Ben Lomond was a bustling village of 250 houses, 86 years ago.
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Although there are fewer houses now, it is a very active community with its own newsletter, school and the Memorial Hall with its honour rolls and photograph of those who served, and history of the village is alive in 'Ben Lomond School Centenary 1885-1985.
This excellent book compiled by a committee of Tony Judge, Bill and Kate Every, Rose Coward, Sedg and Leonie Ormerod and Patsy Fulloon has been reprinted and is for sale at the museum; as is 'Ben Lomond Memorial Hall Roll of Honour Boards 1914-1918 and 1939-1945' by Greg McGuire, 2019
The museum is closed but research staff are working on research and posting books.
The story of power will revive memories for many people.
In the days before electricity many forms of lighting existed dating from candles and fat lamps to vapourised kerosine lights of various varieties: wizard lights that ran on shellite and the popular Aladdin lamps.
Some properties had 32volt lighting plates, Quirks, Moffatt Virtue, Lister, and Cooper were popular makes.
These were housed in a special room and consisted of 3 or 4HP petrol or a diesel engine driving a generator. This in turn charged up a bank of two-volt batteries.
Early models consisted of large glass jars filled with lead plates and battery acid; approximately 16in all and extremely heavy
In the days before electricity many forms of lighting existed.
The later models were conventional batteries
The 'Lighting Plants' supplied the house with power for the lights.
Appliances such as irons, mix masters, vacuum cleaners could be used from this power source, but to use any one of these the power plant had to be kept running and so of course this necessitated woman learning how to start the engine also.
Perishables were kept in a meat safe or cold safe, modern refrigeration in those days was a Silent Night or an Electrolux kerosene refrigerator.
Meat was salted and kept in a cask.
Coppers were used to heat water for a bath and washing: times changed when chip heaters came, it in turn was sometimes converted to kerosene and hand wringers and hand operated washing machines changed washdays once again.
Irons in use were petrol or good old Mrs Potts heated on the stove.
