Having seen this reference to Rowland Emett in Beth's story it brought back childhood memories of other fabulous machines that were made by the inventor Wilf Lunn and the long legacy of eccentric english inventors going back to Heath Robinson.
The idea was sparked during a LUU Spoken Word meeting. I wanted to create an engaging, interactive tool to promote our vibrant community of poets. Luckily, I had recently visited an exhibition of cartoonist and inventor Rowland Emett's Marvellous Machines at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. If you don't know Emett, he designed Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's bizarre, fantastic mechanical props. Emett's witty cartoon 'A Plague On The Machine-Age Poets' really captured my imagination. It inspired the assembly of our very own Poetry Machine...
From The Poetry Machine
by Beth
This story will look at three such eccentric geniuses and how their fabulous machines were part of my childhood.
In case you are interested- there is a picture of me as a small boy on this record sleeve- yes that's me in the cowboy outfit top right!
http://www.wilflunn.com
Wilf Lunn wearing his fishat, taken from his excellent website.