Our club (Machinery Preservation Club) was asked just before Easter to put on a small display for a primary school. We brought a couple of engines - a Southern Cross pumper, a Roseberry hit&miss, etc; one member brought and displayed a rope-making machine which really interested the kids, and more especially the teachers. One member had a stencil-cutting machine and was kept busy all day punching out names and room and class-numbers.
I took a couple of models, "Poppin", my flame-gulper and also a Stuart Turner 10H fitted up with a Tubal Cain 3" boiler driving a ST generator connected to a transistor radio - "Steam Radio". Unfortunately I broke off the steam valve in transport so could not not run it.
The kid's comments were priceless. When asked how she liked the engines, one dear little girl said "They smell".
One little pre-primary boy, age 4 or 5, asked me later if I was "The Egg Man".
"Huh"?
"The Egg Man. Don't these machines make Easter Eggs?"
Another bigger boy blustered - "My Dad's got one of those things. He won't let me see it thought - he keeps it in the ceiling".
Makes you wonder?
Jack