At Coney Museum, interesting things from our past
Diverse inventions from the last century and earlier make up Denny Daniel’s travelling colleciton of “Interesting Things” that are exhibited once a month at the Coney Island Museum.
Daniel has gathered inventions and antiques that today’s youth find incredible, so he describes and explains how they work and then encourages them to interact with the objects, many of which are 100 years old.
So the demonstration — conducted only about once a month, at 4 p.m. on a Sunday, at 1208 Surf Ave. — turns into a practical educational exercise on how things work. The general response was “Cool!” when the audience saw a spy camera, a stereopticon camera or a 3D “I Love Lucy” comic book. The vest pocket spy camera resembles a pocket watch, the type that gentlemen wore in 1904 (the date stamped into the back); the stem is a lens and it still works. An 1894 bellows Kodak is on the table.
Recently, two children, Parson and Chloe Workman from Port Washington, visited the Coney Island Museum with their parents. Parson was intrigued when Daniel set up a century-old telephone that they could talk on; Chloe watched the pictures unfold in the nickelodeon machine. Both looked on as the working model steam engine puffed.
Daniel has been gathering “things” since his teenage years and exhibiting them at public events for the past five years. He considers his collection the “missing links factory.” Patrick Wall, the house manager at Coney Island USA, claims Daniel has the artist’s “long-term vision” that translates into educating today’s youth about the foundations for today’s iPhones, video games, communication and well-being.
His traveling “museum” can be broken down into eight “departments” or categories. Because Daniel welcomes children to his performances, toys are a central focus — not battery-operated playthings but wind-up toys and toys that children turn on by pushing buttons and twisting switches.
Early calculators are in his math department. These simple machines are capable of answering complex questions.
Man’s desire and effort to record his thoughts are in the literature department. Techniques of writing, printing and preserving thoughts and ideas are explained. Among household items, Daniel demonstrates a propane clothing iron and a brick-sized cell phone. Scientific models from yesteryear are precursors of those used in today’s health industry.