March 2013 Great Brak River Museum News Letter Page Number 1 To the day 525 years after Bar- tolomeu Diaz landed at Mossel Bay, the Diaz museum celebrated its 24 th Birthday on Sunday the 3 rd February. The photographs below highlight some of the mornings auspicious event. This prompted us to look at the cal- endar. Although the Great Brak River Museum opened during 1975 the real birthday is the Declaration of a Local Museum by Proclama- tion No. 148 and dated 21 st June 1978. This year on the Friday we will be 35 years old. Beating Diaz by 11 years The Museum is getting better and brighter with modern lighting hav- ing been installed in the Drawing room, the Bedroom and the East Passage. See write-up. Apologies for the incorrect date. Our AGM will be on the 9 th May and not the 19 th . If you have recently paid and you do not receive your news letter, please advise me. The Knysna Historical Society has been making use of their website to promote the interesting history of Knysna and we thought that you might like to see what they have been doing. Go to www.loveknysna.com and select the history "button" on the top right and display the pages. March 2013 Phone 044-620-3338 Fax 044-620-3176 Email: [email protected]Web: ourheritage.org.za Volume 2013, Issue 3 Editor; Rene’ de Kock Dear Friends of the Museum, The GBR Museum is open Monday to Friday between 9.00 am and 4.00 pm. To make certain of re- ceiving your full email newsletter, please en- sure that your museum membership is up to date. Family members only R40.oo per annum. For the news letter to be sent by post, please add R50.oo. Bridge Ons het n’ brugklub begin by Groenkloof Sekuriteit sentrum REEBOK. Ons soek nog lede om n’ sterk sosiale klub te word. Vir verdere inligting skakel asb vir Rita van Niekerk vroeg in die oggend of na 20h.uur in die aand. 083-601-3824 of 044-620-2600 Bridge is every Thursday Special Points of In- terest this month. Cecile Hough’s Herbal Garden..Page 6 Early Water Pipe Lines ..……. Page 13 Fragrance Cycling Route..….. Page 16 Ina’s Tourism Snippets ……....Page 3 Lagoon Invasive Plant Alert ...Page 10 New Lighting in the Museum..Page 9 Prehistoric Cheese Making .… Page 11 What is on, in Great Brak….... Page 2 Continued on page 5 If you are short of a Book to read? we have a large collection of pre- owned books on sale in the museum. Ms H M J du Preez eyeing the magnificent Birthday cake. Diaz 24 th Birthday. The dignitaries cutting the cake. Alder lady Marie Ferreira and the Portuguese Consul joining hands in a colourful dance. Hannetjie du Preez (DCAS), Jorge da Fonseca (Portuguese Consul General), Alder lady Marie Ferreira and Leader of the C T Portuguese Folk Dancing Group.
Transcript
March 2013 Great Brak River Museum News Letter Page Number 1
To the day 525 years after Bar-tolomeu Diaz landed at Mossel Bay, the Diaz museum celebrated its 24th Birthday on Sunday the 3rd February. The photographs below highlight some of the mornings auspicious event.
This prompted us to look at the cal-endar. Although the Great Brak River Museum opened during 1975 the real birthday is the Declaration of a Local Museum by Proclama-tion No. 148 and dated 21st June 1978. This year on the Friday we will be 35 years old. Beating Diaz by 11 years
The Museum is getting better and brighter with modern lighting hav-ing been installed in the Drawing
room, the Bedroom and the East Passage. See write-up.
Apologies for the incorrect date. Our AGM will be on the 9th May and not the 19th . If you have recently paid and you do not receive your news letter, please advise me.
The Knysna Historical Society has been making use of their website to promote the interesting history of Knysna and we thought that you might like to see what they have been doing.
Go to www.loveknysna.com and select the history "button" on the top right and display the pages.
To make certain of re-ceiving your full email newsletter, please en-sure that your museum
membership is up to date.
Family members only R40.oo per annum.
For the news letter to be sent by post, please add
R50.oo.
Bridge Ons het n’ brugklub begin by Groenkloof Sekuriteit sentrum
REEBOK. Ons soek nog lede om n’ sterk sosiale klub te word.
Vir verdere inligting skakel asb vir Rita van Niekerk vroeg in die
oggend of na 20h.uur in die aand. 083-601-3824
of 044-620-2600 Bridge is every Thursday
Special Points of In-terest this month.
Cecile Hough’s Herbal Garden..Page 6
Early Water Pipe Lines ..……. Page 13
Fragrance Cycling Route..….. Page 16
Ina’s Tourism Snippets ……....Page 3
Lagoon Invasive Plant Alert ...Page 10
New Lighting in the Museum..Page 9
Prehistoric Cheese Making .… Page 11
What is on, in Great Brak….... Page 2
Continued on page 5
If you are short of a Book to read? we have
a large collection of pre-owned books on sale in
the museum.
Ms H M J du Preez eyeing the magnificent Birthday cake. Diaz 24th Birthday.
The dignitaries cutting the cake.
Alder lady Marie Ferreira and the Portuguese Consul joining hands in a colourful dance.
Hannetjie du Preez (DCAS), Jorge da Fonseca (Portuguese Consul General), Alder lady Marie Ferreira and Leader of the C T Portuguese Folk Dancing Group.
March 2013 Great Brak River Museum News Letter Page Number 2
What is on, in and around the Museum in Great Brak River this and in the coming months.
Month & pro-visional date
Description Contact person
March
New Enlarged Display of pre-owned books on sale in the Museum.
Both English and Afrikaans books available from R2.oo each (specials)
The museum
044-620-3338
March
Exhibition
The Story of our 200,000 year old Modern Man in Mossel Bay.
The museum
044-620-3338
February
An Item from the Archives
This month we have an unusual local water pipe constructed from wood
staves on display.
The museum
044-620-3338
Saturday, 23 March
The world’s gearing up to switch off for Earth Hour 2013
This year’s event will take place at 8.30pm local time, 23 March. WWF calls on everyone to join in the celebration of Earth Hour and to go beyond the hour with its initiatives such as I Will If You Will.
9th May Great Brak River Museum Association AGM The museum 044-620-3338
FURTHER AFIELD
31st January to 3 February
MOSSEL BAY DIAZ FESTIVAL
Mossel Bay Tourism
044-691-2202
February March
Hanepoort picking at De Krans Calitzdorp
Friday, 08 February 2013 to Sunday, 03 March 2013
Contact: Helet on +27 (0)44 213-3314 for fur-
ther information
28th Febru-ary to 3rd
PROE MOSSEL BAY FESTIVAL
Have you booked your places?
Great Brak Info on 044-620-3338
16th March
Visit Historic Herbertsdale and Jak-kalsvlei with Heritage Mossel Bay
The screening of Sir David Atten-borough’s newest wildlife docu-mentary series entitled ‘Africa’ has resulted in an upturn in interest in travel to this continent. Since the series began showing in the UK, searches for holidays to African destinations has risen by 310% compared with the average month, says operator sunshine.co.uk. “Actual holiday bookings for African destinations have increased by 37% since the first episode of ‘Africa’ was aired, when again com-pared to bookings made through the site in the average month.”
Sir David Attenborough
South Africa’s ranking in terms of global tourism. Euromonitor International re-leased its Top 100 Cities Destina-tion ranking, a list of the world’s top cities in terms of international
tourist arrivals in 2011. Johannes-burg is the only South African city ranked on the top 100.
I recently visited Cape Town for a two-day Spectrum workshop ti-tled: Best practices for collec-tion management. This inter-nationally recognised programme is considered to be the leading standard for collection manage-ment and in use in over 100 countries to encourage confi-dence in museums for the benefit of society and to manage public funds appropriately. The pro-gramme has identified 21 core procedures which occur in the lifecycle of collection manage-ment.
In the picture: my “neighbour” from the Iziko Museum and behind her two dele-gates from the Cape Town Archives.
The presentation was excellent and there were approximately 35 – 40 delegates. The workshop ran from 9 am until 4.15 pm daily with a lunch break and two tea breaks in between.
It was acknowledged that all mu-seums have backlogs, but advice was given on how to deal better with these backlogs. All in all it
WE MAKE FAMILY ENTERTAIN-MENT AFFORDABLE FOR EVERY-
ONE!
63 Long Street Great Brak River
074-155-1870
March 2013 Great Brak River Museum News Letter Page Number 4
was a great experience for which I am very thankful.
DID YOU KNOW? In 1883 it took 56 ox wagons to transport
special iron pipes required for the installa-tion of a water reticulation system, from Mossel Bay to Riversdale.
Shell middens of Khoi and San origin were
found on the eastern and western banks near the Gouritz river mouth that contain pot shards dating back 2000 years.
And from further afield..... A tiny slice of moon rock is sealed in the
stained glass window dedicated to scientist and technicians in Washington Cathedral, USA. The rock was brought to the Earth by Apollo astronauts in 1969.
Beer may have been the most popular drink in Mesopotamia. It was made before 6000 BC from malted barley. Babylonian clay tablets show a hymn to Ninkasi, their goddess of intoxicating drink, as well as the words to a drinking song. The tablets list 19 different brews.
Today it looks like it is Sumer and not Egypt that is the oldest beer producing country and the oldest beer goddess thus would be Ninkasi. She is the ancient Sumerian Goddess of intoxicating bever-ages, her name meaning: “the Lady who fills the mouth”
We read that the bappir, the twice baked
barley bread was stored for the purpose of beer brewing. There are also indications that it could have been eaten. It has been suggested that the bappir could be an early form of biscotti (twice baked).
Thanks & acknowledgment to tourism news update & tourismcape-town.co.za/leisure-travel/town/riversdale
RAMPE IN SUID-AFRIKA
1985 Die Westdene-busramp Altesaam 42 hoërskoolleerlinge sterf in Maart 1985 toe ’n dubbeldekkerbus van die Johannes-burgse munisipaliteit waarmee die kinders hu-
iswaarts vervoer word, oor die sypaadjie bars en in die Westdene-dam sink. Die on-geluk gebeur om eenuur die middag en dui-kers van die polisie bly etlike ure lank besig om die kinderlyke na die oppervlak te bring. Die busbestuurder en ’n aantal kinders oor-leef die ongeluk.
Die volgende skoliere is vereer vir hul dap-perheid toe hulle van hul skoolmaats gered het:
Pieter Koen - ontvang die Wolraad Wolte-made toekenning postuum
Danie Theron -ontvang die Wolraad Wolte-made toekenning – 4 jaar na die ramp neem hy sy eie lewe.
Willem van Aswegen Theo de Kooker Coenraad Viljoen John Gordon Martin van Lelyveld Petrus van Heerden Matthys Wehmeyer Daniel du Toit Gerhard Waldeck Rudi Opperman Reinette van Deventer
You can now follow us on Twitter at
Rene’ de Kock @HERITAGEMOSBAY
March 2013 Great Brak River Museum News Letter Page Number 5
This website also gives the news behind the news and can be quite contentious from time to time!
Having been in the shoe business since the late 1800’s Great Brak River should know all about shoes but for instance did you know that high heels were originally created for MEN ? You wouldn’t believe it but it’s true. When high heels were invented, men were the first to wear them! The history of heeled shoes started a long time ago in an-cient Greece where the forerunner of the high heel was designed. A man with high heels was considered to be some-one powerful or of an upper class or military man. Back then, male actors were only allowed to act in plays. They used to wear high heels in order to be referred to as powerful and above the other actors. High heels were also efficient for horseback riding since it keeps the rider’s feet in their stirrups of the saddles whenever they are riding a horse. Mongolian horsemen were among the first to use heels as a means to keep their feet from sliding out of their stirrups.
It is also well known that Egyptian butchers wore high heels so they would not step directly in offal. Pharaohs and nobles in Ancient Egypt would wear high heels to show power and for ceremonial pur-poses.
Actors playing tragic roles in ancient Greek drama wore the buskin, a boot with a platform sole, de-signed to give them greater height over other ac-tors.
The Romans, both men and women, wore co-thurns, or sandals with platform heels; these were intended to lift the wearers above mud and garbage in the streets. Geta, which are based on a similar concept, are still used in Japan today. In the early 1700s, France's King Louis XIV decreed that only nobil-ity could wear heels that were coloured red and that no one's heels could be higher than his own. American cowboy boots, first developed in the 19th century and still popular today in some parts of the United States, have high under slung heels to keep a rider's foot from sliding through the stirrup. High-heeled platform shoes were a widely popu-lar form of men's footwear during the 1970’s. We will let you have more stories about the his-tory of boots & shoes in the coming months. Below, the Cape Town Portuguese Folk Danc-ing Group, in full swing, performing a country
dance from the North of Portugal.
Continued from page 1
March 2013 Great Brak River Museum News Letter Page Number 6
We have written much about the local indige-nous herbs and their properties but what about the many other herbs we use in our daily lives. These too, often have medicinal properties but are often legendary for other reasons.
Tucked away in Mossienes, a leafy suburb of Great Brak River, is the famous herb garden of Cecile Hough.
Cecile Hough, who runs Bed-in-bush B&B/self-catering and has her own herbal garden called “Hough’s Herbal Hub”. This contains more than twenty-five different types of herbs.
For culinary/cooking purposes Cecile Hough uses Basil, Chives, Fennel, Garlic, Land Cress, Oregano, Rocket, Rosemary and Thyme.
Whilst she would not provide us with the makeup of her special formulae, for her herbal bath bouquet, Cecile Hough uses Apple Mint, Chocolate Mint, Garden Mint, Lavender, Lemon Balm, Lemon Grass, Lemon Verbena, eau-de-Cologne Mint and Spearmint.
Medicinal properties of some of these herbs: Basil-Basil tea is excellent for coughs, de-layed menstruation, de-stressor and detoxi-fier, hypertension, indigestion, migraines, mouth infections, palpitations, peptic ulcers and tonsillitis. Basil cream soothes aches, cramps, pains, sore backs, sore feet and stiffness. Basil vinegar is used for Eczema, Psoriasis, scalp and sunburn infections. Chives- Destroys bacteria, lowers high cho-lesterol, regulates blood sugar, retards blood clotting, relieves chest and lung congestion. It acts as a natural antibiotic, helps to boost the immune system and acts as heart medi-cation. Treatment for Tuberculosis. Fennel – Fennel is a diuretic, flushes out toxins from the body, helps relieve flatu-lence and tea made from the leaves and stems reduces the effects of over-indulgence in food and alcohol. Fennel tea is also used for colic, constipa-tion, heartburn and respiratory ailments. Chewing fennel seeds will ease indigestion, flatulence and colic. Garlic-Treats bronchial disorders. Was hung around the neck to ward off germs during the 1918 flue epidemic. Lavender-It alleviates and reduces pain, it has significant antibacterial, antiseptic and antispasmodic qualities and it calms anxiety, nervous excitability and relieves stress. It helps ease depression, sore throats, head-aches, rheumatic aches and pains, skin ail-ments and sleeplessness. Lavender in antispasmodic cream can help
CECILE HOUGHS HERBAL GARDEN By Wendy Welch
March 2013 Great Brak River Museum News Letter Page Number 7
remedy arthritic stiffness and pain, bruising, grazes, scratches, sore back, stiff neck and stiff shoulders. Lavender Lemon Balm- It has soothing properties. Lemon balm tea can alleviate headaches and minor gastric ailments. The fresh, crushed leaves also relieve irritation from insect bites and can be placed in drawers to discourage moths. Lemon Grass-Stimulates cell regeneration and soothes intestinal infections. Lemon grass tea soothes colitis, digestive disturbances, fever, muscular pain, poor circulation, skin ailments and stress-related conditions. Lemon Verbena- Used in tea can be a remedy for bronchitis, colds, colic, congestion, cramps, and depression, digestive and nervous upsets, headaches, heartache, nausea, palpitations and tired muscles. Lemon Verbena can also help set-tle a wound-up child. Tie a bunch of leaves in a face cloth to use as a scrub over oily problem skin. Mint (e.g. Spearmint, Garden Mint, Choco-late Mint, Apple Mint and eau-de-Cologne Mint)-Mint is analgesic, antispasmodic, cleanses the liver, eases sore throats, eases travel sickness ,helps to clear spotty skin, makes an excellent eye wash to remove dust and grit from the eyes (use cooled tea), prevents vomiting and promotes bile flow. Spearmint
Oregano-Helps with digestion, treats anxi-ety attacks, colds, exhaustion, flu, menstrual cramps and nausea. Sprigs of any variety warmed in hot water and applied to a badly bruised area will soothe and disperse the haematoma. Chew a sprig of Oregano to clear mouth infections, ease toothache and to sweeten the breath. Rocket –The seeds are used as a poultice to treat bruises and sprains. Crushed petals are used to treat skin blemishes. Rosemary (right)- anti-inflammatory, astringent, energiser and stimulant. Treats anxiety, arthritis, chronic pain, circulatory disorders, depression, dia-betes, Epilepsy, improves tension, people who are “over-stressed”, Rheumatism and vertigo. Rosemary oil can be taken as an an-tiseptic gargle. Thyme-Thyme in a tea or aromatherapy oil has antibacterial, antiseptic, antispasmodic
Pathways meander through the herb garden.
March 2013 Great Brak River Museum News Letter Page Number 8
and expectorant properties. Thyme soothes aches and pains, asthma, bronchitis, hangovers, insomnia, poor circulation, poor digestion, sca-bies and lice and it stimulates the body’s pro-duction of white blood corpuscles to resist infec-tion. Thyme also soothes fungal and inflamma-tory conditions.
Jannie and Cecile in their garden.
The following is not one of Cecile’s exclusive recipes but is typical of how a soothing cream can be made up.
Ginger Circulation Cream Use this cream for aching legs and feet or to soften dry skin and hands and feet. Ingredients not growing in your garden or stored in your kitchen cupboard may be pur-chased at a pharmacy or health-food store. Ingredients: 1 cup minced fresh ginger 1 cup aqueous cream (base) 2 teaspoons powdered cloves Half teaspoon cayenne pepper Peppermint essential oil Method: Gently simmer the ginger, cloves, cayenne pepper and the aqueous cream in a double boiler for fifteen minutes. Strain and drop six drops peppermint essential oil. Mix well and spoon into a sterilised jar. Seal well.
The cream will keep well for up to one month.
March 2013 Great Brak River Museum News Letter Page Number 9
During the past six months, the museum has been fit-ted with new track lighting. We still have someway to go but the difference is amazing.
Our museum is located in the ‘Old School House’ which dates from 1902. This was built in the days before electric lighting and then retrofitted in some of the rooms with fluorescent tube lighting and pull cord on-off switches.
The east wing, acquired at a more recent time, housing the Boudoir, Drawing room and Kitchen were only fit-ted with single point lights and no matter what power globe we fitted, the rooms remained dark. Whilst this emphasized the previous century character, it did not show off the artifacts to their best advantage.
In addition the ceiling is way above today’s usual height of 2.3 meters being something like 4.5 meters at the apex.
The cost of the track rails are reasonably priced but the installation is a major problem. Firstly the wooden ceil-ing is ageing and we are not able to safely traverse the small opening between the corrugated iron roof and the wooden ceiling. We therefore needed to use the existing cable and connections. The big problem was that we needed to obtain scaffolding to reach the exist-ing lights. Fortunately Robert Smith was able to borrow scaffolding from Jan Brink of Matrix Designer Kitchens & Cupboards who loaned us the scaffold for as long as we needed it. Otherwise this would have had to be hired on a daily basis and at an exorbitant cost. In some parts of the museum, the floors are of con-crete but in others the floors are still the original wooden planks which are not that sound and the scaf-fold needs additional securing.
Robert Smith is the defacto handy man who has gradu-ally been repainting the museum during the past three years and now undertook to install the track lighting. We all wish to express our undivided thanks to Robert for the much needed transformation work.
The first room to be completed was the Kitchen which was done during 2011
Starting next with the new Khoe room which has numerous wall panels and exhibition cases to light up, he installed a large transformer and an open 12 volt double wire track which supports and pro-vides power to the many necessary overhead lights.
Subsequently he has fitted track rods to the Bou-doir, Drawing room and the Military room.
Come in and see the difference. It is amazing.
We were not able to afford the special ultraviolet non ageing light units but as many of the artifacts are not light sensitive and most photographs on display are copies of the originals which are safely stored away, these light units were selected.
Our personnel have strict instructions to switch on the lights during visits only and to switch them off thereafter.
Working in the west wing passage is another prob-lem as portions of the museum required to be closed on a temporary basis.
Track lighting will be installed in the West passage shortly. The Reading room which is still to be re-furbished will be re-lit in the future once funds are available.
The Completed Lighting Track in the Drawing Room.
Note the charismatic new wall colouring.
NEW LIGHTING IN THE MUSEUM By your editor
Scaffolding installed in the Drawing Room
March 2013 Great Brak River Museum News Letter Page Number 10
First encountered by Dot Eagar, the Great Brak River Es-tuary has been invaded by a perennial, salt tolerant inva-sive plant since 2004. Trial eradication has been in pro-gress for some years and at last a safe successful treat-ment has been found to deal with the alien. Spraying is presently in progress.
Do not attempt to pull the Spartina alterniflora out as the root breaks half way down and simply re-grows.
The following is a brief description of the plant and its problems:
What does it look like? Spartina alterniflora is an erect, perennial, salt tolerant grass that characteristically grows in dense stands in in-tertidal wetlands, especially estuarine salt marshes. It grows up to 1.5 m tall and has smooth, hollow stems that bear leaves up to 20-60 cm long and 1.5 cm wide at their base that are sharply tapered and bend down at their tips. This species produces flowers and seeds only on one side of the stalk. The flowers are yellowish-green, turning brown by winter.
Why is it important? Spartina altemiflora was found in the Great Brak Estuary near Mossel Bay in 2004. The species is native to the At-lantic and Gulf coasts of North America, occurring natu-rally as far south as northern Argentina. The species has become invasive in intertidal salt marshes of Pacific coun-tries of the USA, as well as in China and New Zealand where large expenses have been incurred in an attempt to eradicate it.
Invasion by Spartina altemiflora alters the structure and function of an estuary through the mud accumulating
between the dense stem mats.
The resulting sediment mound modifies the natural water circulation and results in the loss of the native estuarine habitat. This poses a threat to water re-sources, water dependent biodiversity and related ecosystem services. Furthermore, it has the potential to hybridise with the local Spartina maritima, which occurs in 19 permanently open estuaries in South Africa. A precautionary approach is needed and we are asking people to report its presence in South Africa so we can eradicate it before it has a chance to spread.
What to do about it? The plant is being controlled in the Great Brak Estu-ary by the Working for Water Programme with coor-dinating assistance from SANBl's Early Detection and Rapid Response team.
If you see the plant outside of the Great Brak Estuary, please report sightings of these plants to the relevant staff at SANBI. We will need to know its locality (locality description and/or GPS co-ordinates if possi-ble).
LAGOON INVASIVE PLANT ALERT South African National Biodi-
versity Institute
Above, the Flower.
March 2013 Great Brak River Museum News Letter Page Number 11
Scientists have recently found the earliest evidence of prehistoric cheese-making from a study of 7,500-year-old pottery fragments that are perforated just like modern cheese strainers.
There is a possibility that cheese was made even at earlier times using other materials such as cloth or wooden cheese strainers, but these materials are more perishable and difficult to detect as archaeo-logical material.
7500 year
Old Pottery
With small
Perforations
Milk production and dairy processing allowed early farmers to produce food without slaughtering pre-cious livestock, and making cheese turned milk into a less perishable food that was more digestible for a population who at the time would have been intol-erant to the lactose contained in milk.
Researchers from the University of Bristol in Britain, with colleagues in the United States and Poland, analyzed fatty acids embedded in prehistoric pot-tery from the Polish region of Kuyavia, and found they had been used to separate milk into fat-rich curds for cheese and lactose-containing whey.
"The presence of milk residues in sieves ... consti-tutes the earliest direct evidence for cheese-making," said Mélanie Salque from Bristol, one of the authors of the research, which was published in the journal Nature.
Peter Bogucki, another researcher involved in the work, said: "Making cheese allowed them to reduce the lactose content of milk, and we know that, at that time, most of the humans were not tolerant to lactose."
Milk residues have been found at ancient sites up to 8,000 years old in Turkey and Libya, but there was no evidence that the milk had been processed
into cheese.
Until now, the earliest evidence of cheese-making came from depictions of milk processing in murals several thousand years younger than the pottery fragments.
The researchers believe other vessels found in the same region were used for other specific pur-poses. Jars lined with beeswax were probably for storing water, and pottery containing the rem-nants of carcass fats was probably used for cook-ing meat.
"It is truly remarkable, the depth of insights into ancient human diet and food processing technolo-gies these ancient fats preserved in archaeologi-cal ceramics are now providing us with," said Richard Evershed, who heads the Bristol team.
This article was of particular interest as I had re-cently read of the lactose intolerance in our San populations.
Lactose is milk sugar. It is composed of two mole-cules of "simple" sugars chemically bonded to-gether - glucose and galactose. The enzyme lac-tase breaks down lactose into glucose and galac-tose which are easily digested by humans. The accepted figures for lactose intolerance for children over five years old are "90-95% of black individuals and 20-25% of white individuals throughout the world". Human beings only began to cultivate domestic grains and keep domestic animals relatively re-cently. Sheep and then cattle were first domesti-cated just over 10 000 years ago, in the Near East where the wild progenitors of these animals lived. Grains like wheat and barley were also do-mesticated at around this time. "Seventeenth century ink and wash drawing of a Khoikhoi cow being milked, from The Khoikhoi at the Cape of Good Hope, (1993) published by the South African Library. It brought about a quantum change in the way that people lived - they settled down, cultivated
Prehistoric Cheese Making Compiled by your Editor
March 2013 Great Brak River Museum News Letter Page Number 12
most of their food and populations began to grow. Not all of the changes were for the better and they began to inherit diseases from their animals and from close proximity to large numbers of people (like TB for instance). The new way of life spread, along with the cattle, sheep and grains, reaching Western Europe a few millennia later. It was in Western Europe that some populations began an evolutionary transition to lactose toler-ance. This meant that in certain individuals, as a result of genetic change the enzyme allowing the digestion of milk sugar continued to be produced throughout adult life. So these individuals no longer lost their childhood lactose tolerance but carried it into adulthood. This mutation also occurred in the Fulani people in the Sahel, although somewhat later since domesti-cated cattle reached this area just a couple of mil-lennia ago.
The Fulani are traditionally a nomadic, pastoralist, trading people, herding cattle, goats and sheep across the vast dry hinterlands of their domain, keeping somewhat separate from the local agricul-tural populations.
The Sahel region – a belt up to 1,000 km wide that spans Africa from the Atlantic
Ocean to the Red Sea
Whilst our San or Bushman are lactose intolerant, the Khoe people are not and consumed quantities of milk during their lifetimes. They were known to provide milk to the early settlers from the time of Jan van Riebeeck.
This poses a number of questions:
Did the Khoe come in contact with the Fulani?
And did the Khoe people make Cheese? FROM SCIENCE DAILY: EARLY HUMAN NEWS AND DR JULIA LEE-THORP AND DR BECKY ROGERS ACKERMANN, DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN.
Colourful Fulani Woman. These are Peul from Mali in the town of Paoua. They are usually a minority clan and are Muslin
March 2013 Great Brak River Museum News Letter Page Number 13
Ina Stofberg found an interesting bit of infor-mation. In 1883 it took 56 ox wagons to trans-port special iron pipes required for the installa-tion of a water reticulation system, from Mossel Bay to Riversdale. Although we are uncertain this pipe may have used a riveted construction. We intend following up on these and other details pertaining to our early water pipes. For many centuries, lead was the favoured ma-terial for water pipes, due to its malleability (this use was so common that the word "plumbing" de-rives from the Latin word for lead). This was a source of lead-related health problems in the years before the health hazards of ingesting lead were fully understood; among these were stillbirths and high rates of infant mortality. Lead water pipes were still in common use in the early 20th century and remain in many households. Lead-tin alloy sol-der was commonly used to join copper pipes, but modern practice uses tin-antimony alloy solder to join copper in order to eliminate lead hazards.
Roman lead pipe with a folded seam, at the Roman Baths in Bath, England.
Despite the Romans common use of lead pipes, their aqueducts rarely poisoned people. Unlike other parts of the world where lead pipes cause poisoning, the Roman water had so much calcium in it, that a layer of plaque prevented the water contacting the lead itself. What often causes con-fusion is the large amount of evidence of wide-spread lead poisoning, particularly amongst those who would have had easy access to piped water. This was an unfortunate result of lead being used in cookware and as an additive to processed food and drink, such as a preservative in wine.
Hollowed out Wooden Log Pipes
Wooden Pipes were used in London and else-where during the 16th and 17th centuries. The pipes were hollowed-out logs, which were ta-pered at the end with a small hole in which the water would pass through. The multiple pipes were then sealed together with hot animal fat. They were often used in Montreal and Boston in the 1800’s and built-up wooden tubes were widely used in the USA during the 20th century. These pipes, used in place of corrugated iron or reinforced concrete pipes, were made of sections cut from short lengths of wood. Locking of adja-cent rings with hardwood dowel pins produced a flexible structure. About 31,000 meters of these wooden pipes were installed during World War2 in drainage culverts, storm sewers and conduits, under highways and at army camps, naval sta-tions, airfields and ordnance plants.
Cast iron and ductile iron pipe was long a lower-cost alternative to copper, before the ad-vent of durable plastic materials but special non-conductive fittings must be used where transi-tions are to be made to other metallic pipes, ex-
EARLY WATER PIPE LINES Compiled by your editor
March 2013 Great Brak River Museum News Letter Page Number 14
cept for terminal fittings, in order to avoid corrosion owing to electrochemical reactions between dis-similar metals.
Bronze fittings and short pipe segments are com-monly used in combination with various materials.
Original pumping station at Mundaring Weir
Perth to the Kalgoorlie gold fields Pipe line. The famous water pipe line from Perth to the Kal-goorlie gold fields in Australia, was installed at the turn of the previous century. The scheme consisted of three key elements — the Mundaring Weir, which was fed with water from the Helena River in the Darling Scarp; a 760 millimeters diameter steel pipe which ran from the dam to Kalgoorlie 530 kilometers away; and a series of eight pumping stations and two small holding dams to control pressures and to lift the water over the Darling Scarp ridge.
With most of the original stations being steam-driven, a ready supply of timber was needed to fire the boilers.
The scheme was devised by a Mr C Y O'Connor who oversaw its design and most of the construc-tion project. Although supported by Premier Forrest, O'Connor had to deal with widespread criti-cism and derision from members of the Western Australian Parliament as well as the local press based on a belief that scope of the engineering task was too great and that it would never work.
There was also a concern that the gold discoveries would soon dry up and the state would be left with a significant debt to repay but little or no com-merce to support it.
O'Connor committed suicide in March 1902 less than 12 months before the final commissioning of the pipeline. When built, the pipeline was the long-
est fresh-water pipeline in the world
The pipeline continues to operate today, supply-ing water to over 100,000 people in over 33,000 households as well as mines, farms and other en-terprises.
The pipes were manufactured locally from flat steel sheets imported from Germany and the United States. The company of Mephan Ferguson was awarded the first manufacturing contract and they built a fabrication plant at Falkirk (now known as the Perth suburb of Maylands) to pro-duce half of the 60,000 pipes required.[ The Original Pipes were made of steel and con-structed using the innovative locking bar system invented by Mephan Ferguson. Two steel plates were each bent into a semi-circle. The long edges were given a dovetail shape. These edges were inserted into an 'H' shaped long bar which was then pressed closed under great pressure to form a joint that ran the length of the pipe. G&C Hoskins developed new machines to speed up the production process and a pipe could be produced every 6 minutes.
The Pipe Locking System. This locking bar system replaced the need for riv-eting the plates together and therefore minimised the risk of leakage as no holes were drilled into the pipes. There were also no rivet heads to slow the flow of water through the pipe. The pipe was then coated with tar and bitumen to help protect the steel from corrosion. This coating was sprinkled with sand to prevent the tar melting in summer heat. The pipes were 8.5 m long to fit the railway wagons which trans-ported the pipes to where they were laid. Pipe thickness 6.35 mm Pipe diameter 762 mm Pipe length 8.5 m
March 2013 Great Brak River Museum News Letter Page Number 15
Large Wooden Stave Pipes Laying additional sections of the pipeline above ground was undertaken during the Great Depres-sion when unemployment was very high. The Gold-fields Water Supply Department came under politi-cal pressure to also replace damaged steel pipes with wood pipes as this would provide jobs, boost the timber industry, and also save costs as they were cheaper. The wood pipes were made of karri (similar to our blue gum) staves (small planks) that were bound together with galvanized wire, then heavily coated with tar and bitumen. Karri trees get to their maximum height in 100 years, widening at the base also as they grow. Un-fortunately, due to insects or fire, they rarely live past 350 years old and usually average 250 years only. The bark of the Karri Trees always looks clean because it peels off regularly. The Giant Karri trees of Western Australia. A total of 64 km of wood stave pipes were used in low pressure sections of the pipeline between 1933-37. They were plagued with problems of leakage, the threat of termite damage and dry rot and all were replaced by 1971. "The essential condition to insure an indefinite life of wooden staves, is that they must be kept con-stantly saturated. This can best be attained by
burying the pipe in the ground, as thereby all evaporation from the surface of the pipe will be prevented. If so buried, it is necessary that the pipe should run full at intervals of sufficiently long duration to cause and maintain complete satura-tion of the wood. When the staves are once thor-oughly soaked they will remain so for an indefi-nite time if the pipe is buried and there is no air ventilation through the pipe." Unfortunately in Australia, the Perth countryside is plagued with termites which was the reason for building these pipe lines above ground and proba-bly the main reason for the subsequent failure. What is so very interesting are the numerous wood fired power stations located along the pipe line. Having visited several on route back to Perth, we were intrigued by the good condition that they are in. One reason is that the countryside between the Perth and the Gold Fields is exceptionally dry which tends to preserve metal objects. These power stations have now been replaced with elec-trically driven pumps but much of the original pipe line is still existing. In Kalgoorlie they have since found vast quantities of underground water but as these aquifers are millions of years old there is a reluctance to tap them and as the quest for gold continues, Perth has had to install a massive seawater desalinating plant partly necessary to keep Kalgoolie supplied with water. This article started out as one of the interesting items from our archive designated to be displayed during March and is a wooden stave pipe. This section of pipe was donated by Willem Jonker and was used in the Tannery prior to 1957 at which time it closed. INFORMATION COLLECTED FROM VARIOUS SOURCES INCLUDING WIKIPEDIA AND THE GOLDEN PIPELINE, AN AUSTRALIAN NA-TIONAL TRUST PROJECT.
March 2013 Great Brak River Museum News Letter Page Number 16
Fragrance Cycling Route By Heleen Coertze
This is the new inter-esting Fragrance Cy-cling Route out of Great Brak River which starts from the Peppertree restaurant in Long Street. More than half the journey is on tar whilst the balance is on good gravel roads. Your ride will take you past the Great Brak River Info office all the way to Friemer-sheim and back. You cross the historic Great Brak water fur-row, pass an interest-ing historic church, an old slave quarter, fields of Lavender, several sections of the Botliers-kop private game farm where much of the game can be seen during your ride. For details of what to see in and around Friemersheim please visit the Museum and Info office.
