The whole family went to this show, at the Charles River Museum of Industry. This museum is small, but pretty cool. I had taken the girls there last fall to attend a festival listed on their website, but when we showed up we found out it was cancelled. The place was empty of visitors though, so the kids had fun running around checking stuff out, and we even got a demo of the excellent line shaft driven machine shop they have there. Though they probably had more fun balancing on the rock wall outside next to the dam and waterfall on the river.
This time though, there were so many people there you could barely move.
The kids don't have much fun if a place is too crowded, and this was no exception. Plus Buster was along and he was mad he couldn't get down and crawl around. The function room, where most of the model engineering exhibits were, was extremely crowded and smoky with fumes. The exhibits were amazing, but we didn't really have a chance to see them well and it was so loud we could not easily talk to the exhibitors. Then about 10 firefighters showed up and piled into the crowd trying to figure out where the smoke was coming from. On the plus side, there were free cookies and cupcakes. All in all probably could be considered a bust. Would have been neat if the kids were like 10 years older; perhaps we'll try again later.
The museum has one or two linotypes, which I can't imagine are functional, but appear in decent shape. These machines are beautiful, complex, and massive. Here are the girls typing at the keyboard:
Coincidentally my friend Helen sent me a link to a recent documentary film about the linotype. I wish I could see it!!
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