a diorama of an art exhibition

a diorama

of an art



Barometer Museum, Okehampton

 Barometer World is the world's foremost 
seller and repairer of antique and modern mechanisms
for determining atmospheric air pressure.

A museum attached to a shoppe features examples of such arcane and wonderful
instruments as the Tempest Prognosticator.
Also known as the 'Leech Barometer' or the 
Atmospheric Electromagnetic Telegraph, 
the prognosticator was a 19th-century weather forecasting
device that was first exhibited at the 
Great Exhibition in London in 1851.

 A contemporary account of the invention described it as an 
elaborate and highly ornate apparatus...evolved by a certain Dr. Merryweather
fresh water leaches tended to become particularly agitated.
The learned Doctor decided to harness the physical energy of these
aquatic bloodsuckers to operate an early warning system.
On the circular base of his apparatus -he installed glass jars, in which
a leech was inside and attached to a fine chain that led up to a miniature belfry-
from whence that tinkling tocsin would be sounded on the approach of the tempest.

The more the bells that rang, the greater the likelihood of an impending storm.

[A full scale model is to be seen at the Barometer World and Museum
at the Quicksilver Barn, Merton
Okehampton, Devon, EX203ds]

type 293-A

physics laboratory march 7 1945
operating instructions for
type 293-A
universal bridge
general radio company



Navajo Ethnography voice recording

1914 photograph


Pyrheliometers and Measurements booklet from 1931

[published November 1931]

[This science booklet offers descriptions of various Pyrheliometers and auxiliary apparatus employed in measuring the intensity of solar radiation, with instructions for the care and for the reduction and use of the records. It was published by the United States Department of Agriculture: Weather Bureau, Washington, D.C. in 1931]


a collection of 1916 glass slides

 [sea coral egulula flustra scrupa glass slide]

 [sea coral halicystus octoradiata glass slide]

 [sea coral merulina ampliata glass slide]

[sea coral corallium rubrum extend glass slide]


Happy Birthday Mr. Wells - Sept 21, 1866

Sci-fi legend and determined futurist Herbert George Wells is born into the lower middle class in England. The prolific author of The Time MachineThe War of the Worlds and many more immeasurably influential works will eventually produce an essential literary legacy that has since transcended time altogether — while terrorizing minds with debilitating narratives of alien invasions, human-animal hybrids, nuclear apocalypse and worse.

for more information about happy birthday to Wells:



Sunday 9.19 - El dorado park

thank you all for coming to the park last sunday...
and look forward to seeing you at the next location!


the back side of a painting




a mid-day intermission by Jiri Barta



an interview with James D. Olsen

James Olsen is one of the artists showing work in the No.3 exhibit that is up right now-
So we pulled over a seat with him in the museum and asked him a few questions...
And his responses?

[musee] - 1.  If you had three chickens as pets...what would their names be?

[james] - Maybe Manny, Moe, and Jack... Oh, but I guess those are boys names..
OK, how 'bout Ethel- for Ethel Merman. Suga' and Jackie Brown- but you have to say Jackie like 'jacket', real quick like.

[musee] - 2.  Did you have a favorite twilight zone episode or outer limits episode, when you were a kid...and what about it really stuck with you?

[james] - Well, like most kids in USA... twilight zone was on all day while hanging out with the whole family on any huge holiday, even easter for some reason. So while I can say I have probably seen them all- I think I only really payed attention to one or at least it's the only one I remember. It is the one when the kids swim thru the hole and come out the other side to another place. Now I never really got to learn to swim until I was a teenager, maybe this episode gave me some kind of hebby-jebby about swimming. I was always really creeped out by all the freaky old people and there faces full of fear..

[musee] - 3.   If you were down in a bomb shelter for the next 10 years and someone curiously yelled down a tube one day and asked you if you wanted them to pick  you up some food from any restaurant in the world...and they were still open....where would that food be from? and what dishes would you want?

[james] - Since they can only reach me by tube, I think I should have to go with some awesome Mahé sushi or a
hotdog from Zack's Shack. If the tube was bigger I would go with a Chicken Run Ranch from Native Food


big horned ram

[view in the museum gift shoppe]

transmitting light and sound

More from the hall of televisions...

In its early stages of development, television employed a combination of optical, mechanical and elecronic technologies to capture, transmit and display a visual image. By the late 1920s, however, those employing only optical and electronic technologies were being explored. All modern television systems rely on the latter, although the knowledge gained from the work on electromechanical systems was crucial in the development of fully electronic television.

The first images transmitted electrically were sent by early mechanical fax machines, including the pantelegraph, developed in the late nineteenth century. The concept of electrically powered transmission of television images in motion was first sketched in 1878 as the telephonoscope, shortly after the invention of the telephone. At the time, it was imagined by early science fiction authors, that someday that light could be transmitted over wires, as sounds were.
[information wikipedia]


interview with Lost Goat

We had a very lovely afternoon asking Lost Goat, who is exhibiting three of her pieces in the no.3 show... a few personal questions.
The Musee asked her 3 questions and here are her interestingly interesting responses.

[work by lost goat]


[lost goat] - Pippi, Tommy and Annika

[musee] -2.  If you were throwing a dinner party and could invite anyone through out history...which 8 people would you invite? 

[lost goat]Dinner with George Sanders to listen to the greatest speaking voice that has ever lived and you have to have at least one a-hole of the bunch.  Albert Einstein, not because he was a super genius but because he became a vegetarian late in life and believed we should not worship symbols and that the world should not have borders.  Rene Magritte and Francesca Woodman so I could tell them how great their work is and how much it influenced me.  Astrid Lindgren and Lewis Carroll who also influenced my world.  Walt Disney and મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધ so I could shake their hands and say Thank You but two different kinds of Thanks.  And of course ask many questions to all of them.

[musee] -3.   Did you ever own a car that was very special to you?

[lost goat]I have named every car that I have owned and they are all special because I have owned them.  I have very fond memories of each car; so I can’t say that I favor one over another.

hall of typewriters

an Adler typewriter
first year of production: 1909
Frankfurt,  Germany

typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical device with a set of keys that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper. From their invention before 1870 through much of the 20th century, typewriters were indispensable tools for many professional writers and in business offices. By the end of the 1980s, word processors and personal computers had largely replaced the tasks previously accomplished with typewriters in the western world. Typewriters, however, remain in use in various areas of the world.
[information from wikipedia]

musée 16