Heavy metals in suburban gardens and the implications of land-use change following a major earthquake

Numerous studies have shown that urban soils can contain elevated concentrations of heavy metals (HMs). Christchurch, New Zealand, is a relatively young city (150 years old) with a population of 390,000. Most soils in Christchurch are sub-urban, with food production in residential gardens a popular activity. Earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 have resulted in the re-zoning of 630 ha of Christchurch, with suggestions that some of this land could be used for community gardens. We aimed to determine the HM concentrations in a selection of suburban gardens in Christchurch as well as in soils identified as being at risk of HM contamination due to hazardous former land uses or nearby activities. Heavy metal concentrations in suburban Christchurch garden soils were higher than normal background soil concentrations. Some 46% of the urban garden samples had Pb concentrations higher than the residential land use national standard of 210 mg kg⁻¹, with the most contaminated soil containing 2615 mg kg⁻¹ Pb. Concentrations of As and Zn exceeded the residential land use national standards (20 mg kg⁻¹ As and 400 mg kg⁻¹ Zn) in 20% of the soils. Older neighbourhoods had significantly higher soil HM concentrations than younger neighbourhoods. Neighbourhoods developed pre-1950s had a mean Pb concentration of 282 mg kg⁻¹ in their garden soils. Soil HM concentrations should be key criteria when determining the future land use of former residential areas that have been demolished because of the earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. Redeveloping these areas as parklands or forests would result in less human HM exposure than agriculture or community gardens where food is produced and bare soil is exposed

The life of Kirkpatrick MacMillan

A short review in 'Cycle' of The Life of Kirkpatrick Macmillan, David Hurdle

Bicycle Histories: They have a past, but do they have a future

An extended review of three recent publications and an exhibition

Signs of Fraudulence

An analysis if two styles of enamel sign forgeries. These forgeries are beginning to appear at auction and fool collectors into bidding as if they are originals. This article explains why they are not by a process of object analysis

A Red Card For The Red Flag - Responding to the so-called 'Red Flag Act'

A response to a discussion of the London-Brighton annual veteran car rally published in 'The Boneshaker' (The journal of the Veteran-Cycle Club). The term 'Red Flag Act' is one commonly, but wrongly used by the motor lobby of the 20th century to describe legislation restricting the speed at which motor cars could be legally driven prior to 1896

Give them an inch

No vehicle that travels faster than foot traffic should be considered benign on a public road, although the proponents of all have made their best efforts to convince people otherwise, usually with great success to create lasting paradigms. This paper is a brief history of the problematic of introducing new, fast vehicle types in the 19th and 20th centuries and the ways in which their users took ownership of the road at the expense of road users at large

Young V&A - A museum...but not as we know it.

A review of the recently reopened 'Young V&A' in Bethnal Green (London)

Double-Take: Forgery and fraud in vitreous enamel

To many, forgery and fraud is something associated with fine art and antiquities, or fiscal instruments, but this paper looks at somewhere it flourishes and is ever-expanding, unchecked by any authorities, the world of vitreous enamel signs. Enamel signs have been collected since the 1960s, when their currency diminished and their use had very visibly contracted, particularly in advertising. As ‘collectors’ items’ their popularity has risen, fallen and, at present, is at a high again. Much of the original collector interest in them was based on a principle of ‘they don’t make them like that any more’. How wrong that was. This paper plots the rise of the fraudulent enamel. From reproduction to forgery. It looks at the cultural context enamel signs occupy, how it encouraged the rise of the fraud, the technologies employed, and the implications of thousands of forgeries entering the market. Historically interesting? Certainly. Amusing? Probably. Ethically acceptable…

Frank Hornby -An unwitting pioneer of small gauge toy trains - Raylo and Liliput Compared

An article for collectors and published through a specialist organisation, giving a close analysis of a very rare, but significant Meccano product. As with most of the work I do in this area, it mixes close observation of constructional and aesthetic detail, with larger questions regarding design process, production policy and market reception

TWO TUMBLERS AND A CUSTARD CUP Understanding the place of table-glass in the 19th century

When the Ghost of Christmas Present whisks Scrooge to the Cratchit household, we are told ‘…at Bob Cratchit’s elbow stood the family display of glass. Two tumblers, and a custard-cup without a handle.’ That Dickens found, of all the possessions they might have had, the Cratchits’ status, indeed the whole nature of their domestic environment, was best summed up in three pieces of table-glass tells us of the significance of this most anonymous of products to the domestic sphere. Table-glass proliferated in the industrially developed economies of the 19th century, responding to dining ‘a la Russe’ and bourgeois tastes for display. The Cratchit household’s holdings in the 1840s would look mean then, but they would seem far moreso a generation later. The inherent fragility of glass, its capacity for reflection and sparkle and use for alcoholic beverages gives it a special status in the realm of table-wares; yet, it largely remains anonymous. It is rare to find any indication of maker and determining a period or region of origin is usually more a matter of connoisseurship than documented fact. This paper considers the place that table-glass had in the domestic space in the 19th and into the 20th century. How it was used to define status both as a visual statement and in terms of practicality bounded by codes of use. The paper will particularly focus on the nature of the objects, the thing that in the museum are difficult to express, yet essential to understanding, its feel to the hand and lip. The Cratchits’ handle-less custard cup was still likely to be the most handleable of their display when it came to use, particularly if filled with ‘hot stuff from a jug’