The North Western Museum of Science and Industry
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The North Western Museum of Science and Industry. 1 The North Western Museum of Science and Industry, Some Reminiscences. By Richard L. Hills, M.A., D.I.C., Ph.D., C.I.Mech.E., F.M.A., Dip.Ed. The North Western Museum of Science and Industry. 2 Contents Introduction Chapter 1 A Successful Start at Grosvenor Street. Chapter 2 Problems Facing the Museum. Chapter 3 The Power Hall at Liverpool Road. Chapter 4 The Mill Engine Collection. Chapter 5 The Railway Collection. Chapter 6 The Textile Collection. Chapter 7 The Machine Tool Collection. Chapter 8 Paper Related Exhibits. Chapter 9 Smaller Exhibits. Appendix 1 Lists of some of the exhibits, 1971 – 1977. Appendix 2 Visitor Figures, 1970 – 1983. Appendix 3 Holding of railway, tramroad rails and plates. Appendix 4 Holding of mechanical point and signal lever frames and interlocks. Appendix 5 Catalogue of library and archive collections, circa 1982. Appendix 6 List of attendees at the Royal Visit to the Greater Manchester Museum of Science and Industry, 5 May 1982. Appendix 7 Education Service. Bibliography. The North Western Museum of Science and Industry. 3 Introduction Donald Cardwell, Professor in History of Science and Technology, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, wrote:- “The principal aim of the Museum [would be] to explain the major discoveries and inventions of history of science and technology using wherever possible exhibits made in or linked with the North West, establishing a valuable tool for school and universities… “Thus the Manchester Science Museum should give prominence to textiles, electrical engineering and computers among other things, but pay much less to motorcars, cycles and firearms. One must always remember that the Manchester region was, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, an area of ‘high technology’ that attracted able scientists and engineers from all over the civilised world. The great textile industry had stimulated the power technologies of steam and water and had brought about revolutionary advances in building technology for cotton mills had to be strong enough to bear the weights of heavy machines and be as well lit as possible. The last requirement expedited the development of the gas industry, while the demand for very large numbers of textile machines brought about the rise of the local machine tool industry. The finished cloth had to be bleached, mordanted and dyed or printed so that, at the final stage, the services of the chemist and the chemical industry were called for. A very wide range of advanced technologies sprang up as a consequence of the revolutionary growth of the textile industry. And it is, I think, no accident that at the very heart of this area of high technology there grew up one of the great schools of world science with John Dalton and then James Prescott Joule as its first standard bearers. Plainly this remarkable pattern of events must to some extent determine the form of the North Western Museum of Science and Industry and it is quite impossible to see how a national museum of technology, if not in Manchester, could do justice to it. Equally it would be wrong to suppose that Manchester could interpret the technologies of Birmingham or London. Regional museums of technology have, I believe, four main purposes: (1) to conserve historically important machines, apparatus, records and drawings; (2) to advise on, or to help with, the conservation of outside exhibits that cannot be put in the museum; (3) to teach at all levels; and (4) to carry out research and publish monographs.” Such was the vision behind the establishment of a museum of science and technology in Manchester. It briefly outlined the worldwide importance of the inventions and industries in both science and technology that the area had made to our present civilization. It is with considerable justification the Manchester has been called “The First Industrial City”. The following brief history of the North Western Museum of Science and Industry shows how much of that vision was achieved in spite of very limited resources. The story is divided into two parts. The first gives a general outline of the development of the Museum in its early years. The reasons behind selecting and moving some exhibits are outlined. The second part contains more detailed lists of what was collected and when. While the exhibits mostly had local connections, the collections assembled soon acquired more than local significance, some being worthy of international recognition. All this was achieved through the dedication of the few members of the Museum staff. The North Western Museum of Science and Industry. 4 This account of the early days of the original Manchester Museum of Science and Technology and then the North Western Museum of Science and Industry shows how they developed into the present Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. It is based on the original foundation documents establishing the Museum as well as the first annual reports. These are supplemented by descriptions of some events to the best of my recollections but much has had to be omitted. It has been necessary to write this before all those involved have either left the area or passed away. I have been encouraged by Anthony Goldstone, former Chairman, to record our strenuous efforts in the face of very limited budgets, inadequate premises and in times of financial constraints. We acted just in time to preserve so many significant historical exhibits which was possible only through the generosity of so many companies, institutions and individuals. Without them, MOSI be but a shadow of itself. To cover the full scope of the collections we assembled is way beyond what can be contained in such a short essay. Therefore I apologise to those people whom I should have mentioned but have failed to do so. However I wish to thank Bernard and Jill Champness for their support in the production of this account, particularly in copying the illustrations since this record would be the poorer without them. I must also thank Chris Makepeace and others who have lent pictures. Richard L. Hills. The North Western Museum of Science and Industry. 5 Historical Introduction The idea for having a display of industrial and scientific artefacts in Manchester can be traced back to at least March 1839 when Richard Roberts was involved with founding an institution with the grandiloquent title of the Royal Victoria Gallery for the Encouragement and Illustration of Practical Sciences. Its aim was to illustrate the progress made in industry and science and to have a collection of apparatus ‘combining philosophical instruction and general entertainment’. It would present experimental demonstrations which, in particular, would arouse the interest of young people. Alas, it was short-lived and its apparatus disappeared. Yet its founding concepts were similar to those embodied later in various reports for a museum. It would not be until 20 October 1969 that Lord Rhodes of Saddleworth formally declared the Manchester Museum of Science and Technology open at a ceremony held in its temporary home, the Oddfellows Hall, 97 Grosvenor Street. Opening of Grosvenor Street Museum with left to right, Lady Rhodes, Lord Rhodes (Lord Lieutenant, Lancashire), Lord Bowden (principle U.M.I.S.T.), Dr. Richard Hills and Joe Flowett looking at Joe Flowett’s models from the Mechanical Engineering Department, U.M.I.S.T. In the intervening years, the Science Museum had been opened in London following the Great Exhibition of 1851. However this example was not followed in the provinces until there was one at Newcastle upon Tyne in the 1930s and one at Birmingham in the 1950s. There were some specialised collections such as the Railway Museum and Castle Museum at York or Salford with its Buile Hill Mining Museum and its street of shops and the collection of early textile machinery in the The North Western Museum of Science and Industry. 6 Tonge Moor Library, Bolton. There were also the open air museums started at Iron Bridge and Beamish in the late 1950s. The 1950s and 1960s saw the rise of Industrial Archaeology as well as university departments for history of science and technology. Perhaps the powers-that-be realised the extent of the interest in industrial history for the examples of Birmingham and Manchester were quickly followed by Bradford, Leeds and Sheffield. There was a need for museums to reflect the wide range of industries in these areas. The one in Manchester would ‘explain the major discoveries and inventions in the history of science and the history of technology, using wherever possible exhibits made in or linked with the North West’. (Annual Report, 1977) Throughout the difficult financial period of the later 1950s, the idea of a science museum for Manchester was kept alive by the late Alderman Sir Maurice Pariser and a few members of the University staff. (See UMIST Annual Report 1982 – 3 for list) When Dr. Donald S.L. Cardwell was appointed Reader in the History of Science and Technology at UMIST in 1963, the Principal, Lord Bowden, suggested he should investigate the possibilities of starting a science museum. A Joint Committee consisting of representatives of Manchester City Council, Manchester University and the University of Manchester Institute for Science and Technology was established. The Education Department of the City was a strong supporter in spite of one Councillor asking at a meeting why such a museum was necessary when people could look at machines in UMIST – which didn’t go down very well in some quarters. This Committee drew up a report which was presented on 31 October 1966 and became the foundation document for the Museum. The Vision The report described the function of such a museum as acquisition, conservation, research and, of course, exhibition.