Monday, 25 May 2015

CUP FINAL DAY BRINGS SNOW AND A WEDDING CAKE

This weekend my daughter gets married, on Cup Final Day!! I tried to introduce football to her from an early age and even took her to an FA Cup Final, Arsenal v Sheffield Wednesday on May 15th 1993, she was 14. Clearly it had little effect. The available date for the wedding took precedence-fair enough??
Whilst indulging in the Sunday Times, last Sunday,my wife (keeping it in the family) read the “Where was I?” competition and told me about Gladstone Adams, one of the clues to the eventual answer which was Whitley Bay.
Gladstone made a name for himself inventing the windscreen wiper. HOW? 
On April 25th 1908 he drove to the Crystal Palace ground in a 1904 Daracq-Caron motorcar to see Newcastle United play Wolverhampton Wanderers in the FA Cup Final. The car drew much attention that it was left in a car showroom while Gladstone was at the match. Nearly 75,000 people watched the game.
On the way back, it snowed and Gladstone had to keep stopping the car to clear the windscreen. On April 1911 he patented the windscreen wiper which was never manufactured but the prototype can been seen in the Newcastle's Discovery Museum.
As well as being a photographer, he invented with his brother the sliding rowing seat and the trafficator, a car indicator.

Wolves won 3-1 and their first goal was scored by the Reverend Kenneth Hunt and Corinthian. Hedley and Harrison scored the other two.
Below is Adams and a photograph of a Newcastle player taken by him.


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