Victorian-Era Gadgets at The British Library

Victorian style is quite trendy in some ways, with the steam punk movement and mechanical elements that are in contrast with the slick, minimal style of today’s technological gadgets.

The British Library in London therefore presents a small and timely collection of Victorian era gadgets in its Business and Intellectual Property Centre.

Take this as an example – a tiny machine complete with its own map that would tell motorists which way to go. Miniature scrolls bearing the directions were loaded onto the watch and revolved as the wearer continued his journey.

I can only guess that drivers could revolve the maps without endangering the operation of their vehicles. A far cry from today!

Maurice Collins, a retired businessman from Muswell Hill, London, has a collection of 1,400 historic gadgets and cherry-picked 50 must-have items for the exhibition at the British Library.

Mr Morris said his collection was a celebration of ‘ingenious products that attempted to solve human difficulty’.

To see more of the items on display, check out The Daily Mail.

Via Switched

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