On the evening of Thursday 7th July 2005 there will be a reception at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester (which, as can be seen from the map is centrally located). Details of one of the main exhibits is given below.
The gallery opened on 1 April 2004. It was the first at the Museum to be designed by an external design company, Land Design of London, and they used an external content developer, Tim Gardom Associates. It is structured with a timeline wall, four 'holodecks' with detailed displays on four of Manchester's most important scientists and a display on science today and tomorrow. The holodecks cover John Dalton, James Joule, Sir Ernest Rutherford and Sir Bernard Lovell. The intended audience for the gallery was families and school groups. A family tour has been developed to encourage families with young children to use the gallery.
The gallery has two entrances, the main one at the central end of the Main Building and the other at the lift tower. It begins with a display going back in time to 1800, looking at how science has been presented in the local and national media. This consists of graphics, object cases visible from both sides of the timeline wall, and audio-visual media. Significant objects include the surgical instruments used at the Manchester Babies' Hospital and the microscopes used by Dr Kathleen Drew-Baker in her research on edible seaweed at Manchester University's Botany Department (which led to her becoming very well-known in Japan). There are also three large objects: a mass spectrometer made by Micromass of Wythenshawe, an electron microscope made by Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) of Trafford Park and a laboratory bench used at the Manchester Technical School (the forerunner of UMIST) when it opened in 1901. At the end of this timeline, the gallery includes a small display giving the visitor an idea of what Manchester was like in 1800, featuring an art exhibit by Jennifer Collier.
The reverse side of the timeline looks at other scientific work which has taken place in Manchester and puts it in a national and international context. It features additional object cases of scientific equipment and instruments made or used locally. Significant items include a barometer made by Baptist Ronchetti in 1790, soon after his arrival in Manchester from the Como region of Italy, and some fabric samples in a pull-out drawer dyed with ICI dyes made in Blackley.
The first holodeck looks at the life and work of John Dalton, who announced his atomic theory in 1803 and is regarded as the father of modern chemistry. He was a Quaker, from a poor family in Cumbria, and came to Manchester to teach science. He became a famous celebrity in his lifetime; 40,000 people watched his funeral procession. The display looks at his work and its impact on our lives today, and includes his cradle, the cover stone from his grave and most of his surviving apparatus.
The next holodeck introduces James Joule, the son of a wealthy Salford brewer, who worked on the relationship between heat and mechanical work from 1845. He concluded that they were both different forms of energy and overturned current ideas on heat. He continued to work on his theory for the next 30 years before the scientific community accepted his ideas. The display includes instruments made by John B Dancer, one of Manchester's most important scientific instrument makers, who made microscopes and thermometers for Joule. It also includes a representative selection of Joule's apparatus; more of the collection can be seen in the Collections Centre.
The next holodeck looks at the life and work of Sir Ernest Rutherford, born in New Zealand, who came to the Victoria University of Manchester having worked in Cambridge and Montreal. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work at Montreal, published a new theory on the structure of the atom and succeeded in splitting the atom in 1917. He built up a team of scientists from across Europe, some of whom went on to become Nobel Prizewinners in their own right. The display includes a chemical balance used by Henry Moseley with Rutherford, for work on atomic weights, and a replica of the apparatus Rutherford used to split the atom.
The final holodeck introduces Sir Bernard Lovell, born near Bristol, who came to the University of Manchester to research cosmic rays. During the Second World War, he worked in radar aircraft detection and later was responsible for setting up the Jodrell Bank radio telescope in the 1950s. The project went way over budget but being the only instrument capable of tracking the Soviet satellite 'Sputnik' in 1957 saved the telescope. In 1966, the telescope was in the news again as it transmitted radio signals from the Luna 9 space module. The display includes the silver salver which carried the Freedom of the City of Manchester, conferred on Sir Bernard in 1977.
This section of the gallery is devoted to exhibiting the science happening now in Manchester's universities and companies. The display will be changed roughly yearly to keep it up to date. It consists of objects related to the scientific research, small graphic panels and video screens showing the scientists talking about their work. It also includes postcards on which visitors are invited to write their thoughts on current issues in science. Josh Phillips, the Science Communication Officer, filters these and puts them up on the display by the gallery entrance.
Last modified: 24th May 2005
