Museums and Lifelong Education

Museum collections held in trust for society are powerful learning resources. Providing visitors with direct access to museum artefacts stimulates intense levels of curiosity and often causes great excitement as museum objects have the capability to unleash strong emotions in people of all ages. This, coupled with an artefact's unique tangibility, motivates people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds to learn, providing first hand experience of different societies, and the values which they continue to represent from a range of historical, social, political, economic and multicultural perspectives.

Mystery Object

This Mystery Object has been kindly supplied by Newton Abbot & GWR Museum.
Can you guess what it would be used for?

The item is a copper tea-can boiler, this one having been used by Colin Pulleyblank in the 1950's/'60's.

Each tea-can boiler was made an individual shape for the fireman or engine driver by the local workshops.

It was then attached to a pipe in the front of the locomotive which would then blast steam through the coil and into the GWR man's can, the water would boil from the bottom of the can first.

All very hazardous, but normal at the time.

The picture below shows Colin using his tea-can boiler to make his tea!

On display at the GWR Room at Newton Abbot Town & GWR Museum.

Pictures courtesy of Newton Abbot Town & GWR Museum.