furphy

Last weekend at the Coleambally Vintage Rally I finally got to see a Furphy water cart close up. I heard the water carts have a message in shorthand on them and sure enough it did have, (it's the line of squiggles across the middle of the tank end) and Pitman shorthand too which I learnt at school. I have a certificate to say I can do 120 wpm but found that not many of the people I worked for could compose a letter at that speed (not actually very fast) and now I can sort of read it but don't write it at all. The mysterious message is here. These water carts were designed by John Furphy who set up his foundry in Shepparton in 1871. They were so successful that during WWI the Australian army bought many water carts for camps in Australia and in Palestine and Egypt.

Furphy is also a word meaning rumour, absurd story or downright lie and it seems to have come about because of gossip around the water cart (as these days round a water cooler). Coincidentally an American term, scuttlebutt, originated from a water-butt for sailors to drink from.