Locality of Certain Historical Events upon the Minds of Young Children.
Year: 1885

page_text: Locality of Certain Historical Events upon the Minds of
Young Children.
I MARIANNE CATHERINE STURGEON of Easby Drive Ilkley in the county of
York, Teacher do hereby declare the nature of my invention for FACILITATING
INSTRUCTION IN GEOGRAPHY AND IMPRESSING THE LOCALITY OF CERTAIN
HISTORICAL EVENTS UPON THE MINDS OF YOUNG CHILDREN to be as follows:-
The object of my invention is to facilitate instruction in geography and, to a
certain extent, in history more especially when educating young children. For
this purpose I use small models or figures representing flags lighthouses, bridges
ships and other suitable objects. The child being furnished with a number of
these little objects and with a suitable map the lesson is conducted as follows-
The teacher tells the child to place certain of the models at certain places or towns
on the map or in the case of ships or other moveable objects to move them about
as if making a voyage or journey from one point to another. The little flags may
be made to represent the colors of different nations and so be made to point out
the possessions or boundaries of those nations. Small figures of soldiers may be
used to indicate places where battles have been fought,-little models of churches
to indicate cathedral towns. Small castles (similar to those used in playing chess)
may be used to indicate capitals of countries and fortified towns. The course of
rivers may be indicated by spanning them by bridges at various points and
various other objects may be used according to the particular characteristic of the
place it is desired to point out-The following are specimens of exercises which
may be performed according to my invention,-1. Place lighthouses at the
following places on the east coast of England. Flambro Head. Spurn Head
Yarmouth. 2. Place union jacks at the following places in Europe, belonging to
England, Heligoland, Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus.-3. Take a ship a voyage from
London down the English Channel across the Bay of Biscay through the Straits
of Gibraltar through the Mediterranean Sea the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to
Suakim. In this manner by making the lesson more of an interesting exercise
than of a dry study the names and positions of places will be much more forcibly
impressed on the children's minds and they will acquire geographical and a certain

page_text: amount of historical knowledge much more rapidly than by the present system-
I am aware that there are already in existence games in which maps are used in
conjunction with some particular kind of figures but the instruction imparted by
such games is limited in scope and they are not calculated for general geographical
instruction.
Facilitating Instruction in
in Geography and Impressing the
Locality of Certain Historical Events upon the Minds of
Young Children.
I MARIANNE CATHERINE STURGEON of Easby Drive, Ilkley, in the County of
York Teacher do hereby declare the nature of my invention for FACILITATING
INSTRUCTION IN GEOGRAPHY AND IMPRESSING THE LOCALITY OF CERTAIN
HISTORICAL EVENTS UPON THE MINDS OF YOUNG CHILDREN, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement :-
The object of my invention is to facilitate instruction in Geography and to a
certain extent in history more especially when educating young children For
this purpose I use small models or figures representing flags, lighthouses, bridges,
ships and other suitable objects. The child being furnished with a number of
these little objects and with a suitable map, the lesson is conducted as follows.
The teacher tells the child to place certain of the models at certain places or towns
on the map, or in the case of ships or other movable objects, to move them about
as if making a voyage or a journey from one point to another. The little flags
may be made to represent the colors of different nations and so be made to point
out the possessions or boundaries of those nations. Small figures of soldiers may
be used to indicate places where battles have been fought-little models of
Churches to indicate Cathedral towns-small castles (similar to those used in
playing chess) may be used to indicate capitals of Countries and fortified towns,
the course of rivers may be indicated by spanning them with bridges at various
points, and various other objects may be used according to the particular
characteristic of the place it is desired to point out-The following are specimens
of exercises which may be performed according to my invention.
1. Place lighthouses at the following places on the East Coast of England-
Flambro' Head, Spurn Head-Yarmouth.
2. Place union jacks at the following places in Europe belonging to England-
Heligoland, Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus.
3. Take a ship a voyage from London down the English Channel, across the
Bay of Biscay, through the Straits of Gibraltar, through the Mediterranean Sea,

page_text: the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to Suakim.-In this manner by making the
lesson more of an interesting exercise than a dry study, the names and positions
of places will be much more forcibly impressed on the childrens' minds, and they
will acquire geographical and a certain amount of historical knowledge much more
rapidly than by the present system. I am aware that there are already in
existence games in which maps are used in conjunction with some particular kind
of figure but the instruction imparted by such games is limited in scope, and they
are not calculated for general geographical instruction-For younger children this
exercise may be made to partake more of the nature of a game by having the
models marked with certain specific letters or numbers. The teacher is furnished
with a book in which corresponding letters or numbers are placed opposite the
names of certain countries or towns-The child picks out a model hap-hazard and
calls out the number thereon the teacher looks in the book and reads the name of
the corresponding town, river &c which the child has then to find on the map and
place the model upon it. In the case of ships and locomotive engines two numbers
would be given corresponding to the places between which the voyage or journey
is to be made.
In the accompanying drawings Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4 shew specimens of the flags.
The flags should have the names of the nations they represent marked on the
back as shewn in Fig. 4. which is the reverse of Fig. 3. These flags may be
easily made by soldering small pieces of sheet tin on to ordinary pins and casting
little leaden feet on to them in moulds which open in the manner of a bullet
mould. Fig. 5, shews a lighthouse and Fig. 6. a castle, these may be formed of
wood, ivory, or bone in the lathe.
In Fig. 7. is represented a castle surmounted by a flag to indicate a capital of a
country, Paris being the place represented in this case as it is the French tricolor
which surmounts the castle Fig. 8. is a church which may be readily formed out
of wood. Fig. 9. is a bridge, these bridges can best be made by turning a ring in
the lathe, the section of the ring being of the necessary shape, so that when the
ring is cut radially across in strips of say a quarter of an inch wide, each strip
will form a bridge such as is represented in Fig. 9. or if a sufficient number of
these bridges were required, the wood from which they are cut may be shaped in
a moulding machine.
Fig. 10. is a ship, this may be formed of tin bent at right angles at the bottom
or with a foot soldered on so as to make it stand upright.
Fig. 11, is a locomotive engine for making imaginary journeys on land, this
may be most readily made of wood. Fig. 12 is a mountain range and Fig. 13.
a mountain, these may be made in a similar manner to the ship.
Fig. 14. is one of the soldiers to be placed where battles have been fought.
These may be stamped out of lead by means of dies, but it will probably be found
that suitable figures may be purchased from the toy-merchants.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
Giving instruction in Geography generally and to some extent in History by
means of various models combined with maps, so as to render the lessons more
interesting and entertaining to young children.