Level 0 - Energy

Energy was the theme of the first section. There were plenty of machines on display that described the progression of steam engines that powered Britain’s Industrial Revolution. 

There was the Rotative Steam Engine (1788) by Boulton and Watt that was the oldest unaltered rotative steam engine in the world. It drove 70 polishing machines for 70 years. James Watt introduced the separate condenser to steam engines that cut fuel consumption by 75% compared to the older Newcomen engine. 

There were many machines and it showed how the engineering had improved over time. The largest one there was the mill engine constructed by Burnley Ironworks in 1903. It was a horizontal engine and was direct-acting, doing away with the giant rocking beams of earlier engines. The one on display had worked right up until 1970. The engine drove 1700 looms at the same time. 

Level 0 - Making The Modern World

The next section was called Making The Modern World and contained an eclectic mix of items that science has contributed to the world.

Puffing Billy (c. 1814)  was the oldest surviving steam railway locomotive in the world. It hauled coal trains along a 5 mile stretch of railway between Wylam Colliery and the nearby River Tyne where it was loaded onto ships for transport. I’d walked along this old section of line when I walked the Hadrian’s Wall Path a couple of years ago. There was the steam engine used by the PS Comet (1812). The engine wasn’t powerful enough for conditions on Scotland’s west coast and the boat was driven ashore in 1820. 

I came across a wooden Harrison’s clock. It looked remarkably similar to the one I’d seen at Nostell Priory. 

A cabinet displayed some remarkable items that seemed to replicate part of the syllabus of my  history ‘O’ level. There was Davy’s original safety lamp (1816), Lister’s microscope (1826), Faraday’s magnet and coil (1831), Cooke and Wheatstone's telegraph (1837) and a Laennec Stethoscope (1850). It seemed remarkable to see these iconic historical items. 

There was a hand loom (1825) that incorporated the Jacquard mechanism that could use punched cards to control the weaving. Again, I remembered the Nasmyth Steam Hammer (c 1850) and Bessemer Converter (1865) from my school history lessons.  There was just so much iconic history on display here. The Aveling and Porter traction engine (1871) looked pretty similar to the one that was dumped at my infant’s school playground for us to ‘play’ on. 

The items started to get more modern. There was a plane suspended from the room and a stack of half a dozen cars on one wall. There were a couple of ‘bubble’ type cars on display. I have a vague memory of actually seeing one of these on a road (a pink one). The associated note gave their time period as 1950-1965 and so maybe it's a false memory. 

There was an interesting display that showed how the Vertical Take Off and Landing mechanism was developed for aircraft. There was the Rolls Royce Flying Bedstead (1954) which led to the SC1 Aircraft (1957). Looking at the SC1, I doubt that I would ever have sat in it, let alone attempt to fly it . It did of course culminate in the Harrier Jet, an example of which I would come across on Level 3 in the Flight section.

Level 0 - Space

The next section was called Space and contained an impressive selection of items. 

There was the Apollo 10 Command Module (1969) ‘Charlie Brown’ that took Tom Stafford, Gene Cernan and John Young around the Moon. It was tiny. I just couldn’t imagine stepping into it and heading off for the Moon. An Apollo simulator console was on display. During their training the astronauts left notes and markings on the console, some of which were still visible. 

I never realised that Britain had launched a satellite, but it appears that we did in 1971. The satellite was called Prospero and was carried into orbit by a Black Arrow rocket. The programme was cancelled and subsequent satellites were launched by the Americans. 

Several rocket engines were on display including the RL10 (1962) that powered Voyagers 1 and 2. Six J2 engines (1966) were used on the Saturn V rockets that took astronauts to the Moon between 1969 and 1972. Five of them took them through the Earth’s atmosphere and the final one was used to propel them through space. 

A piece of 3 billion year old Moon rock was on display. It was collected by astronaut David Scott on the Apollo 15 mission in 1971. 

The Soyuz TMA-19M Descent Module (2015) was again much smaller than I thought it would be and was used to transport British astronaut Tim Peake back to earth. Looking inside, the console looked more buttons and switches than computer based. What looked like paper copies of instruction manuals were strapped to a wal. The parachute used by the Soyuz capsulre was also on display.

A prototype of the LIGO beam splitter (2008) seemed smaller than expected given the extent of the physical infrastructure that had to support it. Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory splits a laser beam down two 4km tunnels and the beams can be used to detect gravitational waves. I remember seeing a Horizon TV program about this (why don’t they make programs like that anymore?). Their work in proving gravitational waves won them the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2017. 

That was the ground floor done, I headed upstairs to the first floor. 

Level 1 - Medicine

There were a couple of sections, 'Who Am I?' and ‘Technicians’ on Level 1. There wasn’t that much to interest me in their displays. 

A lot of the items on this level were dedicated to Medicine. I was quite impressed by an X-ray machine for shoe fitting (1930-1955). There were more than 3,000 of the machines in the UK, but then concerns about radiation exposure saw them withdrawn. I wondered about shoving my foot in this one to see if I’d really broken my right big toe, since I’ve still been getting a bit of pain from it now and again. 

There was quite an interesting display of human stones that had been collected between 1960-1990. I was surprised at the large size of some of the examples. Apparently their composition depends on where people live in the world, their age and gender. Its note said that stones can appear in many human body parts and are not life threatening, although they can be painful. 

A Tobacco Smoke Enema Kit from the 1700s looked like a pair of bellows with a nozzle on the end. It was thought that they could revive somebody who had nearly drowned. A number of kits were placed along the River Thames. Imagine regaining consciousness to find somebody blowing tobacco smoke ‘up yer bum!’ 

A Merman was on display. I’d last seen one of these in the Hancock Museum in Newcastle. The note said that they were popular among wealthy Europeans as prized additions to their private collections. I’m not sure I’d want one in mine. Maybe they’ve just decayed over the years. 

A bizarre item was a Bariatric Training Manikin (2017-18). The manikin re-creates the shape and weight of someone who is exceptionally overweight. They are  used to train health and emergency workers in how to physically handle obese people. 

There was an example of an Iron Lung (1953). These always seemed like nightmare machines when I saw them on TV in my childhood. They were used for people who are unable to breathe due to polio by altering the air pressure in a coffin-like box area around the body. I wondered if they still used them. 

An 1831 set of 60 miniature heads allowed phrenologists to reveal the intelligence and character of a person by the shape of a person’s skull. Amazingly, I found an exact replica of mine which indicated I was a handsome, benevolent genius. It seemed pretty accurate to me. 

That was Level 1 complete and I climbed the stairs to Level 2. 

Level 2 - Science City

I found the items in the  ‘Science City 1550-1800’ section to be very interesting. 

The 1770 King George IIIs mural arc was installed for the King at his astronomical observatory at Richmond. It was wall mounted and enabled scientific observations to be made with exceptional precision. 

William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus in 1781 from his home in Bath. An example was shown of the telescope he used. 

A 1763-1765 telescope with a micrometer was similar to the one used on Cook’s voyage. The micrometer allowed precise measurements as Venus crossed the face of the Sun.  There was also a charming mechanical model that demonstrated the transit of Venus. By turning the handle the relative positions of the Earth Venus and Sun were shown. 

The 1733 Grand Orrery showed the movements of planets and was owned by Queen Caroline, wife of King George II. It was a very large and elegant piece of machinery although I wasn’t quite sure about the purpose of the horses heads that looked out from its perimeter. 

Similarly the, 1763 Universal Microscope was made out of silver and had a man and a woman embracing near the eyepiece. It looked more a work of art than a scientific instrument. 

The 1761-1776 guinea and feather vacuum tube brought back memories of my school Physics classes. A feather and guinea would fall at the same rate once the air was removed from the jar. The note said that a young apprentice demonstrated this to King George III. The King supplied the coin, but after complimenting the performance ‘frugally returned the guinea to his waistcoat pocket.’ 

Level 2 - Mathematics And Information Age

The Mathematics and Information Age sections were a couple of my favourite areas of the museum.

Between 1985-2002, Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine was built using his design from 1847-49. This was a mechanical calculating machine that would calculate and print mathematical tables. He never actually got around to building his design. It was called the Difference Engine because it calculated the tables using the mathematical method of Finite Differences. 

The 1934 Enigma Machine was used by the Germans to send encrypted messages. They were electromechanical devices. They were used extensively in the Second World War. 

The 1818-1820 Cabinet Of Foreign Weights was held at the Royal Mint. It housed weights collected by British consuls stationed overseas. Each drawer contained standard weights from the place labelled on the front. Each set of weights was then carefully compared with the British standard. Thank goodness everyone adopted the metric system. 

An 1826 Theodolite was used in the survey of Ireland and was a beast of a machine. Surveying by triangulation must be so much easier today. 

I stumbled across the 1859  ‘England and Her Soldiers’ book by Harriet Martineau and Florence Nightingale. Nightingale was a statistician as well as a nursing reformer. She was the first female 'fellow' of the Royal Statistics Society. She pioneered statistical diagrams. The book showed at a glance the proportion of soldiers killed each month from disease. She really was the forerunner of Excel charts. 

There were plenty of mechanical machines on display that carried out mathematical calculations. The 1935 Differential Analyser was used in a variety of fields ranging from electrical power transmission to bomb production.  The 1885 Insurance Office Calculating Machine was a mechanical desktop calculating machine and used  by the Prudential. An example of an 1850s Pension Slide Rule was on display. I’m actually just old enough to remember slide rules being used to make calculations, although I never owned one myself.

Another item that I’d read about was the ‘Moniac’ machine. This was built in 1952 by the London School of Economics and was meant to model the British economy, by using the flow of water to represent money. The water flows into containers that represent metrics of different parts of the economy, such as spending, saving, taxes and international trade. The current view is  that the model is too simplistic, but it is a good education tool. 

That was Level 2 ticked and I headed upstairs to Level 3. 

Level 3 - Flight

A large section on this floor was dedicated to Wonderlab. This was an interactive gallery for 7-14 year olds ‘...to experiment and play with 50 eye-opening exhibits that help them feel like real scientists.’ Well, that’s what the Science Museum's website says. I probably couldn’t sneak in given the age criteria and so gave it a miss. The rest of the floor was dedicated to Flight. 

It was certainly dedicated to Flight too; I don’t think they could have squeezed in any more planes. There were planes on the floor and planes suspended from the ceiling. I took a tour of the area at floor level and then climbed to the elevated walkway that gave a birds eye view of the planes. It wasn’t just planes though, there were other items such as engines, a section through a 747 Jumbo jet and curious exhibit like one of the first parachutes. 

The first thing I came across was a 1996 Banshee Remotely Piloted Aircraft. It looked very much like the drones that Russia is now flying to bomb Ukraine. The Banshee was launched by a catapult and was pre-programmed to fly a certain route. They were used by arms manufacturers as targets to develop anti-aircraft missiles and gunnery systems. 

There was one of the four Rolls Royce engines used by Concorde. I was actually surprised at its small size; I was expecting something larger. 

A 1943 Rolls Royce Merlin engine used to power both the Spitfire and Hurricane fighters. The company managed to double its power output over the period of the war by using supercharging. This forced more air into the engine to boost power. 

A 1919 Vickers Vimy made history when it made a nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. It took John Alcock and Arthur Brown 16 hours 28 minutes to fly from America to Ireland. I looked at the plane and I had the same feeling as I’d had when looking at the Apollo 10 Command Module in the Space section. You just wouldn’t do it. 

I’m not sure I would have trusted my life to the 1919 Guardian Angel parachute for use by the pilots on airships. They were never officially issued for use on aeroplanes since it was difficult to store them in small cockpits. Senior officers also feared that the crew would abandon planes when they could return to base and get the plane repaired. I think I would have made every attempt to get back to base. 

There was a model of the Montgolfier balloon that took flight in 1783. It was tested using a sheep, a duck and a cockerel as passengers. 

In 1903 the Wright Flyer became the first powered, heavier-than- air aircraft to fly. It flew for 36m. Orville and Wilbur Wright based their Flyer on their earlier gliders. The one on display in the museum was a replica. 

The 1909 Roe 1 Triplane was the first all British aeroplane to fly. It looked like it was using four cricket bats as propeller blades. These early planes looked so flimsy that you’d have to have been a brave person to have a go in it. 

The 1912 Beta II Airship Car was attached to the underside of an airship. The balloon was filled with hydrogen. It just looked like a canvas canoe. It was used to escort and protect transport ships. 

In 1909 Hubert Latham attempted to fly across the English Channel in the Antoinette. After 8 miles the engine failed and he had to ditch in the sea and then was rescued. 

The SE5A Biplane was one of the fastest aircraft of World War I. After the war this aircraft was used for sky-writing displays. These attracted huge crowds and even brought New York city to a halt in amazement when its pilot, Jack Savage, wrote ‘Hello USA’ when flying overhead. 

In 1930 Amy Johnson flew ‘Jason’, her De Haviland Gipsy Moth, solo from England to Australia. It took her 19 days and spanned 11,000 miles. 

I seem to remember that Autogiros became famous in the 1970s. This was probably due to a  James Bond film featuring one. I hadn’t realised that these had been developed in the 1930s. A 1924 Cierva C30A Autogiro was suspended from the ceiling. 

Helicopters became the norm, rather than autogyros. A 1960 Saunders-Roe Skeeter Mk 12 was used by the British Army and RAF as a training and observation craft. It looked very small. 

A V1 Flying Bomb was suspended from the ceiling with its sides cut out revealing what was inside. The V stood for Vergeltungswaffe which means revenge weapon in German. 

A 1938 Hawker Hurricane MI and a 1940 Supermarine Spitfire MK 1A were suspended near to each other. The Hurricane was made of metal, wood and fabric, whereas the Spitfire was made of aluminium. The Hurricane was easier to repair and maintain. Hurricanes were deployed to intercept enemy bombers while the faster Spitfires battled the fighter squadrons. The Hurricanes were widely used and ended up destroying the greatest number of enemy aircraft. 

There was a Hawker Harrier aircraft that was able to take off and land vertically. The Rolls Royce Pegasus engine sucked in air through intakes on either side of the cockpit. This was compressed and pushed out through nozzles at the front and rear, providing the lift. 

There was about a metre wide cross section from a 747 Jumbo. I used to be a confident flyer, but I’m not so sure after seeing this cross section. It all looked so flimsy. 

Reflections

I had a marvellous time touring the exhibits in the Science Museum. There was a huge variety of items to look at and investigate. I have to admit that it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I thought it would be a museum dedicated to pure science. There were of course lots of items dedicated to that, but most of the museum was directed at how that science has been applied. The Flight level was very interesting and full of exhibits, but it seemed like a lot of museum space  was given over to items that might have been better displayed in an aeronautical museum. Probably my favourite section was the Mathematics and Information Age sections. It was interesting to see some of the mechanical calculating machines. 

It was still raining heavily outside. I had intended to walk to Kings Cross from the Science Museum, but I wasn’t going to walk all that way in this downpour. I headed for the Tube. The Science Museum had brought to an end a thoroughly enjoyable 6 day visit to London.