{"id":111004,"date":"2025-09-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archwaybookshop.co.uk\/?post_type=product&#038;p=111004"},"modified":"2026-02-14T14:53:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T14:53:22","slug":"a-compendium-of-curious-contraptions","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781916745032","title":{"rendered":"A Compendium of Curious Contraptions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>An illustrated guide to some of the most bizarre objects from history by archaeologist Anna Goldfield, including a guessing game for kids to play!<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Each page contains a mystery item from the past, with a set of clues as to what it was used for. Readers can take a guess before unfolding a giant flap to reveal the answer. Without giving too much away, the book contains Inuit snow goggles, designed to protect eyes from the blinding glare of the ice, an ancient Chinese earthquake detector featuring several metal frogs, and err.. the Royal fistula &#8211; an item used to perform delicate surgery on the rear end of King Louis XIV of France.<\/p>\n<p>Kids will delight in trying to work out the purpose of the beautiful objects, brought to life by Mexican illustrator Paula Zamudio, and will learn a lot about the cultures that created them &#8211; from ancient Rome to Polynesia, and Mesopotamia to Viking Scandinavia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guess what some of the most unusual objects from history were used for in this book by archaeologist Anna Goldfield!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[168],"product_tag":[27006,26823,30744],"class_list":["post-111004","product","type-product","status-publish","product_cat-childrens-non-fiction","product_tag-childrens-teenage-general-interest-general-knowledge-trivia","product_tag-childrens-teenage-general-interest-machines-how-things-work","product_tag-educational-social-sciences-social-studies","pa_book_author-goldfield-anna","pa_cover-hardback","pa_dewey-909-edition23","pa_imprint-neon-squid","pa_language-english","pa_pages-8551","pa_publisher-neon-squid","pa_readership-children-juvenile-code-j","first","onbackorder","taxable","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Compendium of Curious Contraptions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An illustrated guide to some of the most bizarre objects from history by archaeologist Anna Goldfield, including a guessing game for kids to play!Each page contains a mystery item from the past, with a set of clues as to what it was used for. Readers can take a guess before unfolding a giant flap to reveal the answer. Without giving too much away, the book contains Inuit snow goggles, designed to protect eyes from the blinding glare of the ice, an ancient Chinese earthquake detector featuring several metal frogs, and err.. the Royal fistula - an item used to perform delicate surgery on the rear end of King Louis XIV of France.Kids will delight in trying to work out the purpose of the beautiful objects, brought to life by Mexican illustrator Paula Zamudio, and will learn a lot about the cultures that created them - from ancient Rome to Polynesia, and Mesopotamia to Viking Scandinavia.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Compendium of Curious Contraptions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An illustrated guide to some of the most bizarre objects from history by archaeologist Anna Goldfield, including a guessing game for kids to play!Each page contains a mystery item from the past, with a set of clues as to what it was used for. Readers can take a guess before unfolding a giant flap to reveal the answer. Without giving too much away, the book contains Inuit snow goggles, designed to protect eyes from the blinding glare of the ice, an ancient Chinese earthquake detector featuring several metal frogs, and err.. the Royal fistula - an item used to perform delicate surgery on the rear end of King Louis XIV of France.Kids will delight in trying to work out the purpose of the beautiful objects, brought to life by Mexican illustrator Paula Zamudio, and will learn a lot about the cultures that created them - from ancient Rome to Polynesia, and Mesopotamia to Viking Scandinavia.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781916745032\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Archway Bookshop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ArchwayBookshop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-14T14:53:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/cropped-logo_512-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Archwaybookshop\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781916745032\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781916745032\/\",\"name\":\"A Compendium of Curious Contraptions\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-18T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-14T14:53:22+00:00\",\"description\":\"An illustrated guide to some of the most bizarre objects from history by archaeologist Anna Goldfield, including a guessing game for kids to play!Each page contains a mystery item from the past, with a set of clues as to what it was used for. 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