The subject item was made in England by W&T Avery a British manufacturer of weights and weighing machines. The company was founded in the early 18th century and took the name W & T Avery in 1818. The undocumented origin of the company goes back to 1730 when James Ford established the business in the town of Digbeth. On Joseph Balden, the then company’s owner’s death in 1813 William and Thomas Avery took over his scale making business and in 1818 renamed it W & T Avery. The business rapidly expanded and in 1885 they owned three factories: the Atlas Works in West Bromwich, the Mill Lane Works in Birmingham and the Moat Lane Works in Digbeth. In 1891 the business became a limited company with a board of directors and in 1894 the shares were quoted on the London Stock Exchange. In 1895 the company bought the legendary Soho Foundry in Smethwick, a former steam engine factory owned by James Watt & Co. In 1897 the move was complete and the steam engine business was gradually converted to pure manufacture of weighing machines. The turn of the century was marked by managing director William Hipkins who was determined to broaden the renown of the Avery brand and transform the business into specialist manufacture of weighing machines. By 1914 the company occupied an area of 32,000m² and had some 3000 employees. In the inter-war period, the growth continued with the addition of specialized shops for cast parts, enamel paints and weighbridge assembly and the product range diversified into counting machines, testing machines, automatic packing machines and petrol pumps. During the second world war, the company also produced various types of heavy guns. At that time the site underwent severe damage from parachute mines and incendiary bombs. Then from 1931 to 1973, the company occupied the 18th-century Middlesex Sessions House in Clerkenwell as its headquarters. Changes in weighing machine technology after World War II led to the closure of the foundry, the introduction of electronic weighing with the simultaneous gradual disappearance of purely mechanical devices. The continued expansion was partly achieved through a series of acquisitions of other companies. After almost a century of national and international expansion, the company was taken over by GEC in 1979. Keith Hodgkinson, managing director at the time, completed the turn-around from mechanical to electronic weighing with a complete overhaul of the product range of retail sales of industrial platform scales. In 1993 GEC took over the Dutch-based company Berkel and the Avery-Berkel name was introduced. In 2000 the business was in turn acquired by the US-American company Weigh-Tronix, who already owned Salter, and is today operating as Avery Weigh-Tronix.An item used by grocers and merchants throughout the then British colonies of England to weigh store-bought goods around the mid to late 19th century. This item gives an insight into the daily lives of early colonial settlers and is a significant part of the era’s social history of the time.Balance scale and weights with removable dish, two round weights glued to tray 4oz and 8oz. Scales 'to weigh up to 28lb. Printed in gold on black labels each side "W & T AVERY LTD", "BIRMINGHAM" warrnambool, flagstaff-hill, flagstaff-hill-maritime-museum, maritime-museum, shipwreck-coast, flagstaff-hill-maritime-village, scale and weights, food preparation equipment, w t avery ltd, balance scale, grocers scales, james ford, william & thomas avery, birmingham uk

Deep fryer baskets are typically made of wire mesh or stainless steel, and they allow for both efficient frying and draining of excess oil from cooked food. A medium sized vintage wire fish and chip fryer from the 1950's. The basket holds the cut chips or fish and has a long thick curved open wire formed handle which can hang on the side of the saucepan for draining the cooking oil.food preparation, food processing equipment, deep fryer basket, 1940s

The Process of Making Pottery Decorating, Firing, Glazing, Making, Technical There is a rhythm and flow to clay. It can’t be done all at once! Even the making process! It can take weeks to get everything done, especially if you can only work on your pottery once a week! Even though we have three hour classes, it’s often just not enough time! Here is an overview of some of the processes so you have a bit more grasp on some of the technical stuff! Step One – Design There are SO many ideas out there for making stuff in clay! From delicate porcelain jewellery, through to heavy sculptural work and everything in between. Deciding your direction is sometimes not that easy – when you first start, try everything, you will naturally gravitate to the style that you enjoy! The options and variations are endless and can get a wee bit overwhelming too! Check in with me before you start to ensure your ideas will work, what order you might do things, how you could achieve the look you are seeking and any other technical data required! Step Two – Making Clay is thixotropic. This means that as you work with it, the clay first gets sloppier and wetter, before is begins to dry in the atmosphere. For most things, you simply can’t do all parts of the project at once. An example of work order might look like: Get last weeks work out from the shelves Prepare clay for today’s work – roll your clay, prepare balls for throwing, make the first stage of a pinch pot) Clean up last week’s work and put it on the shelf for bisque firing Check that you have any glazing to do – and do enough of it that you will have time to finish your main project Do the next step of your next project – there might be a further step that can’t be complete immediately, in that case, wrap your work well and put onto the shelves. Letting your work rest for a while can really help keep your work clean and professional looking. Many things require bagging under plastic to keep it ready for work the next week – put your name on the outside of the bag so you can find your work easily. We have stickers and markers. Consider how you want to decorate your work – coloured slip can be applied at a fairly wet stage (remembering that it will make your work even wetter!). Trying to apply slip to dry clay won’t work! If you want to do sgraffito – you will need to keep the work leather hard (a state of dryness where you can still work the clay with a little effort and a little water and care). Step Three – Drying Most of the time your work can go into the rack uncovered to let it dry out for the following week. If you want to continue forming or shaping you will need to double bag your work – put your work on a suitable sized bat and put the bat in a bag so the base of the bag is under the bat, then put another bag over the top of the work and tuck the top of the bag under the bat. If you want to trim (or turn) your thrown work the following week, it should also be double bagged. If your work is large, delicate, or of uneven thicknesses, you should lightly cover your work for drying. When considering the drying process, bare in mind the weather, humidity and wind! The hotter and dryer, the faster things dry and work can dry unevenly in the shelves – this can lead to cracking – another time to lightly cover your work for drying. Step Four – Trimming and Cleaning Up Your work is dry! It is called greenware now and it is at it’s most fragile! Handle everything with two hands. I often refer to soft hands – keep everything gentle and with your fingers spread as much as possible. Try to not pick up things like plates too much, and always with both hands! Before your work can be bisque fired it should be “cleaned up”. You work won’t go into the kiln if it has sharp edges – when glazed, sharp edges turn into razor blades! Use a piece of fly wire to rub the work all over – this will scratch a little so be light handed. Use a knife or metal kidney to scrape any areas that require a bit more dynamic treatment than the fly wire offers! Finally, a very light wipe over with a slightly damp sponge can help soften and soothe all of your edges and dags! Trimming thrown work: If you are planning to trim (or turn) your thrown work (and you should be), make sure you bag it well – your work should be leather hard to almost dry for easiest trimming. Use this step to finish the work completely – use a metal kidney to polish the surface, or a slightly damp sponge to give a freshly thrown look. Wipe the sponge around the rim after trimming, and check the inside of the pot for dags! Trimming slip cast work: Usually I will trim the rims of your work on the wheel the following day to make that stage easier, however you will still need to check your work for lumps and bumps. Last but not least – check that your name is still clearly on the bottom of your work. Step Five – Bisque Firing When the work is completely dry it can go into the bisque kiln. The bisque kiln is fired to 1000°C. This process burns off the water in the clay as well as some of the chemically bound water. The structure of the clay is not altered that much at this temperature. Inside the bisque kiln, the work is stacked a little, small bowl inside a larger bowl and onto a heavy plate. Smaller items like decorations or drink coasters might get stacked several high. Consideration is paid to the weight of the stack and shape of the work. A bisque kiln can fire about one and a half times the amount of work that the glaze kiln can fire. The firing takes about 10 hours to complete the cycle and about two days to cool down. Once it has been emptied the work is placed in the glaze room ready for you to decorate! Step Six – Glazing Decorating your work with colour can be a lot of fun – and time consuming! There are three main options for surface treatment at this stage: Oxide Washes Underglazes Glazes Washes and underglazes do not “glaze” the work – It will still need a layer of glaze to fully seal the clay (washes don’t need glaze on surfaces not designed for food or liquid as they can gloss up a little on their own). Underglazes are stable colourants that turn out pretty much how they look in the jar. They can be mixed with each other to form other colours and can be used like water colours to paint onto your work. Mostly they should have a clear glaze on top to seal them. Oxides are a different species – the pink oxide (cobalt) wash turns out bright blue for instance. They don’t always need a glaze on top, and some glazes can change the colour of the wash! The glazes need no other “glaze” on top! Be careful of unknown glaze interactions – you can put any combination of glaze in a bowl or on a plate, but only a single glaze on the outside of any vertical surface! Glazes are a chemical reaction under heat. We don’t know the exact chemicals in the Mayco glazes we use. I can guess by the way they interact with each other, however, on the whole, you need to test every idea you have, and not run the test on a vertical surface! Simply put, glaze is a layer of glass like substance that bonds with the clay underneath. Clay is made of silica, alumina and water. Glaze is made of mostly silica. Silica has a melting point of 1700°C and we fire to 1240°C. The silica requires a “flux” to help it melt at the lower temperature. Fluxes can be all sorts of chemicals – a common one is calcium – calcium has a melting point of 2500°C, however, together they both melt at a much lower temperature! Colourants are metal oxides like cobalt (blue), chrome (green through black), copper (green, blue, even red!), manganese (black, purple and pink) iron (red brown), etc. Different chemicals in the glaze can have dramatic effects. for example, barium carbonate (which we don’t use) turns manganese bright pink! Other elements can turn manganese dioxide brown, blue, purple and reddish brown. Manganese dioxide is a flux in and of itself as well. So, glazes that get their black and purple colours, often interact with other glazes and RUN! Our mirror black is a good example – it mixes really well with many glazes because it fluxes them – causes them to melt faster. It will also bring out many beautiful colours in the glazes because it’s black colouring most definitely comes from manganese dioxide! Glaze chemistry is a whole subject on it’s own! We use commercial Mayco glazes on purpose – for their huge range of colour possibilities, stability, cool interactions, artistic freedom with the ability to easily brush the glazes on and ease of use. We currently have almost 50 glazes on hand! A major project is to test the interactions of all glazes with each other. That is 2,500 test tiles!!!! I’m going to make the wall behind the wheels the feature wall of pretty colours! Step Seven – Glaze (Gloss or sometimes called “Glost”) Firing Most of the time this is the final stage of making your creation (but not always!) The glaze kiln goes to 1240°C. This is called cone 6, or midrange. It is the low end of stoneware temperatures. Stoneware clays and glazes are typically fired at cone 8 – 10, that is 1260 – 1290°C. The energy requirement to go from 1240°C to 1280°C is almost a 30% more! Our clay is formulated to vitrify (mature, turn “glass-like”) at 1240°, as are our glazes. A glaze kiln take around 12 hours to reach temperature and two to three days to cool down. Sometimes a third firing process is required – this is for decoration that is added to work after the glaze firing. For example – adding precious metals and lustres. this firing temperature is usually around 600 – 800°C depending upon the techniques being used. There are many students interested in gold and silver trims – we will be doing this third type of firing soon! After firing your work will be in the student finished work shelves. Remember to pay for it before you head out the door! There is a small extra charge for using porcelain clay (it’s more than twice the price of regular clay), and for any third firing process! Once your work has been fired it can not turn back into clay for millennia – so don’t fire it if you don’t like it! Put it in the bucket for recycling. https://firebirdstudios.com.au/the-process-of-making-pottery/ The bowl is an example of kitchenware used in the 19th century and still in use today.Bowl white ceramic. Crack on side. Badly stained.Backstamp very faint and unable to be read.flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked-coast, flagstaff-hill, flagstaff-hill-maritime-museum, maritime-museum, shipwreck-coast, flagstaff-hill-maritime-village, mixing bowl, food preparation, kitchen equipment, ceramic

An example of baking equipment used in Victorian times and still used to day.Spoon, wooden, blonde colour. Spoon section tapers to rounded point and handle is flat and shaped.flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked-coast, flagstaff-hill, flagstaff-hill-maritime-museum, maritime-museum, shipwreck-coast, flagstaff-hill-maritime-village, wooden spoon, food preparation, baking equipment, kitchen utensil

The real breakthrough in the design of hand salad servers probably came in the 19th century. As the middle class grew and people started to pay more attention to tableware and dining etiquette, there was a demand for specialized kitchen tools. Hand salad servers became a popular addition to the dining table. They were often made of silver or other metals, which were seen as a sign of wealth and sophistication.A vintage silver plated hand salad server fork with a long lined patterned handle finishing with a crest. It has a hole at the end to hang it. Three cutout triangular shapes form the fork at the serving end of the bowl.EPNSfood preparation, kitchen equipment, sald servers, food servers, sald bowls

This cheese slicer was gifted to the donor at their wedding in 1969. It was used in a health food shop in Upwey until 2008. It is believed to date from 1900s and to have been originally used in a local shop, possibly in Cockatoo.This cheese slicer is an excellent example of food processing equipment used in local businesses over the past 100 years.Cheese slicer comprising rectangular wooden base and a handle with cutting wire at the base. Handle can be lifted up and down to cut the slice which is laid on two marble blocks. cheese slicer, food preparation, upwey, cockatoo, 1900s, commercial food preparation

Hexamine stoves, such as this example, were used in the field by soldiers for the preparation of food and boiling of water. The stove would have been fuelled by hexamine tablets, which contain flammable elements of formaldehyde, ammonia, nitrogen oxide and hydrogen cyanide. Associated tablets have been removed from collection as a safety precaution. Due to the fumes of the fuel tablet, food cooked on such a stove would have been sealed in a container when cooking.Silver coloured aluminium hexamine stove. The stove is made of three pieces of metal, the 'floor' and two sides, which form a box when closed and when open appear like an upturned table. The floor of the stove has a series of holes and lines stamped into it. The sides of the stove have been attached to the base with brass rivets. When open, the sides open to form a stand at the base and the interlocking grooves which line the edges of the sides act as a cooking platform on top. When closed, the stove appears as a small box. cooking, vietnam, field, equipment, rations, food, 1960s

Aluminium egg separator with embossed floral pattern around sides.Rgd No 534385domestic equipment, food preparation, kitchen

Sheet metal sugar scoop with finger loop handle.L28domestic equipment, food preparation, sugar scoop

Very small sheetmetal mug/dipper with finger loop handle.domestic equipment, food preparation, kitchen

White enamelled ladle with long handle.Swedendomestic equipment, food preparation, kitchen

White enamelled ladle with long blue handle.domestic equipment, food preparation, kitchen

Large cast iron hanging Gypsy skillet pan with handle and pouring spout.domestic equipment, food preparation, cooking pot, k34

Cast iron press with galvanised cylindrical container, handle with threaded screw.domestic equipment, food preparation, kitchen

Nutmeg grinder, wooden holding handle with metal plate with grinding attachment with small wooden handle.domestic equipment, food preparation, nutmeg grinder

Cream pottery mixing bowl with Greek key pattern around side.domestic equipment, food preparation, kitchen

Cast iron food mincer for seeding raisins, with handle & screw attachment for securing to bench or table, black wooden handle. Marked Landers Frary & Clark New Britain Conn. USA. Pat Nov 24.96 Wet the Raisins No 4 Crown.Landers Frary & Clarkdomestic equipment, food preparation, raisin seeder, k195

Hand operated metal apple coere & peeler with screw attachment for mounting on bench or table, black wooden handle.Little Star Patented June.9.85domestic equipment, food preparation, kitchen, k205

Hand operated cheese shredder, red cast iron, tin mill & wooden handle & press, with a screw attachment for mounting on bench or table.Tala England No 664domestic equipment, food preparation, kitchen, k207.1

Brown earthenware teapot with lid, lighter streaking in glaze.ALB Patented England Made in Englanddomestic equipment, food preparation, kitchen

Speedie electric jug, green earthenware.Speedie for AC only Wattage 1600 Voltage 230 V/AC/J1domestic equipment, food preparation, kitchen

Cast iron food mincer with claw feet legs, mounted on board, painted silver with white enamel mouth, wooden turning handle with thumb screw, flip catch to open for access to mincing teeth inside.15 Alte Hutte Neusalz & O Patent 58domestic equipment, food preparation, kitchen

Opened packet of Lipton tea bags, contains 16 yellow tea bags and instructions sheet, packet reads 2 cups for a penny 30 tea bags only a 1d a bag.Liptons the worlds sales leaderdomestic equipment, food preparation, tea bags

Butter mould or press for imprinting butter, round wooden cylinder containing a circular disc on handle with carving of a cow surrounded by other carved patterns.domestic equipment, food preparation, butter mould, k166.2 k166.1

Large grey speckled enamelled saucepan with handle & holder, no lid.TS 20domestic equipment, food preparation, cooking pot, k25

Assortment of tin biscuit cutters, moulds, in various shapes and sizes plus a double ended measuring spoon & a scone cutter marked Invicta Self Raising Flour on handle.Invicta Self Raising Flourdomestic equipment, food preparation, kitchen, k197 k185.2

Small 1 pint cast iron cooking pot with attached tin handle, marked on bottom with a star patent No1 1 pint.domestic equipment, food preparation, cooking pot

Black cast iron coffee grinder with pull out drawer for catching ground coffee, gold coloured funnel on top for beans and a handle with wooden knob for turning grinder, brass screw & name plate on front, square base with holes for securing, hand made lid possibly cut from motor oil can.T & C Clark & Co Ltd Wolver Hampton Druertons improved Clark & Co Manufacturersdomestic equipment, food preparation, kitchen, k182

Small nutmeg grinder, metal with black wooden handles, marked Pat ap'd for.domestic equipment, food preparation, kitchen

Three wooden butter or shortbread stamps with patterns of, cow, rooster and rose.domestic equipment, food preparation, kitchen