May 11, 2011

Did you know New Zealand made its own tank? Or produced a lawnmower that could cut through rocks and 4” bolts? And what about the electric tractor, complete with power cord?

Those glorious contraptions were the very embodiment of Kiwi can-do – a nation of gadget-lovers certainly produced its fair share of gadgets.

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Now that much-loved ‘number-8-wire’ ingenuity graces the big screen at the New Zealand Film Archive in the latest presentation of the Traveling Film Show, Extraordinary Inventions, screening 7pm May 19-21.

Using newsreels, home movies and TV footage, Extraordinary Inventions features 23 wonderful (and somewhat forgotten) inventions that originated in Aotearoa in the hour-long programme. Blues / folk musician Bill Hickman (The Shot Band) provides the recorded soundtrack.

Highlights among the quintessentially Kiwi gadgets include the Semple Tank (a machine so impractical it needed to stop to change gear), the Wenham’s Outlaw pushmower (which was so strong it could mow through rocks and 4” bolts) and a World War II era gas-powered car.

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Aviation fans might appreciate rare footage of DP Fisher’s monoplane trial flight in 1913, when flight was in its infancy and monoplanes only became commonplace in the 1930s

There’s also a nostalgic look at the ‘modern home on wheels’ from 1933, which most New Zealanders know as a caravan, lots of agricultural monstrosities like a gyrotiller so big it had sleeping quarters to house farm workers, revolutionary sheep-shearing equipment and the world’s smallest motorcycle.

And if those egregious engineering attempts weren’t comedic enough, Extraordinary Inventions concludes with one of the most famous homegrown spoofs of all time, the musical farmers twanging away on number-8 wire on Country Calendar.

Traveling Film Show: Extraordinary Inventions
7pm, May 19-21
The New Zealand Film Archive
Cnr Taranaki and Ghuznee Streets
Ph 04 499 FILM / www.filmarchive.org.nz

ENDS

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