Alkmaar brommer (bullroarer)

Brommer

Source term: Brommer / bullroarer

Dutch, "hummer/buzzer," from brommen, to hum or drone.

Alfred Cort Haddon took this bullroarer from a little girl in Alkmaar who was whirling it in front of two boys. She would not give its name or sell it until she was satisfied she was not being made fun of, then told him she called it a brommer, a hummer; a German in Amsterdam knew the same name from Rhenish Prussia. It is a flat wooden blade about 230 mm long, squared at one end and rounded at the other, strung on a fibre cord through a hole at one end. Both long edges are striped, and a painted image in blue, red, and gold pigment partly survives on the wood, though much of it has come away. It entered the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in 1922.

Obtained from a little girl who was whirling it in presence of two boys. She could not be induced to give its name or to sell it until satisfied that she was not being made fun of. She called it a 'Brommer' or hummer.

Cambridge MAA 1922.393, catalogue record

Particulars

Object

A wooden bullroarer with string attached through a hole at one end; rectangular blade, squared at one end and rounded at the other (Cambridge MAA 1922.393).

Function

A child's whirling toy: collected from a little girl who was spinning it while two boys watched.