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| Bue skies over a remote corner of Oxfordshire.... |
Stopping the tractor for a quick drink, then carefully returning the milk bottle to a capacious pocket or over the shoulder bag of some description.
No Thermos flasks for such as these workers, much too modern and probably not for the likes of farm tractor drivers, out in the fields all day where a bottle would suffice.
Homely thoughts as we idle over a nice, hot, cup of tea...!
A little online research indicated the Thermos flask or Dewar Flask/Dewar Bottle, named to honour Scientist Sir James Dewar, who invented the vacuum flask when busy with his work on cryogenics (from Wikipedia I learn that this is the name given to the "study of the behaviour of materials at very low temperatures"). No Patent for this flask was taken out by Sir James - I wonder why that was, needs do more research?? An early vacuum flask had already been produced by Adolf Ferdinand Weinhold in 1881. Then, in 1904, two Germans created a commercial entity out of Dewar's design under the name of Thermos which name became a genericized trademark for the Thermos Vacuum Flask, such as is to be found in most households, today.
I have only three such flasks at home, of different heights and decoration and, quite frankly, wonder how I should cope without them. When my children were at school, after school activities were greatly enhanced by the availability of hot food ready and waiting at home.
But back to the clear glass milk bottle of today and from my childhood, watching the Blue Tits peck away at the silver foil top to get at the cream, the gold foil cover for the Jersey Milk and the stripy blue or red tops for the semi-skimmed or skimmed milk. In my Aunt's childhood, milk was delivered by a milk cart, being ladled out into householders "milk can" and carefully carried indoors. I've often wondered how folk managed on this small amount of daily milk so I was grateful to the online article by Tom Heyden of BBC News Magazine of 26th September 2014 "Nostalgia for an old-fashioned milk bottle" in the section "A brief bottle history" in which he states "At that time, milk was "delivered there times a day - "pudding round" later dropped due to WWI constraints" - and another of his interesting facts - "Estimated 30 million lost glass bottles a year during WW2 - some return to tin can delivery using ladles."
Having missed this online article on Friday, I am only now conscious of the fact that Dairy Crest have stated their intention to cease daily milk deliveries of glass milk bottles by 2016, from which time only plastic milk bottles will be filled and deposited daily to householders' door steps. What a sad day that will be! What memories do we all have of the milkman calling - the crunching footsteps on a winter's day, the frozen milk, the pecked-at foil caps and waking up with the thought of fresh milk ready and waiting, to be brought indoors for breakfast.
I once owned a family milk can, now sadly missing; it would have produced a great photo-shoot for this article - why do old and historic bygone artefacts go missing, its so sad!
The tea cup and saucer, another somewhat "old-fashioned" household item but definitely relevant today still, for the elegance of delivery and the fashion for using a special china tea service for afternoon tea.
The ubiquitous mug of tea, so quick and easy to produce with boiling water and tea bag is a blessing for many and, indeed, an individual cup of tea may also use this delivery but here the tea cup has one special advantage, the tea will cool down considerably faster due to the outward-sloping shape of the cup, for busy people or for those who prefer a cool cuppa. For myself, boiling hot tea is a must, whether in a cup and saucer or mug, so that I may linger over a book and still savour my hot morning tea!
If I am using a mug for any welcome beverage, it has to be highly decorative and attractive, and well-worthy of its place on my pine display shelf!!!
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| a pretty few...! |
Daisy
Please refer to online material from The Telegraph by Mehreen Khan 22nd September 2014 "The death of the glass milk bottle" and from BBC News Magazine 26th September 2014 by Tom Heyden "Nostalgia for an old-fashioned milk bottle"
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