The smell of solder...

Yesterday we paid a visit to the Science Museum. Definately somewhere we want to go back to do more exploring.

One of the displays we looked at was a cut away motor. One of the things I recognised was the coil. It reminded me that winding coils was something my Mum used to do.

She worked for a company called Turnbull and Jones which was in Fitzherbert Street, not far from Ava Railway Station. I remember it as a large art deco type building, its facade painted pale green. As a pre-schooler I was cared for by my grandmother while Mum was at work. Unfortunately my Nan died just before I went to school. Apart from the grief of losing her Mum, it must have presented a child-minding problem for my own parents.

The problem was solved by the factory installing a coil winding machine in the back bedroom so that mum could work at home. The truck would back up our long driveway loaded with rolls of copper wire, which were handed in through the window, and the finished coils made the reverse journey out the window onto the back of the truck to go to the factory.

My abiding memories from this time are: the roughness of Mum's fingers as she applied cream to an already sore nose from me having a cold, the smell of solder, something I still like, Dad using one of the empty rolls the copper wire came in to make a holder for a long extension lead.