View report page

The Department's large waiting room was utilised to present the Home Safety
exhibit "Trouble House." This exhibit was in the form of an open-sided house, the
rooms and contents being in full view. Each room was fully furnished and complete
with model figures staged in a manner to demonstrate the hazards created by the
misuse or faulty arrangement of household equipment. The story was told in
sequence, a series of red electric bulbs, adjacent to each incident, lighting up in
turn with illuminated panels descriptive of the incident portrayed.
Also, in the Home Safety exhibit in the waiting room, were posters dealing
with accidents in the home and a coloured frieze round the walls. Two sets of
contrasting rooms of houses (old and modern kitchen and old and modern bedroom)
were popular with members of the public. In one corner a display panel portrayed
the changes which have taken place in the local ambulance service since 1930.
Photographs of a horse-drawn ambulance and of the first motor ambulance to be
used were on view alongside photographs of one of the latest Daimler ambulances
operated by the London County Council. At the enquiry counter an attractive
display of flowers and plants was presented. At the entrance to this room a coloured
sign pointing the way to "Trouble House" had been erected. This sign had been
constructed by members of the staff.
On the health education stand the Council's new epidiascope was displayed.
It was surrounded by leaflets and there were photographs of a health education
lecture in progress and of one of the Department's large poster sites in Woolwich.
By means of a display of coloured illuminated boxes with flashing electric signs
the vital statistics of the Borough (infant death rate, Tuberculosis death rate and
deaths from certain diseases) during the last fifty years were effectively presented.
These boxes were designed and made by members of the staff. With the assistance
of photographs and illuminated photographs, the Maternity and Child Welfare
work of the Council during the greater part of the present century was shown.
The growth of this service from its inception until its transference in 1948 was
shown by means of photographs of some of the Welfare Centres established by the
Council during the period between the two world wars. A number of culture plates
were on show.
An attractive display of fish was maintained in an automatic refrigerating unit.
This unit was also used for the display of diseased meat specimens which had been
condemned by the Council's Food Inspectors at the Plumstead Abattoir. The fish
section was dressed daily and specimens of meat obtained from the Abattoir were
renewed at intervals during the week and proved of unusual interest. Photographs
taken during the inspection of meat at the Abattoir were on view, together with
photographs of modern refrigerating units. By means of photographs it was possible
to present an interesting comparison in the advances made in hygienic practice
during the last fifty years by a local firm of food dealers.
An electric glass-washing machine was used to indicate the latest technique
in glass-washing. A section of a bar was set up complete with shelves, counter,
glasses and bottles and a rotary motor pump was installed. The glass-washing
machine was demonstrated throughout the week.
Altogether, some sixty photographs were on view on the Department's stand
and these photographs had been mounted and were displayed on chromium and
glass display fittings. At the entrance to the stand there was an illuminated glass
panel in the shape of an arrow, which had been constructed by members of the
staff, bearing the words, " Here's Health."
Leaflets and Posters.
During the Exhibition week an opportunity was taken of distributing a large
number of leaflets to members of the public. So great was the demand for leaflets
dealing with the dangers of food infection that the large stock was soon exhausted.
Several thousand leaflets drawing attention to the dangers of accidents in the home
were distributed on the Home Safety exhibit stand.
27