‘It’s moments like these…’
I’m a bit partial to a look through a local museum. Sure, after a while they all get a bit samey: a butter churn, a clothes wringer, and one of those irons you have to put in the fire before ironing your slacks. Maybe an assortment of horrific olden days pharmaceuticals, or an equally horrific mock up of a dentist’s surgery. The octogenarian volunteer that greets you upon arrival. However regardless of all this familiar stuff there is nearly always something tucked away in a local museum that you have never seen before. In the Taranaki Aviation Technology and Transport Museum near New Plymouth I came across an absolute gem.
Now this amazing machine may not be instantly recognisable, but it was responsible for hygienically delivering little chunks of deliciousness and decay to kiddies over generations. This, ladies and gents, is one of the original-design Minties wrapping machines. Yep, you heard right!
Check out the roll of Minties wrapper! Doesn’t it just take you back? You know, it’s kind of a waxy paper.
And each wrapper has a little message on it, like ‘A different mint’, ‘Delicate in flavour’, ‘After meals’, ‘Refresh the mouth’, and who could forget ‘The universal sweet’.
Slightly more dubious claims include ‘Fatigue curer’ and ‘Prevents thirst’. Apparently this machine belonged to the Sweetacres confectionary factory here in New Zealand. What a ripper!
The museum also had a large display of historic dairy-related artefacts, including these pipettes which were part of the milk testing kit. Those in charge of milk testing soon learnt not to leaves these lying around, otherwise the dairy hands would use them to smoke cones and none of the cows would get milked.
For more on the Taranaki Aviation Technology and Transport Museum click here
If you liked this post, you may also like A Volcano in the Back Yard, Taupo Volcanic Zone
Leave a Reply