Learning to be a Court Reporter?!
What’s going on in this classroom at (we think) Mount Sion School in Waterford? Is that gadget a typewriter, or something else? Looks as if the paper(?) is wrapped around the platen.
Think that’s Book Keeping eccer (homework) on the blackboard in the corner too?
Photographer: Poole Photographic Studios, Waterford
Date: 1890s??
NLI Ref.: P_WP_0950
Looks more like a difference engine of some sort than a typewriter.
I would guess that between the book keeping and the contents of the cupboards that they are learning to be dispensing chemists rather than court reporters.
History of typewriters: http://www.officemuseum.com/typewriters.htm.
It might be a Remington typewriter: 2.bp.blogspot.com/-BOXZ5bxBMD8/TdUSJA6OqqI/AAAAAAAADEY/p7…
This just in! Over at a wedding in Kilkenny, 15 of 16 people just got named! Ringing the Flickr Bell so hard that the clappers shot out of it and nearly brained a colleague…
It might be a telegraph machine and the boys were taking down morse code messages? No? Well it might be. Up to quite recently Marconi provided the radio officers for most merchant shipping throughout the world and it was a very much sought after job. Morse was the basic language and the morse signal was more reliable than voice so up to the late ’60’s the radio colleges in Dublin and Limerick were using morse machines and the students could send and receive phenomenal speeds.
Unusual seating configuration – looks like it’s set up for demonstrations within each "horseshoe" arrangement.
The glass cabinet is designed to be seen (and probably accessed) from both sides – looks like two interconnecting classrooms/laboratories.
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/77199267@N03] It’s a classroom rather than a lab; none of the benches are flat.The cabinet looks as though it’s mirror backed so I don’t think it’s meant to be seen from the other side.
Edit: Looking at the door, It looks as if it opens into a corridor rather than into another room.
Looks very like a mechanical adding machine! I We had one at work when I started first!
Footnote: It was a bit of a shock to see it still in action when calculators were becoming common. Tough job convincing the boss to invest in one!
The blackboard says Clock…something and various prices, quite large in fact, are written down. This looks more like accountancy or bookkeeping than anything else given the amounts.
As much as I like [http://www.flickr.com/photos/swordscookie]’s idea that they are learning telegraphy/morse, the blackboard at the back right seems to say "Book Keeping" at the top, and has two sections "Assets" and "Liabilities". I can’t make out each line/entry, but the stuff to the right looks very much like entries in pounds, shillings and pence.
So, I would guess that [http://www.flickr.com/photos/8468254@N02] was right with his first guess. The boy in the middle is using an adding machine. And the rest are just using plain ol’ pencil and paper.
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/99002941@N08] Overlapped with your comment by 70 seconds. I don’t think it says "clock". I think it says "book keeping". And there are two sections underneath (alongside the large amounts that are written down in £s Ss ds). One seems to be labelled "Assets", and I am guessing the other one says "Liabilities" (but seems to stack up).
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/20727502@N00] The adding machine makes sense, the pile of papers to his right are probably what he is adding etc.
Might be of interest, some old photos of Waterford – http://www.facebook.com/waterfordcountymuseum
I was going to say earlier before I was called away, that it didn’t seem big enough to be a typewriter – I agree with the others who say adding machine. Here’s one from 1895: http://www.officemuseum.com/IMagesWWW/1895_Adding_Machine_Invent...
The school is (and was) here: Streetview