The Science and Industry Museum in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

, England, traces the development of science, technology and industry with emphasis on the city's achievements in these fields. The museum is part of the

Science Museum Group The Science Museum Group (SMG) consists of five British museums: * The Science Museum in South Kensington, London * The Science and Industry Museum in Manchester * The National Railway Museum in York * The Locomotion Museum (formerly the Nat ...

, a

non-departmental public body In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process o ...

of the

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport , type = Department , logo = Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport logo.svg , logo_width = , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = Gove ...

, having merged with the National Science Museum in 2012. There are extensive displays on the theme of transport (cars, railway

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the ...

s and rolling stock), power (

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as ...

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describe ...

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizatio ...

and

gas engine A gas engine is an internal combustion engine that runs on a gaseous fuel, such as coal gas, producer gas, biogas, landfill gas or natural gas. In the United Kingdom, the term is unambiguous. In the United States, due to the widespread use of ...

s), Manchester's

sewerage Sewerage (or sewage system) is the infrastructure that conveys sewage or surface runoff (stormwater, meltwater, rainwater) using sewers. It encompasses components such as receiving drainage, drains, manholes, pumping stations, storm overflows, a ...

and

sanitation Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation syste ...

textile Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, different #Fabric, fabric types, etc. At f ...

communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inqui ...

s and

computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, ...

. The museum is an Anchor Point of the

European Route of Industrial Heritage The European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH) is a tourist route of the most important industrial heritage sites in Europe. This is a tourism industry information initiative to present a network of industrial heritage sites across Europe. The ...

and is on the site of the world's first passenger railway station – Manchester Liverpool Road – which opened as part of the

Liverpool & Manchester Railway The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) was the first inter-city railway in the world. It opened on 15 September 1830 between the Lancashire towns of Liverpool and Manchester in England. It was also the first railway to rely exclusively ...

in 1830. The railway station frontage and 1830 warehouse are both

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

History

The museum was originally called the North Western Museum of Science and Industry when it opened in 1969 in temporary premises on Grosvenor Street in

Chorlton-on-Medlock Chorlton-on-Medlock or Chorlton-upon-Medlock is an inner city area of Manchester, England. Historically in Lancashire, Chorlton-on-Medlock is bordered to the north by the River Medlock, which runs immediately south of Manchester city centre ...

. It had close ties with the

University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for research. On 1 Oct ...

, having mostly grown out of the Department of History of Science & Technology, and UMIST's

Richard L. Hills Richard Leslie Hills MBE (1 September 1936 – 10 May 2019) was an English historian and clergyman who wrote extensively on the history of technology, particularly steam power. He helped to found Manchester's Science & Industry Museum, w ...

was the museum's first lecturer in charge. In 1978,

Greater Manchester Council The Greater Manchester County Council (GMCC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater Manchester from 1974 to 1986. A strategic authority, with responsibilities for roads, public transport, planning, emergency services ...

purchased the earliest part of the former Liverpool Road station from

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four (British ra ...

, which had been closed in 1975. The council paid the nominal sum of £1 for the site. The museum opened at this site on 15 September 1983 and later expanded to include the whole of the former station. Since 2007 the museum has organised an annual

science festival A science festival is a festival that showcases science and technology with the same freshness and flair that would be expected from an arts or music festival and primarily targets the general public. These public engagement events can be var ...

in Manchester. In 2014, it was announced Sally MacDonald would become the director. MacDonald left her role as head of collections at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

and succeeded Jean Franczyk as director. In July 2021, the permanent closure of the Air and Space Hall was announced. A spokeswoman has also said that the objects displayed would be returned to their original owners, and the objects owned by the museum, would later be displayed in future exhibits. The collection was dispersed over the winter of 2021-2.

Exhibitions

Exhibits at the Science and Industry Museum include:

Computing and communications

* A replica of the

Manchester Baby The Manchester Baby, also called the Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM), was the first electronic stored-program computer. It was built at the University of Manchester by Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn, and Geoff Tootill, and ran its ...

* A Connected Earth gallery that tells the history of communications in Manchester and the North West of England opened in October 2007.

Locomotives

* Ericsson's ''Novelty'' – A replica incorporating parts from the original locomotive of 1829 * British Rail Class 77 No. 27001, liveried as

Nederlandse Spoorwegen Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS; ; en, "Dutch Railways") is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands. It is a Dutch state-owned company founded in 1938. The Dutch rail network is one of the busiest in the European Union, and t ...

(Dutch Railways) No. 1505, ''Ariadne'' – A 1.5 kV DC

electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or g ...

built by

Metropolitan-Vickers Metropolitan-Vickers, Metrovick, or Metrovicks, was a British heavy electrical engineering company of the early-to-mid 20th century formerly known as British Westinghouse. Highly diversified, it was particularly well known for its industrial el ...

in 1953 *

South African Railways GL class Garratt The South African Railways Class GL 4-8-2+2-8-4 of 1929 was an articulated steam locomotive. In 1929 and 1930, the South African Railways placed eight Class GL Garratt articulated steam locomotives with a 4-8-2+2-8-4 Double Mountain type wheel ...

No. 2352 – Built in 1929 by

Beyer, Peacock & Company Beyer, Peacock and Company was an English railway locomotive manufacturer with a factory in Openshaw, Manchester. Founded by Charles Beyer, Richard Peacock and Henry Robertson, it traded from 1854 until 1966. The company exported locomotives, ...

, Manchester *

Pakistan Railways Pakistan Railways ( ur, ) is the national, state-owned railway company of Pakistan. Founded in 1861 and headquartered in Lahore, it owns of track across Pakistan, stretching from Torkham to Karachi, offering both freight and passenger se ...

4–4–0 No. 3157 (broad gauge) Originally built for

North Western Railway The North Western Railway (abbreviated NWR) is one of the 19 railway zones in India. It is headquartered at Jaipur,Rajasthan with 59,075+ employees, 658+ stations and a route length of more than 5761 km across at least some parts of four ...

of India by

Vulcan Foundry The Vulcan Foundry Limited was an English locomotive builder sited at Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire (now Merseyside). History The Vulcan Foundry opened in 1832, as Charles Tayleur and Company to produce girders for bridges, switches, crossin ...

, Newton-le-Willows (around 1911–1914).

Former galleries

Previous permanent exhibition galleries which have now been decommissioned include: * Electricity Gallery - generation, distribution and use of electricity * Gas Gallery - past to present look at the gas industry * Underground Manchester - sanitation and water supply * A space-themed gallery, with exhibits encompassing historical space flight, space science and also science-fiction, formerly took up the majority of the upper balcony of the Air and Space hall. This was eventually considered outdated and removed in its entirety.

Some past exhibitions

Body Worlds ''Body Worlds'' (German title: ''Körperwelten'') is a traveling exposition of dissected human bodies, animals, and other anatomical structures of the body that have been preserved through the process of plastination. Gunther von Hagens develop ...

4 between 22 February and 29 June 2008 * LMR 57 Lion Britain's oldest steamable locomotive (in the

Museum of Liverpool The Museum of Liverpool in Liverpool, England, tells the story of Liverpool and its people, and reflects the city's global significance. It opened 2011 as newest addition to the National Museums Liverpool group replacing the former Museum of ...

since 2007) * Stephenson's ''Rocket'' – from 25 September 2018 to 8 September 2019

Railway

Until 2018, demonstration passenger trains ran within the museum grounds on selected dates. Trains were hauled by the museum's two operational steam locomotives: *''Planet'' – A replica of

Robert Stephenson & Company Robert Stephenson and Company was a locomotive manufacturing company founded in 1823 in Forth Street, Newcastle upon Tyne in England. It was the first company in the world created specifically to build railway engines. Famous early locomoti ...

Planet A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a you ...

class locomotive, built by the Friends of the Museum of Science and Industry in 1992. The original locomotive was constructed in 1830 and hauled trains on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. *''Agecroft No. 1'' – An 0–4–0 saddle tank built by

Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns Ltd (RSH) was a locomotive builder with works in North East England. History The company was formed in September 1937 when Robert Stephenson and Company, which was based in Darlington, took over the locomotive ...

in 1948 for use at

Agecroft Power Station Agecroft power station was a coal-fired power station between the eastern bank of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal and the western bank of the River Irwell at Pendlebury, near Manchester, England. It operated between 1925 and 1993, and ...

. Restored to working order in 2011. The museum's railway line was formerly connected to the national rail network near Ordsall Lane Junction. However, construction by

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's len ...

of the

Ordsall Chord Ordsall Chord, also known as the Castlefield Curve, is a short railway line in Ordsall, Salford, England, which links and Manchester Oxford Road to , designed to increase capacity and reduce journey times into and through Manchester. It allow ...

railway link, which was completed in 2017, severed this connection and significantly shortened the museum's running line despite a legal battle to save it. As of 2019, railway operations at the museum were suspended indefinitely.

Industrial machines

Ring spinning frame MOSI Textile Hall 6412

The museum exhibits the large collection of stationary steam engines,

hot air engine A hot air engine (historically called an air engine or caloric engine) is any heat engine that uses the expansion and contraction of air under the influence of a temperature change to convert thermal energy into mechanical work. These engine ...

s, diesel engines,

hydraulic pump Hydraulic pumps are used in hydraulic drive systems and can be hydrostatic or hydrodynamic. A hydraulic pump is a mechanical source of power that converts mechanical power into hydraulic energy ( hydrostatic energy i.e. flow, pressure). It genera ...

s, large electric generators and other similar machines. Most of these machines are operational and occasionally can be seen running. This exhibit includes the last stationary steam engine built to power a mill. There is also the exhibit of spinning and weaving machines, covering all the steps from wool to textile. These machines are run for a few minutes at scheduled times.

Adjacent St John's Quarter

The museum is adjacent to a £1 billion redevelopment area on the former site of

Granada Studios Old Granada Studios (known simply as Granada Studios and previously known as The Manchester Studios) is a television studio complex and events venue on Quay Street in Manchester with the facility to broadcast live and recorded television programm ...

. Work on the area, which will be known as St John's Quarter, is expected to be completed by 2022. The

Manchester International Festival The Manchester International Festival is a biennial international arts festival, with a specific focus on original new work, held in the English city of Manchester and run by Factory International. The festival is a biennial event, first tak ...

's new Factory venue is set to open alongside the MSI at the end of 2019 as part of the redevelopment.Pdf.
/ref> The MSI have been granted planning permission to build a new Special Exhibition Gallery on the ground floor of the New Warehouse. Architectural firm Carmody Groarke won a competition to design the new gallery which is set to be complete by October 2020. In July 2016 the council stated that, along with development partner

Allied London Allied London is a property development and investment company that develops landmark projects ranging from re-use to regeneration developments across retail, commercial, office, residential, restaurant, and leisure sectors. The company also offer ...

, they had been in talks with the MSI "exploring how the presence of Factory opens up new possibilities for revitalising the whole area below

Deansgate Deansgate is a main road (part of the A56) through Manchester City Centre, England. It runs roughly north–south in a near straight route through the western part of the city centre and is the longest road in the city centre at over one mile ...

as a creative hub, with a joined up and extensive public realm. MSI's own developments plans are being aligned with this creative vision and the museum itself will become part of the creative public realm, with MSI's creative science offer balancing the creative and cultural production of Factory."

References

External links

Official Website

List of Aero collection
Entry
in

24 Hour Museum Culture24, originally the 24 Hour Museum, is a British charity which publishes websites, ''Culture24'', ''Museum Crush'' and ''Show Me'', about visual culture and heritage in the United Kingdom, as well as supplying data and support services to ...

{{authority control Museums in Manchester European Route of Industrial Heritage Anchor Points Museums sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport History museums in Greater Manchester Science museums in England Technology museums in the United Kingdom Industry museums in England Transport museums in England 1983 establishments in England Science Museum Group