47-644: The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington , London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United Kingdom, the Science Museum does not charge visitors for admission, although visitors are requested to make a donation if they are able. Temporary exhibitions may incur an admission fee. It
94-562: A cross-section of a Boeing 747 . It opened in 1963 and was refurbished in the 1990s. Power Up is an interactive gaming gallery showcasing the history of video games and consoles from the past 50 years. Visitors can play on over 150 consoles, featuring consoles from the Binatone TV Master to the Play Station 5 . The Tomorrow's World gallery hosts topical science stories and free exhibitions including: The IMAX: The Ronson Theatre
141-419: A global hub for trade, commerce and scientific enquiry. The Mathematics: The Winton Gallery examines the role that mathematicians have had in building our modern world. In the landing area to access the gallery (stair C) is a working example of Charles Babbage 's Difference engine No.2. This was built by the Science Museum and its main part completed in 1991, to celebrate 200 years since Babbage's birth, and
188-407: A number of serious technical limitations. Running on cast-iron wagonway plates, its eight-ton weight was too heavy and broke them, encouraging opponents of locomotive traction to criticise the innovation. This problem was alleviated by redesigning the engine with four axles so that the weight was spread more evenly. The engine was eventually rebuilt as a four-wheeler when improved edge rails track
235-417: A scientific twist". Up to 380 children aged between 7 and 11, accompanied by adults, are invited to spend an evening performing fun "science based" activities and then spend the night sleeping in the museum galleries amongst the exhibits. In the morning, they're woken to breakfast and more science, watching a show before the end of the event. On the evening of the last Wednesday of every month (except December)
282-634: A short UK tour, since 2019 Rocket is on permanent display at the National Railway Museum in York, in the Art Gallery. The Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries is a five-gallery medical exhibition which spans ancient history to modern times with over 3000 exhibits and specially commissioned artworks. Many of the objects on display come from the Wellcome Collection started by Henry Wellcome . One of
329-405: Is a recreation of James Watt's garret workshop from his home, Heathfield Hall , using over 8,300 objects removed from the room, which was sealed after his 1819 death, when the hall was demolished in 1927. Exploring Space is a historical gallery, filled with rockets and exhibits that tell the story of human space exploration and the benefits that space exploration has brought us (particularly in
376-682: Is accessed by walking through the Energy Hall, Exploring Space and then the Making the Modern World galleries (see below) at ground floor level. The Energy Hall is the first area that most visitors see as they enter the building. On the ground floor, the gallery contains a variety of steam engines , including the oldest surviving James Watt beam engine , which together tell the story of the British Industrial Revolution . Also on display
423-559: Is an IMAX cinema which shows educational films (most in 3-D), as well as blockbusters and live events. It features a screen measuring 24.3 by 16.8 metres, with both a dual IMAX with Laser projection system and a traditional IMAX 15/70mm film projector, and an IMAX 12-channel sound system. Visitors to the Who Am I? gallery can explore the science of who they are through intriguing objects, provocative artworks and hands-on exhibits. Energy Revolution: The Adani Green Energy Gallery explores how
470-547: Is displayed in this gallery. Doug Millard, space historian and curator of space technology at the museum, states: "We got to the Moon using V-2 technology but this was technology that was developed with massive resources, including some particularly grim ones. The V-2 programme was hugely expensive in terms of lives, with the Nazis using slave labour to manufacture these rockets". Stephenson's Rocket used to be displayed in this gallery. After
517-401: Is mention of "another steam locomotive at Newcastle, employed for a similar purpose [hauling coals], and moving along without any rack wheel, simply by its friction against the rail road". From the context, this is at a different location to Blücher , so is probably Puffing Billy . Puffing Billy remained in service until 1862, when Edward Blackett , the owner of Wylam Colliery, lent it to
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#1732858857584564-506: Is not 'greenwash'". There have been protests against the sponsorship; in May 2021, a group calling themselves 'Scientists for XR' ( Extinction Rebellion ) locked themselves to a mechanical tree inside the museum. The UK Student Climate Network carried out an overnight occupation in June 2021, and were threatened with arrest. In August 2021, members of Extinction Rebellion held a protest inside and outside
611-740: Is one of the five museums in the Science Museum Group . The museum was founded in 1857 under Bennet Woodcroft from the collection of the Royal Society of Arts and surplus items from the Great Exhibition as part of the South Kensington Museum , together with what is now the Victoria and Albert Museum . It included a collection of machinery which became the Museum of Patents in 1858, and
658-615: Is one of the funding partners of the museum's STEM Training Academy. Equinor's sponsorship of the Wonderlab exhibit was on the basis that the Science Museum would not make any statement to damage the oil firm's reputation. Shell has influenced how the museum presents climate change in its programme sponsored by the oil company. The museum has signed a gagging clause in its agreement with Shell not to "make any statement or issue any publicity or otherwise be involved in any conduct or matter that may reasonably be foreseen as discrediting or damaging
705-676: Is questioned, his 1804 locomotive ran near the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil , South Wales successfully enough to haul five wagons of iron for nine miles, winning a wager. Its excessive weight cracked the iron rails, rendering it impractical, and steam locomotives were not adopted at the time. In 1810, the Durham Coalfield was disrupted by a major strike over the Bond system. During this time Christopher Blackett , owner of
752-602: The National Collections Centre , at the Science Museum Wroughton, in Wiltshire. The Science Museum has a dedicated library, and until the 1960s was Britain's National Library for Science, Medicine and Technology. It holds runs of periodicals, early books and manuscripts, and is used by scholars worldwide. It was, for a number of years, run in conjunction with the library of Imperial College , but in 2007
799-780: The Patent Office Museum in 1863. This collection contained many of the most famous exhibits of what is now the Science Museum. In 1883, the contents of the Patent Office Museum were transferred to the South Kensington Museum. In 1885, the Science Collections were renamed the Science Museum and in 1893 a separate director was appointed. The Art Collections were renamed the Art Museum , which eventually became
846-565: The Wylam Colliery , took advantage of the pit's idleness to experiment with the idea of a locomotive-hauled tramway worked purely by adhesion , rather than the Blenkinsop rack system that would be used on the Middleton . These began with a simple hand-cranked wagon, converted from a coal wagon chassis with the addition of a central drive shaft and geared drives to the axles. As this experiment
893-578: The Patent Office Museum in South Kensington , London (later the Science Museum ). He later sold it to the museum for £200. It is still on display there. Its sister locomotive, Wylam Dilly , is preserved in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. Two replicas exist: one, built in a Royal Bavarian State Railways workshop in 1906, is at the German Museum , Munich; the other, at Beamish Museum ,
940-549: The Science Museum Group) which oversees the Science Museum and other related museums, from 2002: Exhibition Road Exhibition Road is a street in South Kensington , London which is home to several major museums and academic establishments, including the Victoria and Albert Museum , the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum . The road gets its name from the Great Exhibition of 1851, which
987-474: The Science Museum, as an independent entity, came into existence. The Science Museum's present quarters, designed by Sir Richard Allison , were opened to the public in stages over the period 1919–28. This building was known as the East Block, construction of which began in 1913 and was temporarily halted by World War I . As the name suggests it was intended to be the first building of a much larger project, which
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#17328588575841034-589: The Victoria and Albert Museum. When Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone for the new building for the Art Museum, she stipulated that the museum be renamed after herself and her late husband . This was initially applied to the whole museum, but when that new building finally opened ten years later, the title was confined to the Art Collections and the Science Collections had to be divorced from it. On 26 June 1909
1081-405: The boiler had a single straight flue or a return flue . It may have been nicknamed Grasshopper . The 'travelling engine' was successful as a prototype, but underpowered and prone to stalling when overloaded or faced by a gradient. It was however convincing enough as a demonstration to encourage Blackett to fund further locomotives. Puffing Billy was one of three similar engines built by Hedley,
1128-557: The commissioned artworks is a large bronze sculpture of Rick Genest titled Self-Conscious Gene by Marc Quinn . The galleries occupy the museum's entire first floor and opened on 16 November 2019. The Clockmakers Museum is the world's oldest clock and watch museum which was originally assembled by the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers in London's Guildhall . The Science City 1550–1800: The Linbury Gallery shows how London grew to be
1175-516: The first five chapters cover the history of the museum from the Brompton Boilers in the 1860s to the opening of the Wellcome Wing in 2000. The remaining eight chapters cover a variety of themes concerning the museum's development. The Science Museum consists of two buildings – the main building and the Wellcome Wing. Visitors enter the main building from Exhibition Road, while the Wellcome Wing
1222-508: The goodwill or reputation" of Shell. The museum signed a sponsorship contract with the Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor which contained a gagging clause, stating the museum would not say anything that could damage the fossil fuel company's reputation. The museum's director, Ian Blatchford , defended the museum's sponsorship policy, saying: "Even if the Science Museum were lavishly publicly funded I would still want to have sponsorship from
1269-663: The library was divided over two sites. Histories of science and biographies of scientists were kept at the Imperial College Library until February 2014 when the arrangement was terminated, the shelves were cleared and the books and journals shipped out, joining the rest of the collection, which includes original scientific works and archives at the National Collections Centre. Dana Research Centre and Library previously an event space and cafe, reopened in its current form in 2015. Open to researchers and members of
1316-578: The most popular galleries in the museum is the interactive Wonderlab:The Equinor Gallery , formerly called Launchpad . The gallery is staffed by Explainers who demonstrate how exhibits work, conduct live experiments and perform shows to schools and the visiting public. The Flight gallery charts the development of flight in the 20th century. Contained in the gallery are several full sized aeroplanes and helicopters , including Alcock and Brown 's transatlantic Vickers Vimy (1919), Spitfire and Hurricane fighters, as well as numerous aero-engines and
1363-598: The museum organises an adults only evening with up to 30 events, from lectures to silent discos. Previous Lates have seen conversations with the actress activist Lily Cole and Biorevolutions with the Francis Crick Institute which attracted around 7000 people, mostly under the age of 35. In October 2007, the Science Museum cancelled a talk by the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, James D. Watson , because he claimed that IQ test results showed black people to have lower intelligence than white people. The decision
1410-510: The museum promising to boycott it following sponsorship of the museum's Energy Revolution exhibition by the coal mining company Adani . The directors of the South Kensington Museum were: The directors of the Science Museum have been: The following have been head/director of the Science Museum in London, not including its satellite museums: The following have been directors of the National Museum of Science and Industry , (since April 2012 renamed
1457-414: The museum with a 12 ft (3.7 m) pink dodo. In 2021, Chris Rapley, a climate scientist, resigned from the museum's advisory board because of oil and gas company sponsorship. In 2021, more than 40 senior academics and scientists said they would not work with the Science Museum due to its financial relationships with the fossil fuel industry. In 2022, more than 400 teachers signed an open letter to
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1504-531: The official centenary history of the Science Museum on 14 April 2010. The first complete history of the Science Museum since 1957, Science for the Nation: Perspectives on the History of the Science Museum is a series of individual views by Science Museum staff and external academic historians of different aspects of the Science Museum's history. While it is not a chronological history in the conventional sense,
1551-525: The oil companies." Scientists for Global Responsibility called the museum's move "staggeringly out-of-step and irresponsible". Some presenters, including George Monbiot , pulled out of climate talks on finding they were sponsored by BP and the Norwegian oil company Equinor . Bob Ward of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment said the "carbon capture exhibition
1598-456: The owner of Wylam Colliery near Newcastle upon Tyne , in the United Kingdom. It was employed to haul coal chaldron wagons from the mine at Wylam to the docks at Lemington in Northumberland . The first steam-powered locomotive on rails was built by Richard Trevithick in either 1802 or 1804. He built several locomotives, and although the success of his 1802 locomotive at Coalbrookdale
1645-438: The public, it allows free access to almost 7,000 volumes, which can be consulted on site. The Science Museum has been sponsored by major organisations including Shell , BP , Samsung and GlaxoSmithKline . Some have been controversial. The museum declined to give details of how much it receives from oil and gas sponsors. Equinor is also the title sponsor of "Wonderlab: The Equinor Gallery", an exhibition for children, while BP
1692-653: The resident engineer at Wylam Colliery, to replace the horses used as motive power on the tramway. In 1813, Hedley built for Blackett's colliery business on the Wylam Colliery line the prototypes, Puffing Billy and Wylam Dilly . They were both rebuilt in 1815 with ten wheels, but were returned to their original condition in 1830 when the railway was relaid with stronger rails. In the September 1814 edition of Annals of Philosophy two locomotives with rack wheels are mentioned (probably Salamanca and Blücher ), then there
1739-491: The revised streetscape, its design has been criticised for increasing the accident rate in the locale, with reported conflict between motor vehicles and pedestrians due to the unified surface design across Exhibition Road. Puffing Billy (locomotive) Puffing Billy is the world's oldest surviving steam locomotive , constructed in 1813–1814 by colliery viewer William Hedley , enginewright Jonathan Forster and blacksmith Timothy Hackworth for Christopher Blackett ,
1786-742: The world can generate and use energy more sustainably to urgently reduce carbon dioxide emissions from global energy systems and limit the impact of climate change. The museum has some dedicated spaces for temporary exhibitions (both free and paid-for) and displays, on Level -1 (Basement Gallery), Level 0 (inside the Exploring Space Gallery and Tomorrow's World), Level 1 (Special Exhibition Gallery 1) and Level 2 (Special Exhibition Gallery 2 and The Studio). Most of these travel to other Science Museum Group sites, as well as nationally and internationally. Past exhibitions have included: The Science Museum organises Astronights , "all-night extravaganza with
1833-468: The world of telecommunications). Making the Modern World displays some of the museum's most remarkable objects, including Puffing Billy (the oldest surviving steam locomotive), Crick's double helix , and the command module from the Apollo 10 mission, which are displayed along a timeline chronicling man's technological achievements. A V-2 rocket , designed by German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun ,
1880-544: Was criticised by some scientists, including Richard Dawkins , but supported by other scientists, including Steven Rose . The museum has undergone many changes in its history with older galleries being replaced by new ones. Blythe House, 1979–2019, the museum's former storage facility in West Kensington , while not a gallery, it offered tours of the collections housed there. Objects formerly housed there are being transferred to
1927-487: Was designed by Zaha Hadid Architects . The Information Age gallery has exhibits covering the development of communications and computing over the last two centuries. It explores the six networks that have transformed global communications: The Cable, The Telephone Exchange, Broadcast, The Constellation, The Cell and The Web It was opened on 24 October 2014 by the Queen, Elizabeth II , who sent her first tweet from here. One of
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1974-405: Was first run in 2006. Puffing Billy incorporated a number of novel features, patented by Hedley, which were to prove important to the development of locomotives. It had two vertical cylinders, one on either side of the boiler, and partly enclosed by it, and drove a single crankshaft beneath the frames, from which gears drove and also coupled the wheels allowing better traction. The engine had
2021-501: Was held just inside Hyde Park at the northern end of the road. After the central road in the area, Queen's Gate , it is the second thoroughfare in what was once Albertopolis . It provides access to many nationally significant institutions, including: A design competition for plans of how to improve the street's design to reflect its cultural importance was held in 2003 by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea . The competition
2068-460: Was introduced around 1830. It was not particularly fast, being capable of no more than 5 mph (8 km/h). Puffing Billy was an important influence on George Stephenson , who lived locally, and its success was a key factor in promoting the use of steam locomotives by other collieries in north-eastern England. It has been suggested that Puffing Billy' s name survives in the English language in
2115-581: Was never realized. However, the museum buildings were expanded over the following years; a pioneering Children's Gallery with interactive exhibits opened in 1931, the Centre Block was completed in 1961–3, the infill of the East Block and the construction of the Lower & Upper Wellcome Galleries in 1980, and the construction of the Wellcome Wing in 2000 result in the museum now extending to Queen's Gate . The leading academic publisher, Palgrave Macmillan, published
2162-407: Was successful, by 1812 it was followed by Wylam's first prototype 'travelling engine', worked by steam. This was based on a combination of the test wagon, with a single cylinder engine and boiler atop it. Little is known of the design, although it has been said to have been inspired by Trevithick's Pen-y-darren locomotive. It is unclear whether the single cylinder was vertical or horizontal, and whether
2209-400: Was won by the architectural firm Dixon Jones for a shared space scheme for the road and surrounding streets which would give pedestrians greater priority whilst still allow some vehicular traffic at a reduced speed. The project also aimed to improve the artistic and architectural merit of the streetscape. The scheme was completed ahead of the 2012 London Olympics . Since the completion of
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