120 Years in 120 Objects
Join the KwaZulu-Natal Museum in celebrating the museum’s 120th year of orbiting the sun. Staff and guest curators have chosen one object or item per year of our existence to highlight to the public. Visit the website and our social media platforms regularly to see the latest object and keep an eye out for information about a physical exhibition later this year!
Today’s Object is from 1939
Chapman Stanley Hand Drill No. 130 by Wesley Flanagan, Executive Manager: Exhibitions
The Chapman Stanley No. 130 hand drill was first mass produced in 1939, two years after Stanley Works, an American tool company, acquired the British firm J.A. Chapman based in Sheffield. J.A. Chapman manufactured carpentry tools and bayonets. These drills were a game changer in the woodworking industry as the ergonomic design allowed for comfortable, efficient, and safe use in the workshop. This hand drill is also affectionately known as the “egg beater” and is still used in the KwaZulu-Natal Museum’s Exhibition Workshop today for woodworking where precision and control is more important than the power of an electric drill; for example, when countersinking screw heads on museum cases. Over the “egg-beater’s” 85 years, it has been used in the making of most of the cabinetry in the exhibition areas. Stanley Tools is also famous for their “Stanley Knife”—the original utility knife and for their locking tape measures.
A Stanley Chapman Hand Drill
Such drills are still used today in making exhibitions for the KwaZulu-Natal Museum
