downs

Modern dairying would be impossible without milking machines. But it took a century after the first such machines were invented before they were widely adopted in Australia. For millennia, humans had milked cows and other animals by hand. In the 19th century, as mechanisation began to change agricultural practices, people started to apply their minds to the milking operation. The first milking machines were patented in 1838, says the Australian Bureau of Statistics. But, they add, it wasn’t until the late 1930s that milking by machine became the norm in Australia. It wasn’t through want of trying. Both overseas and in this country, numerous machines were tried and patents applied for. Many new patents were subsequently applied for using vacuum suction and, in 1895, the pulsator milking machine was invented. In 1897, Robert Kennedy and William Lawrence, an engineer from Glasgow, produced the Lawrence Kennedy milking machine which, in 1903, was improved by a Victorian dairy farmer, Mr A Gillies. The resulting LKG machine was widely used in Australia, although most dairy farmers continued to milk by hand until the 1930s. Source: australianfoodtimeline.com.au/milking-machines-in-australia/

Google van Tootle ?? - goo.gl/maps/ti0gV - the house with the white chimney behind and below. Best seen from the other side of the footbridge which was presumably built to replace the ferry.

It was December 1806 before the canal reached Mullingar..................Passengers travelling between Dublin and Mullingar in 1807 were charged 12/6d. for first class and 7/7d. for second class. The duration of the journey was twelve hours. Initially there were two sailings each day in each direction. www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/environment-geography... I would have thought that twelve hours was a good deal.

Nowhere near this end of the canal, but I liked this report in Freeman's Journal on August 18th 1843

CAUTION TO BATHERS Between five and six o'clock yesterday evening, an hour in which the locality is much frequented by the public, two soldiers of the 72nd Highlanders proceeded to bathe in the Royal Canal, Blacquiere Bridge, Circular-road, to the great annoyance of numerous passengers. Mr. Falkner, of Mount Falkner, whose house is next to the place, promptly and most properly at once interfered, and gave the outragers of common decency in custody to the police.

Thank goodness for Mr Falkner.

Greatdown Footbridge (no real info there, unfortunately).

Niall McAuley "1 mile and 4 furlongs long" - how quaint, should have said "1 and a half miles long" instead.

The pair of shoes the standingboy is wearing seems to be for girls. Must be unisex druing those days.

Wonderful picture. Any clues as to date? I'd say very early 1900s, but not really clear

Looks like the same leather summer sandals which we wore in the UK in the 1950's. You can just see the single metal buckle fastening on the outer side. Apparently this "T-bar" shape gradually became girls-only in the 1970's - while boys favoured the later enclosed shape more like a shoe. Memory confirmation courtesy of histclo.com/schun/gar/shoe/sandal/su-sandalest.html

That is so cute!

See: www.flickr.com/photos/powerhouse_museum/3251833363/in/pho... for more information. I think it is about 1895 in Melbourne, and this is Louis Frederick (b1890) and Alexander (b.1893) McCubbin, the sons of Frederick McCubbin, famous Australian artist. @ richard halliday (see note above) - Louis went on to become the Director of the Art Gallery in South Australia. Another brother Hugh (the baby in the other picture, b.1894) was wounded at Gallipoli in 1915. And, by the way, I too had red leather sandals like those in the early 1960s in England, made by Clarks. I hated them then - they did feel 'girly' - yuk!