RafflesWeek 2022 day 2 / 10th March — discussion topic “technology in Raffles”
Imagine. You are a writer with a decent income without being rich, and you rent a little cottage along the Thames with your partner in crimelover beloved brother. You’re also a bit of a tech geek, but, well, it’s the late 1890s and you love owning the hottest devices.
So here’s what Bunny Manders and A. J. Raffles Ralph Manders might have in their cottage in Ham Common. It’s only supposition, except for the bikes.
Bicycles
We can read in The Wrong House that Bunny and Raffles own two bicyclesHumberandSunbeam, two British brands (the patriotic fiber of Raffles). Both bikes are fitted with Dunlop tyres, chosen for their popularity, making wheel tracks more anonymous.
Camera
We’ve known for some time that Bunny owns a Kodak, and extrapolating that he had to part with it during his time in prison, we can imagine that he bought one back when he moved to Ham Common. My choice is the Folding Pocket Kodak Rochester 1898, for its small size and its elegance.
Typewriter
As a writer, Bunny probably carried a typewriter, even though he wrote his first draft by hand. In the same patriotic spirit as for bicycles, we can imagine Raffles offering him one of the models of the English Typewriter Limitedbrand.
Telephone
Raffles did not see the point of acquiring a telephone again. Fortunately, Bunny was able to continue to contact his publisher by telephone, as the cottage already had an electrical installation and had an old Gower-Bell telephone from 1878.
Music
Surprisingly, it was Raffles who found the whole phonograph cylinder thing exciting. And it was exciting! The most popular music became Tubes (literally, since it was engraved on wax tubes). But it was expensive so they choose an Amet Echophone (here, a model from 1896), cheaper than the Edison phonograph.
Bunny greeted the strange cone machine with delight and curiosity. It is rather probable that they recorded some conversations together, and Bunny listened to them again regularly until the wax deteriorated, many years later.
Bunny with that Kodak camera is such a sweet image
