“Without the past, there is no future,” and phrases to the same effect, have been circulating in political and intellectual discourse for decades. It should also be stated that without preservation, there is no past. History itself, as opposed to pre-history, begins c.3200 BC with the preservation of knowledge, made possible by the invention of writing on clay tablets by the ancient Sumerians. With that, knowledge of other early technologies could be shared and the seeds of the first civilisations sown. These tablets themselves were preserved, being placed in archives in sacred temples and royal palaces, with the result that thousands have survived to the present, gifting to modern man an immensely detailed understanding of what life was like during the nascence of civilisation.
That alone ought to make clear the importance of preservation, and to say as much in Old Glory is, one imagines, preaching to the converted. Readers who have laboured for hours to revive a steam roller and living van, or a steam-driven threshing machine, may have done so chiefly because they enjoyed it, but they will not have been unconscious of the fact that if this old machinery was allowed to decay or be broken up, it would leave a gaping hole in the pool of human knowledge and future generations would be poorer for it.
In many ways, traction engines and old commercials have proved a surprisingly enduring link with our past, more
