Question: What links the light bulb, trains and a particular type of gun?

Answer: They are the objects chosen by cartoonist Chris Donald when asked to pick the three items he thought had transformed society in the north-east of England.

Chris presented his selection on Inside Out on BBC One as part of the A History of the World series.

Click to watch his report.

Chris's first choice was the electric light bulb designed by Joseph Swan and demonstrated at Newcastle's Literary and Philosophical Society in 1879.

Swan's house in Low Fell was the first in the world to be lit by electric light.

The second object on Chris's list was the number one gun developed by Lord Armstrong in 1855.

It helped to make Newcastle's West End a hive of industry and also revolutionised armaments.

Last, but not least, Chris chose the railway engine.

The North East has a proud tradition of steam engines from Robert Stephenson's Billy to The Rocket.

Chris also had a personal reason for choosing the engine - he has fond memories of watching the train carrying Rolo sweets from the factory in Fawdon go past his childhood home.

The events surrounding the commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the death of Robert Stephenson proved very successful in raising the profile of the great engineer.

The Institution of Civil Engineers has conducted research into the media coverage for the various associated events and has estimated that the cost of aquiring such coverage would be in excess of £50,000.

In addition to 4 television items of 5 minutes there were 17 newspaper articles, 16 online articles and a radio interview together with multiple references on various internet blog sites.

 

 

Advertised by Robert Stephenson Trust on behalf of St Mary's Church, Ponteland

The "Elizabethan Express" takes us non-stop from London to Edinburgh in 1954 (wonderful shots of steam engines, pretty awful poetry), and "Holiday" (1957) is accompanied by jazz played by Chris Barber and his band. "Give your car a holiday" (1967) extols the virtues of Motorail, while "A Desperate Case" (1958) is 'a cautionary tale of a typical holiday suitcase - crammed beyond its capactity, imperfectly fastened, inadequately and confusingly labelled'.

Saturday 9 January 2010, 3 pm and 7.30 pm, in the Church Hall. Admission free, doughnuts at the interval.