Dorset Hotel

THE ISLANDER WHO INVENTED A KITCHEN CLASSIC

by budapest8

Being such a small place it's incredible how many
famous people came from this small island.
But when you experiance the cold winters
and the beautiful summers, it provides a curse
to want to leave and inspiration on good days
to be creative.

THE ISLANDER WHO INVENTED A KITCHEN CLASSIC
Research among 19th century patents has revealed it was a Ryde man who invented the classic tin opener: a basic design which has since generated many variants.
It is not always the big inventions that cause the greatest changes in our lives and, yes, canned food was around long before the tin opener. For decades the instructions for opening cans involved a hammer and chisel. The process of preserving food in cans was developed early in the 19th century but initially they were handmade of wrought iron. By the middle of the century lighter materials had speeded up production but it was not until the 1880s that the first automatic can-making machinery was introduced in Britain. Lighter materials also created the opportunity for a tin opening device.
In 1881 Henry Knight patented his tin opener, a design which has probably opened more tins (and caused more cut fingers) than any other. He was the owner of the Arcade in Union Street, Ryde and described himself as an importer of Italian sculpture. He sold the patent to Crosse and Blackwell who brought it into common use.
He had several patents under his name, including an automatic weighing machine and a horse clipping machine. A controversial member of Ryde Town Council, he earned little from his inventions and was declared bankrupt in 1890 following the failure of his import business. Henry Knight died in 1895. He could hardly have guessed the next century would see an age of convenience foods in which his adapted tin opener would become one of the world's most familiar kitchen implements.

Ryde where you can walk!

by budapest8

"RYDE Town of my childhood"

We moved here from High Wycome, Bucks in 1964,
my parents and my two younger sisters to start a new
life on the Island.
I went to Primary school then to Ryde Boys School on Queens Road
opposite All SAints Church were I did a bit of singing as a choir boy.
Mostly for the extra pocket money, half a crown for weddings and the
same for funerals. I also was in the cub scouts then boy scouts,
1st Ryde. I left the Island for boarding school in 1971 to go to the
Sacred Heart Boys College in Droitwich, Worcs.
I came home every holiday and worked every summer in some
part time job.I got my first part time weekend job for a butchers on the
High Street as a delivery boy. I used to get 5 shillings pocket money
which was enough to go to the Saturday matinee`s for 6 pence and get
some chip scraps at the `chippy` for threpence (3d) .

"The street with a view of the pier and the sea."

A good place to start a pub crawl....
I once visited 5 pubs on the start of
a pub crawl back in the '70's and
that was only in Union Street


Sadly 5 of 6 resident VT members are
1 click wonders.

When I was 11 One hot Saturday
I was lucky to go with some of the
other lads and young guys working in the butchers shop,
in the butchers van over to Afton Down Nr. Freshwater
on the other side of the Island to the Isle Of Wight
Pop Festival. Nearly half a million
visitors visited the festival and it looked more like the
Kumba Mela in India with a sea of people.
I remember Tiny Tim was playing as we
drove by and then Miles Davis.
This was the last UK venue for Jimmy Hendrix before
he died 18 days later. On the beach there were
thousands of naked people bathing and just wandering around.
One of the boys in my class at school, his father
owned the land and he told us stories about the stars
staying in the farmhouse. He met Bob Dylan,
Mick Jagger, The Who, Janis Joplin, Donavan and all sorts of people .

I remember seeing condoms and syringes washed up on
the beaches for weeks to come and a queue of hippies at
Ryde pier miles long, hundreds of stranded hippies.
Even a convoy of about 50 motorbikes, mostly Hells Angels
on Harleys .
Getting to see all this blew my mind.

The Original Summer Of Love