The Rahmi M. Koç Museum is a private industrial

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

dedicated to the history of transport, industry and communications. Rahmi M. Koç, member of the wealthiest dynasty in Turkey and retired chairman (currently the honorary chairman) of the Koç Group, founded the museum in 1991, which was opened on December 13, 1994. The museum is located in the suburb of

Hasköy Hasköy may refer to the following places in Turkey: * Hasköy, Istanbul, a quarter or neighborhood of the district of Beyoğlu in Istanbul * Hasköy, Ardahan, a village in the district of Ardahan, Ardahan Province * Hasköy, Çınar * Hasköy, ...

on the northern shore of the

Golden Horn The Golden Horn ( tr, Altın Boynuz or ''Haliç''; grc, Χρυσόκερας, ''Chrysókeras''; la, Sinus Ceratinus) is a major urban waterway and the primary inlet of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey. As a natural estuary that connects with t ...

and situated in two historical buildings connected to each other. It is open to public every day except Monday. The museum's general manager is Ertuğrul Duru. A sister museum, but smaller in size, the Çengelhan Rahmi M. Koç Museum opened its doors in

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

in 2005, followed by a third Rahmi M. Koç Museum on Cunda Island in 2014.

History

A visit of Rahmi Koç to the

Henry Ford Museum The Henry Ford (also known as the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village, and as the Edison Institute) is a history museum complex in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan, United States. The museum collection contains ...

in Dearborn, Michigan, United States inspired him to create this museum. The Koç Foundation bought the first museum building in 1991, which was left derelict and seriously damaged after a roof fire in 1984. This building (in Turkish: ''Lengerhane''), was initially used for casting anchors and chains for the Ottoman Navy, during the rule of Sultan Ahmed III (1703–1730). It was restored during the reign of Selim III (1789–1807) before passing into the ownership of the Ministry of Finance in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. During the Republican era, the State Monopoly and Tobacco Co. then used the building as a warehouse until 1951. The Koç Foundation spent two and a half years for the restoration work of this Class II category historical monument. In July 2001, the museum opened a new building to improve the display of its collection of industrial and scientific artifacts. This new section was a disused historical

dockyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance ...

, founded in 1861 by the Ottoman maritime company Şirket-i Hayriye for the maintenance and reparation works of its own ships. The Koç Foundation bought the building in 1996. The two buildings are on the same road, on opposite sides: the dockyard part of the complex is on the shores of the Golden Horn. A glass-sided ramp leads down to the basement exhibition area of the Lengerhane.

Exhibits

Permanent exhibitions

Most of the items exhibited in the museum are selected from Rahmi Koç's private collection. Other objects are either borrowed from or donated by various organizations and individuals. Original machines and their replicas, scientific and mechanical items make up the basis of the museum's exhibits. * Road transport: Racing cars, sports cars (between 1953 and 1986), sedan/coupé and convertible cars (1898–1994), utility vehicles (1911–1963), commercial vehicles (1908–2002), motorcycles (1908–2003), *

Rail transport Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...

: Old Istanbul tram (1934), Sultan’s carriage (1867), steam engine locomotive (1913), narrow-gauge steam locomotive (1930), Istanbul

Tünel The Tünel ( en, Tunnel, designated as the F2 line on the Istanbul transport map) is a historic underground funicular line in Istanbul, Turkey. It has two stations, connecting Karaköy and Beyoğlu. The tunnel runs uphill from near the conflue ...

carriage (1876), Henschel steam locomotive (1918), * Marine: Cargo vessel, motorboat,

lifeboat Lifeboat may refer to: Rescue vessels * Lifeboat (shipboard), a small craft aboard a ship to allow for emergency escape * Lifeboat (rescue), a boat designed for sea rescues * Airborne lifeboat, an air-dropped boat used to save downed airmen ...

(1951), Bosphorus passenger ferryboat, outboard motor collection, amphibious car (1961), submarine (1944): TCG ''Uluçalireis'' (S 338) (former USS ''Thornback'' (SS-418)), ''Kısmet'', Sadun Boro's sloop, he circumnavigated the globe with it as the first ever Turkish sailor, *

Aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot a ...

Aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engine ...

(1941–1979), aviation parts collection, aircraft engines (1928–1979), large and small-scale aircraft models, *

Engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

: Ferry boat steam engine (1911), olive oil factory, portable stationary steam engine (1872), gas engine, wood saw, marine compound steam engine (1900), *

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: Rotary dial telephone (1920), phonograph (1903),

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...

telegraph patent model (1876), valve amplifier (1936),

zoetrope A zoetrope is one of several pre-film animation devices that produce the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of that motion. It was basically a cylindrical variation of the phénak ...

(1835), *

Scientific instruments A scientific instrument is a device or tool used for scientific purposes, including the study of both natural phenomena and theoretical research. History Historically, the definition of a scientific instrument has varied, based on usage, laws, an ...

Wimshurst machine The Wimshurst influence machine is an electrostatic generator, a machine for generating high voltages developed between 1880 and 1883 by British inventor James Wimshurst (1832–1903). It has a distinctive appearance with two large contra-ro ...

, grand

orrery An orrery is a mechanical model of the Solar System that illustrates or predicts the relative positions and motions of the planets and moons, usually according to the heliocentric model. It may also represent the relative sizes of these bodies ...

marine chronometer A marine chronometer is a precision timepiece that is carried on a ship and employed in the determination of the ship's position by celestial navigation. It is used to determine longitude by comparing Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), or in the modern ...

, Strasbourg turret clock, * Models and toys: Hands-on: Cutaway car, aeroplane, scientific experiments and cutaway domestic goods.

Temporary exhibitions

* "Leonardo, the universal genius" was the title of the first ever temporary exhibition featuring a collection of 40 full-sized artworks, all created from the original drawings made by

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...

. The reproductions of the machines are envisaged in the famous "''

Codex Leicester __NOTOC__ The Codex Leicester (also briefly known as the Codex Hammer) is a collection of scientific writings by Leonardo da Vinci. The Codex is named after Thomas Coke, who purchased it in 1717; he later became the Earl of Leicester. The manu ...

''", a collection of largely scientific manuscripts of Leonardo written between 1478 and 1513. The exhibits were grouped in five broad categories:

Mechanism Mechanism may refer to: * Mechanism (engineering), rigid bodies connected by joints in order to accomplish a desired force and/or motion transmission *Mechanism (biology), explaining how a feature is created *Mechanism (philosophy), a theory that ...

s and the four ancient elements of nature:

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

Water Water (chemical formula ) is an Inorganic compound, inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living ...

Air The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing f ...

and

Fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames a ...

. The "Mechanisms" section included inventions pertaining to everyday life such as

gear A gear is a rotating circular machine part having cut teeth or, in the case of a cogwheel or gearwheel, inserted teeth (called ''cogs''), which mesh with another (compatible) toothed part to transmit (convert) torque and speed. The basic ...

s and lifting systems. A

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...

and

robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may ...

design were displayed at the "Earth" section. At the "Air" section, parachutes and flying machines like the

ornithopter An ornithopter (from Greek ''ornis, ornith-'' "bird" and ''pteron'' "wing") is an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings. Designers sought to imitate the flapping-wing flight of birds, bats, and insects. Though machines may differ in form, ...

bicycle were on display. The "Fire" section displayed machines of war,

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

s and

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) ar ...

s; while water-related inventions such as

Archimedes' screw The Archimedes screw, also known as the Archimedean screw, hydrodynamic screw, water screw or Egyptian screw, is one of the earliest hydraulic machines. Using Archimedes screws as water pumps (Archimedes screw pump (ASP) or screw pump) dates back ...

made up the "Water" section. All displays were in functioning condition, and the majority could be operated by the visitors themselves, making the interactive exhibition cultural, educational, and also fun. The show was held from November 1 to December 31, 2006. A few items were also on show at the Çengelhan Rahmi M. Koç Museum in

Images

File:1930 Bugatti T46 Rahmi M. Koç Müzesi.jpg, 1930 Bugatti Type 46 Coupé de Ville File:1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith coupé by De Villars.jpg, 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith Coupé File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 0526.jpg, 1935 Bentley 3.5 Litre Convertible File:Rmk1.JPG, 1938

Lincoln Zephyr Lincoln Zephyr is a name used by various different Lincoln vehicles. * Lincoln-Zephyr, a 1936–1942 line of mid-size luxury cars * Lincoln MKZ, a 2005–2020 mid-size sedan, sold as the Zephyr from 2005 to 2006 * Lincoln Zephyr (China), a 2022 ...

Coupé File:1936 Dodge Six Touring Sedan Istanbul.jpg, 1936 Dodge Six Touring Sedan File:1932 Riley Gamecock Sprite.jpg, 1932 Riley Gamecock Sprite Roadster File:1936 Austin Heavy Twelve-Four roadster.jpg, 1936 Austin 12 Roadster File:Rmk2.JPG, Horse-drawn tram of Istanbul (1872–1914) File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 5998.jpg, Horse-drawn tram of Istanbul (1872–1914) File:Rmk3.JPG,

Borsig Borsig is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * (1867–1897), German entrepreneur * August Borsig (1804–1854), German businessman * Conrad von Borsig (1873–1945), German mechanical engineer * Ernst Borsig Ernst August Pau ...

G10 locomotive (1912) File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 0522.jpg, Coffee preparation machine File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 6045.jpg, Istanbul Rahmi M. Koç Museum – Lion File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 0546.jpg, Istanbul Rahmi M. Koç Museum – Steam tug File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 6131.jpg, Istanbul Rahmi M. Koç Museum – Militaria File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 6164.jpg, Model (1938) of German battleship ''Bismarck'' File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 6174.jpg, Istanbul Rahmi M. Koç Museum – Toy File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 6149.jpg, Istanbul Rahmi M. Koç Museum – Train models File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 6089.jpg, Istanbul Rahmi M. Koç Museum – Cobbler File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 0562.jpg, Istanbul Rahmi M. Koç Museum – Olive oil preparation File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 6095.jpg, Istanbul Rahmi M. Koç Museum – Wood saw File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 6035.jpg, Istanbul Rahmi M. Koç Museum – Doll's house File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 6022.jpg, Imperial Coach used by Sultan Abdülaziz during his visit to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

in 1867 File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 6021.jpg,

winders File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 6028.jpg,

passenger wagon

References

External links

Rahmi M. Koç Museum (official website)

Detailed description of the museum railway section on TrainsofTurkey.com

The Genius of Leonardo at Rahmi M. Koç Museum

''The touch of universal genius'', Turkish Airlines onboard magazine ''Skylife'', December 2006

Some 200 pictures from the museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rahmi M. Koc Museum Museums in Istanbul Transport museums in Turkey Industry museums Redevelopment projects in Istanbul Golden Horn Museums established in 1994 Beyoğlu Technology museums in Turkey Tourism in Istanbul Koç family 1994 establishments in Turkey