stewart Bale Ltd photo of the model Father Christmas in Blackler's department store, 1958. Archive reference SB 581174-1

Did anyone mention that it's almost Christmas? Just a few times so far this year but it is only the first week of December.

This year we've got some brand new Christmas e-cards on the website. The latest selection features images from the fantastic Stewart Bale archive, which is held at Merseyside Maritime Museum.

They're accompanied by a Stewart Bale at Christmas online exhibition, with zoomifiable pages of all the photos. You could for example zoom in even closer to the photo shown here of the giant Father Christmas in Blackler's department store. But be warned, he's quite scary up close. Obviously designed to be seen from much further away...

Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat, but don't go panicing and filling your stockings with tat! I have a much better idea - head down to the shopping night at the Lady Lever Art Gallery tonight and bag yourself a cracking gift instead. There's jewellery, candles, gift stationery, cards and christmas decorations - something for everyone. To make it a totally stress-free experience mince pies, mulled wine and musical refreshment courtesy of Church Drive School choir are on offer to help you on your merry way. Sounds perfect.

I hope one of those presents has my name on it

For the next two weeks, Rina, a Japanese student studying English will be working in the Ethnology department at World Museum. We're really pleased to have her here and we thought it would be nice for her to do a blog about what she is doing.

Rina with the tree in the museum foyer

Hello!

My name is Rina. I am from Tokyo, Japan. I am working in this Museum as a work placement for a month. I usually do computer work and store objects, but my main purpose is to improve my English skills through my work.

I study British and American literature in my university in Japan, and this work placement is a part of my language course studies. Before I came here, I studied English in university of Manchester for two month, and I moved to Liverpool two weeks ago. This work placement is a good experience for me and helps me to know the English work environment and improve my English skills.

I am interested in the exhibition “The Beat Goes On” because I am interested in U.K. rock music very much. However, it will open after I go back to Japan, so I’d like to come back here to see the exhibition!