Visited the old ironworks museum in Bethlehem, PA and saw something odd

They had a display on early 20th century nail-making, but the forge setup looked completely wrong for the hammers they had laid out. The tuyere placement would have created a cold spot right where you'd need the most heat. It made me wonder if the curator was a historian, not a smith. Has anyone else run into historical displays that get the practical details wrong?

3 comments

3 Comments

campbell.evan1mo ago

What gets me is the chain of how that wrong info spreads. A historian reads an old book that got the detail wrong, then the museum copies it, and now a whole new generation sees it as fact. It's not just one wrong display, it's creating a wrong idea that keeps going. I've seen it with old farm tool setups too. Once it's in a museum, people assume it's the final word.

taylor821mo ago

Used to think those displays were always right until I saw something similar.

phoenix_campbell8814d ago

Wait, you mean that whole setup at the living history museum near us was wrong? @campbell.evan, this is exactly the kind of thing you were talking about with the farm tools - once they put it on display, everyone just buys it.