Signs of our times

From the archives of All thing Ironing - It's a Sign.

Jerusalem, Israel

Electricity before Steam

From the archives of All things Ironing - H.W. Seely.

Before the Steam Iron came the Electric Iron.

Born in Richville, Kentucky, on July 2nd, 1854 Henry W. Seely invented and patented the first electric pressing iron on the 6th of June in the year 1882. The invention was named as the “electric flatiron.”

H.W.Seely

Although it is the only invention Seely patented, he witnessed many of Thomas Edison's inventions, including the light bulb.

Unlike current models, the first irons manufactured, used a carbon arc to create the heat needed by passing a current across carbon arc electrodes.

 

  A carbon arc to create heat. It even looks dangerous.

Can you imagine the WorkCare premiums?

 

  1892

Electrical resistance used to heat the soleplate.

1920's

First irons with a thermostat to regulate the temperature.

1939

E.P.Schreyer patents the iron steam chamber.

 

The credit for the invention of the steam iron however, goes to Thomas Sears in the early 1950's.

Mothers Day gift 2011

About Osca - Osca gifts.

Hot on the heels of Easter comes Mothers Day in 2011.  It has been a tradition at Osca for 25 years to give our customers a small gift for Mothers Day and a week from the first Sunday in May we had no gifts.

Panic...

As it happens, this year Easter and Mothers Day were just over a week apart and it wasn't until we had all the easter eggs packed that we realised we had forgotten all about Mothers Day.

Not that we are always ready on time :) Last year we fixed a similar problem by high tailing it to Chocolate Box and ordering a hundred chocolate hearts. It is getting harder each year to come up with something unique so that we don't repeat our selves and don't exceed our budget by too much.

In desperation we visited our mate Gary and as if he knew we were going to call on him, he had the perfect gifts. Fragrant reed diffusers. Already packed in stylish slender boxes, it was just a matter of tying and curling some nice ribbon and adding a little Osca card. Come Sunday night, a day before we needed to start distributing we were ready with all the gifts wrapped and packed. Close, but done.  Now we hope our customers will like them :)

Wrapping this years Mothers day presents was easy as they already came in stylish little boxes. So just a little ribbon and an "Osca card to say "Thank you for your custom".

It always puts a smile on a customer's face when they spy a little gift in their deliverd basket of ironing,

and this is what the diffuser looks like out of the box.

UFO over Melbourne ?

Thursday night on the evening run, what is that streaking across the sky ?

Looking west from Burke Road railway crossing near the Monash freeway.

Most likely a plane, would that make it an IFO ?

Views on the run

A mixture of fog and afternoon traffic smog with the sun just having set makes for a magical silhouette. This moment was snapped while waiting for the lights to change at the intersection of Canterbury and Burke roads earlier this week. A couple of seconds... and it is time to move on with the rest of the run.

Easter gift 2011

Chocolate Easter eggs. A small gift for all customers who have used our services in the week coming up to Easter. What can I say, It is a tradition and the look on children's faces when they spy Easter eggs in mommy's ironing basket is priceless :)

With a little persuasion, we managed to talk Easter bunny into parting with some Easter chocolates.

 

 

 

 

Each basket contained a small gift.

Easter logo.