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A steampunk-themed event will celebrate an extraordinary Victorian machine that kept kitchens cooking across Dunedin.
The Gasworks Museum is marking the 100th birthday of its Bryan Donkin booster engine with a high tea at noon on Sunday, October 11.
The gathering will feature a birthday cake, nibbles, tea and coffee made using Dunedin’s historic original espresso machine.
The festivities will also include activities organised by the Dunedin Steampunk Society.
Society member James Bryan has built a new game for visitors to play.
His “human fruit machine” is like a traditional one-armed bandit, but uses people instead of spinning rollers.
Three people stand behind separate panels.
“They have a series of paddles on a table in front of them, which has either a top hat, an airship, a moustache, or a pair of goggles,” Mr Bryan said.
A player hitting the device strikes a red bell which starts a 10-second timer.
The participants begin a rolling motion with their arms and when a beeper indicates the time is up, they hold up one of the paddles.
“If they lift independently three of the same paddles, the person who triggered the bell wins a prize.”
Members of the public could step up and become part of the attraction as rollers, he said.
Other competitions include teapot racing inside the “natural arena” of the gasholder circle.
Another activity on offer was tea duelling, Mr Bryan said.
This involves two people sitting at a table facing each other with cups of tea in front of them.
They select a biscuit, typically a wine variety.
“They examine their biscuit, they check it out, they make sure there’s no flaws in it,” Mr Bryan said.
His wife, Helen Bryan, will act as a “tiffin master” overseeing the contest.
On her count, competitors must dunk the biscuit in the tea, count to five and take it out.
They then hold it vertically for as long as possible before the soggy treat begins to fail and must get it to their mouth before it falls apart.
The winner is the person whose biscuit lasts the longest.
Dunedin Gasworks Museum trust chairman Jonathan Cweorth joked it was a highly competitive sport that was “brutal but bloodless”.
The star of the day is the booster machine manufactured by Bryan Donkin Company in Chesterfield, England.
Workers installed it at the Dunedin Gasworks in 1926.
The horizontal steam-driven, duplex reciprocating compressor can pass 100,000cu ft of gas per hour at a pressure of 5lb per square inch.
The engine was used to increase gas pressure when demand peaked, typically during the day, particularly when people began cooking meals.
This ensured an adequate supply of gas reached outer areas of the city.
Gasworks Museum operations manager Shaun Beckett helps maintain the site’s world-class collection of working steam engines.
The booster engine is still in working order after 100 years and will be running on the day.
Keeping it turning over requires relatively simple maintenance.
“Just clean it, oil it,” Mr Beckett said.
The afternoon gathering is one of a range of events held during the Southern Heritage Trust’s Dunedin Heritage Weekend.