The Discovery Museum is a

science museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...

and local history museum situated in Blandford Square in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It displays many exhibits of local history, including the ship, ''

Turbinia ''Turbinia'' was the first steam turbine-powered steamship. Built as an experimental vessel in 1894, and easily the fastest ship in the world at that time, ''Turbinia'' was demonstrated dramatically at the Spithead Navy Review in 1897 and set ...

''. It is managed by

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM) is a regional group of United Kingdom national museums and the county archives service located across the Tyne and Wear area of north-east England. They have been administered by a joint board of local authori ...

History

The Discovery Museum started life in 1934 as the Municipal Museum of Science and Industry. The collections were housed in a temporary pavilion built for the 1929

North East Coast Exhibition The North East Coast Exhibition was a world's fair held in Newcastle, Tyne and Wear and ran from May to October 1929. Held five years after the British Empire Exhibition in Wembley Park, London, and at the start of the Great Depression the event w ...

Exhibition Park, Newcastle Exhibition Park is a public park connected to the south-eastern corner of the Town Moor, Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The park is home to numerous facilities including sports areas, a boating lake, playgrounds and a skatepark. History The ...

. The collections and displays grew for another forty years, until the temporary pavilion could no longer meet the museum's needs. In 1978, the museum was re-located to ''Blandford House'', the former

Co-operative Wholesale Society A co-operative wholesale society, or CWS, is a form of co-operative federation (that is, a co-operative in which all the members are co-operatives), in this case, the members are usually consumer cooperatives. According to co-operative economi ...

Headquarters for the Northern Region. Designed by Oliver, Leeson & Wood in 1899, the building had been the distribution centre for over 100 Co-op stores across the region, and contained extensive warehouse space and offices. The museum was re-launched as Discovery Museum in 1993 at which time the ''Turbinia'' was moved from Exhibition Park. In 2004 the £13 million redevelopment of the museum was complete and the following year the venue attracted 450,000 visitors.

Exhibits

The museum includes ''

'', the ship built by

Charles Algernon Parsons Sir Charles Algernon Parsons, (13 June 1854 – 11 February 1931) was an Anglo-Irish engineer, best known for his invention of the compound steam turbine, and as the eponym of C. A. Parsons and Company. He worked as an engineer on dy ...

to test the advantages of using the

steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...

to power ships, which could go up to . It houses the

regimental museum In countries whose armies are organised on a regimental basis, such as the British Army, army of the United Kingdom, a regimental museum is a :Military and war museums, military museum dedicated to the history of a specific army regiment. List of ...

for the

Light Dragoons The Light Dragoons (LD) is a cavalry regiment in the British Army. The regiment has a light cavalry role and specialises in mounted and dismounted reconnaissance. The Light Dragoons recruit mainly in Northern England, from the counties of Northu ...

(and its antecedent regiments) and the

Northumberland Hussars The Northumberland Hussars was a Yeomanry regiment of the British Army, transferred to the Royal Artillery for the duration of the Second World War. It was disbanded as an independent Territorial Army unit in 1967, a time when the strength of t ...

, exploring the human side of 200 years of life in the army. It is a "hands-on" museum designed to interest both children and adults. It also features examples of

Joseph Swan Sir Joseph Wilson Swan FRS (31 October 1828 – 27 May 1914) was an English physicist, chemist, and inventor. He is known as an independent early developer of a successful incandescent light bulb, and is the person responsible for develop ...

's early

lightbulbs An electric light, lamp, or light bulb is an electrical component that produces light. It is the most common form of artificial lighting. Lamps usually have a base made of ceramic, metal, glass, or plastic, which secures the lamp in the soc ...

which were invented on Tyneside.

References

External links

Discovery Museum website
{{Authority control Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums Science museums in England Regimental museums in England Museums in Newcastle upon Tyne Local museums in Tyne and Wear Industry museums in England Museums established in 1934 1934 establishments in England Science and technology in Tyne and Wear History of Newcastle upon Tyne