Museum

No 150 (Vol XXXVIII, n° 2, 1986)

Museums of science and

technology
Masezcm, successor to Morcseion, is published
by the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization in Paris. An inter-
nationalforum (quarterly)of information and
reflection on museums of all kinds.
No. 150, 1986
Frotzt-cover photo: Wheel movement of a
motor in the Indzlsttzal and Mechanical
Constmctions exhibition at the National
Museum of Technology in Prague,
Czechoslovakia.
Editor: Marie Josée Thiel
Editorial Assistant: Christine Wilkinson
Design: Georges Servat, George Ducret
ADVISORY BOARD
Om Prakash Agrawal, India
Azedine Bachaouch, Tunisia
Fernanda de Camargo e Almeida-Moro,
Brazil
Patric D. Cardon, Secretary-General of
ICOM, ex-oflcio
Gaë1 de Guichen, ICCROM
Alpha Oumar Konaré, Mali
Jean-Pierre Mohen, France
Luis Monreal, Spain
Syeung-gil Paik, Republic of Korea
Michel Parent, ICOMOS
Paul Perrot, United States of America
Lise SkjBth, Denmark
Vitali Souslov, Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics
0 Unesco 1986
Printed in the Netherlands
Smeets Offset ( N I ) bv, 's-Hertogenbosch
Back-coverphoto: A selection of objects
from the Czechoslovak National Museum of
Technology's permanent exhibition.
Authors are responsible for the choice and
the presentation of the facts contained in
their articles and for the opinions expressed
therein, which are not necessarily those of I
Unesco and do not commit the
Organization.
Published texts may be freely reproduced
and translated (except illustrations and
where reproduction or translation rights are
reserved), provided that mention is made of
the author and source. Extracts may be
quoted if due acknowledgement is given.
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 EDITORIAL

Changes and developments in the modern world are more and more subject
to the influences of science and technology. There are, accordingly, more and
more people who ask whether these influences are always for the greatest
benefit of society. Such questions will remain unanswered if science remains
a law unto itself, if it remains deaf to languages other than its own and if
laymen are unable to understand that language.
Awareness of the danger of a widening gap between science and society at
large has recently given rise to efforts to improve public access to this field of
knowledge but the problem which the communication of scientific and
technological knowledge poses is an obstacle here. It is in this area that
,- museums of science and technology may have a fundamental role to play, for
they are agencies specialized in transmitting and explaining the language of
science. They differ from other museums in the types of exhibitions they
mount. Moreover, their range is as wide and varied as that of science and
technology itself. The subjects with which they deal require specialized and
innovatory exhibition techniques. In these museums, the traditional ‘Please
do not touch’ museography gives way to participation and interaction. ‘While
art presents itself visually to the public (a picture may be looked at but not
touched), science plays upon the senses and can be experienced in every con-
ceivable way, inciting the public to touch, handle, listen, smell or even
pedal ’1 .
Science and technology museums thus tend to become practical places,
where visitors may further their knowledge by carrying out experiments
themselves.
These museums are therefore educational, cultural and scientific while us-
ing out-of-school methods to attain their objectives: transmit scientific and
technical information and to satisfy public demand, which requires this infor-
mation to be intelligible, meaningful and -whyever not -enjoyable. In
order to respond to this demand, science and technology museums have not
’
only had to find means of popularizing science for it to be understood and
assimilated but also ways of attracting, interesting and even amusing the
public. A combination of education and amusement: this is the basic principle
underlying the activities of some of the museums described in this issue, with
the aim of attaining their primary objectives, i.e. to illustrate scientific pro-
blems, to lessen those prejudices which reserve science for the scientists -in
a word, to familiarize a lay public with the nature of science and technology,
their contributions to human well-being, their potentialities and their
dangers. d

To do this, science and technology museums may vary their modes of

presentation according to local needs or financial resources. There exists never-
theless a common denominator among such museums: their attempt to ex-
plain the laws of science, to describe its technical applications and social reper-
cussions in such a way that an informed and enlightened public can make up
its own mind and, in the final analysis, take decisions and choices in full
knowledge of the facts. It is in this way that they respond to the needs and
aspirations of all communities.

1. Yan de Keroguen, ‘Vogue dans les Maisons d e la Science’, &pitib,

No. 60, October 1982.
 CHANGING THE APPROACH
Yani Herreman
Born in Mexico City. Degree in Architecture.
Master’s Degree in Museology and History of Art.
Professor at the Centro de Restauración ‘Manuel
Castillo Negrete’. Was Head of the Museography
Department at the Museo Nacional de Las Culturas
and Co-ordinator of museum projects at The Na-
tional Institute of Anthropology. Has planned,
designed and co-ordinated several major museum
projects in Mexico. She is now Assistant Director of
the Museum of Natural History and President of the
International ICOM Committee for Architecture
and Museum Techniques (ICAMT). She is also
Executive Secretary of the ICOM Permanent
Secretariat for Latin America.
1. Francesco Di Castri, ‘Ecology -
The
Genesis of a Science of Man and Nature’, The
Unesco Courier (Paris), 1981.
2
Cases with beetles’ nests. Visitors could
open and close the small door of the cube
and examine the nests at close quarters.
The principal objective of scientific and
technological research is to push back the
frontiers of knowledge. And the goal of
this widening of horizons and this enrich-
ment is, in turn, that of applying the new
knowledge acquired so as to improve the
quality of life and optimize the manage-
ment of resources. Thus research, or
rather the findings of research, should be
placed within reach both of scientists and
decision-makers (civil servants, directors,
executives) as well as the final users: the
general public. Although naturally
heterogeneous, the latter can understand
and absorb information on scientific and
technological research, if it is set before
them in a comprehensible,accessible and
attractive manner, in understandable
language and with recognizable points of
reference. Society’s demand for informa-
tion on the raison d’être (why), the
methodology (how), and the objectives
(what for) of scientific and technological
research is increasing every day. The
public want and ask to be informed about
the new trends surrounding and affecting
their lives.
Many scientists have been doing their
best for some years to disseminate and
promote scientific and technological
knowledge among the general public and
thus respond to the concern described
above. As a result, various dissemination
systems, using structures ranging from
the mass communication media to such
participatory centres as the Explorato-
rium of the city of San Francisco and, of
course, museums, have been developed.
Among the sciences, the environmen-
tal sciences have been no exception. For a
little over ten years the need has been felt
to give the public systematic information
concerning the vital importance of the
natural heritage and the relationship bet-
ween the human species and nature.
Ecology became a fashionable word,
with the consequences to which en-
vironmental abuse has led. Di Castri
refers to these when he says that for the
non-initiated ecology may be ‘a moral
philosophy, a form of action for the pro-
tection of plants and animals, a protest
movement against nuclear energy and
pollution or a yearning for a return to
nature’ .1
What then is ecology for a complete
layman? What can the disappearance of
an animal or plant species or the part
human beings may play in damaging a
forest mean to an ordinary person if he
does not feel that the problem concerns
him?
The fact is that individuals in many
countries do not feel in any way con-
nected with their natural heritage. Nor
do they feel that they have an obligation
to preserve it. They value it neither as
their heritage nor for its riches and the
topics and activities involved in the pro-
tection and study of the environment do
not interest them.
This state of affairs results from the
absence of the type of education that
would enable people to see themselves in
relation to their surroundings. We firmly
believe that an awareness of ecology in
particular and of science and technology
in general can be brought about through
appropriate education: not only syste-
matic formal education but a type of
education that uses supplementary,
parallel systems and thus reaches a much
larger number of users. The more objects,
68 Yam’Herreman

in Mexico in the same way as in the rest Civic, Cultural and Tourist Activities,
of the world, but they were linked with financed and promoted the project.
the need for enhanced recognition of the
work carried out in Mexican research cen- The exhibition
tres. At a time of crisis all over the world,
and one of particular severity in the The two most important objectives of the
developing countries, it is of the greatest exhibition are: (a) to disseminategeneral
importance to bring out the true value of knowledge on beetles to the lay public in
scientific work. order to explain their importance in
It was with this in mind that the agriculture, forests, epidemics, the en-
Museum of Natural History and the In- vironment and the economy at regional
stitute of Ecology drew up a public infor- and national levels; and (b) to inform the
mation programme, based on travelling public of the technological and scientific
exhibitions. They submitted it to the programmes supported by CONACYT
National Council for Science and Tech- and to make the activities of the institu-
3 nology (CONACYT) with the idea of tions working in these branches of na-
Preparation of dioramas in ‘Unicel’ bringing information to the public tional development better known.
(synthetic modelling material). through exhibitions, in accordance with For the first objective, a guide was
First stage. the overall scientific and technological in- drawn up which, in a concise, readable
formation policy of that body. As a and readily understandable way, de-
governmental body whose main func- scribed the characteristics and habits, the
patterns and concepts there are, the easier tions are the co-ordination of, support for multiplicity of forms and colours, the
it will be to apprehend new facets of those and promotion of scientific and sizes and the diets of the various species
concepts and the relationships involved technological research in Mexico, CON- of beetles, selected as models, to show the
and to give them a new configuration ACYT has national coverage. It expressed relationship between form and function.
that explains and enhances them.2 great interest in the project and sup- In addition, visual images, dioramas and
One such system should be provided ported a first travelling exhibition called exhibited specimens were used to explain
by museums, principally through their BeetleJ: 200 Million Years of Evol’zltion. their forms of reproduction and behav-
exhibitions. Exhibitions are understood A team was set up by the CONACYT ioural patterns.
here to be a means of communication, Institute of Ecology, which also acted as In connection with the second objec-
based on the cognitive association be- scientific adviser in its capacity as a tive, a special unit was responsible for
tween a set of cultural objects and/or research centre on animal ecology and en- presenting the work carried out by the In-
natural specimens and complementary tomology. stitute of Ecology specialists.
objects displayed in a given place by The Museum of Natural History of This interdisciplinary team, whose
means of special techniques and arranged Mexico City was responsible for the work was the cornerstone of the project’s
in a certain sequence with the objective of museological structure, the museo- success, was made up of an entomologist
transmitting a set of ideas, concepts graphic design and the co-ordination of teaching at the University,4 the author of
and/or knowledge.3 implementation. The National Council this article in the capacity of museologist
The phenomena described concerning for Science and Technology and the and a group of graphic designers and
the dissemination of the results of scien- Department of the Federal District, artists.5
tific and technological research occurred through the General Directorate for The sequence of the exhibition was

4 6
Preparation of dioramas in ‘Unicel’ Preparation of dioramas.
(synthetic modelling material). Fourth stage.
Second stage. Display case of 3-mm three-ply. Plastic
paint. Diorama made of ‘Unicel’and oil
models of larvae moulded out of bread.
Plastic plants. Total weight: 30 kg.
5
Preparation of dioramas.
Third stage.
Painting and modelling with ‘Unicel’
(synthetic modelling material).
The disseminatioii of science “itechriology
planned in a highly flexible manner, so
that it could be adapted to the various
locations as easily as possible. The follow-
ing order was established: What is a bee-
tle? Were does it live? How many types of
beetles are there? How large can they be?
What are their horns for?What shape are
they? Why are they important? The
various units, whose titles were set out as
questions, could be exhibited separately
or as part of the exhibition. A 7 5 cm-long
model of a Dynastes beetle was placed at
the start of the exhibition, and an il-
lustration of it appeared on both the
poster and the pamphlet accompanying
the display.
The descriptions were in everyday
language, using the local names, follow-
ed by the Latin names in brackets. Text
was kept down to a minimum (Fig. 2) and
was in different sizes, the greatest impor-
tance being given to specimens, dioramas
and diagrams, in that order. The topic
was associated, to the highest degree
possible, with human beings and their
daily life. Treatment of the graphic
material, text and illustrations was given
primary importance, with the aim of
making it not only attractive but also ac-
cessible to a poorly educated public. A
graded system of information was used
for this purpose, beginning with titles set
out as questions, printed in large letters
(10 cm) in heavy type.
The authors tried and succeeded in
making both the illustrations and the
specimens displayed constitute the reply
to the question put in the title. The main
text offered further information in a
statement covering the equivalent of half
a sheet of quarto paper that could easily
7 8
An example of a complete diorama in a
type A cabinet, 40 cm high x 100 cm wide
x 50 cm deep.
be read in 35 seconds. More detailed in-
formation was provided in smaller print
for those who were interested. All the
written information could be absorbed in
three to five minutes. A pamphlet was
distributed to visitors and a book was
published later, which gave still further
details of the concepts set before the
public.
The equipment, designed for ease of
transport and to be set up on any type of
support or table, consisted of three type
A units (Figs 3-7), 90 cm high, 100 cm
wide and 50 cm deep, which contained
the dioramas and their correspondingex-
planations, and type B units, 185 cm
high and 90 cm deep. These consisted of
three free-standing screens and included
small glass display-cases resembling en-
tomological specimen-cases, which held
the 500 or so specimens described in the
text. In this way the graphic information
and the specimens exhibited in the ex-
hibition were well-balanced, a point of
fundamental importance in transmitting
the message of an exhibition (Fig. 8).
The six dioramas were made by the
museum technicians; the scale models of
beetles were moulded out of bread by the
consultant, but efforts were also made to
use as many stuffed beetles as possible
(Fig. 9).
The exhibition was opened at the
Museum of Natural History in November
1983 and from there began its journeys to
the various states of the Republic of
Mexico. During the first itinerary, the ex-
hibition covered the north of Mexico for
a period of six months. Its second tour
was to the south-east of the Republic. Its
presentation to the various delegaciones
Type B cabinet. 185 cm high x 40 cm wide.
Three 10-cm sections. Folds up. Double
view. Display-cases included. Materials
used: 3-mm three-ply. Plastic paint.
Photographs and specimens.
69
(districts) in Mexico City is being
prepared at present, and arrangements
will,be made for another visit to the pro-
vinces in six months’ time.
Euahation
After travelling around the country for a
year and a half, we have learned that
travelling exhibitions provide a most suc-
cessful means of bringing information to
the public. The provincial cities, where
the exhibition was displayed, sent in very
satisfactory reports, although their
evaluation systems left much to be
desired. The demand stirred up by the
exhibition has provided the best proof of
the interest an activity of this sort can
arouse. It may be said that abour one
million people have now seen Beetles:
200 MilLion Years of Ewolzitìon.
[T r u d a t e d f i o m Spanish]
2. H. Bower and E. Hilgard, Theories of
Leanzing, New Jersey, Englewood, Prentice Hall.
1981.
3. Y : Herreman, ilfanualde Técnicas
ilfzueograficas [Manual of museographical
techniques]. Doctoral thesis. Unpublished.
4 . Dr Miguel Angel Morón.
5. Lina Flores, Miriam and Rebeca Cerda,
R. Cabello, E. Iturbe, L. Santiago, V. Cruz and
R. Velazquez.
9
Preparation of real specimens.
Several experiments were made to find the
best method.
The method of fastening used, with acrylic
supports fastened to the insects’ bodies,
may be seen in the photograph. They are
subsequently futed in the display-cases.
70
The Ch d s Msezcm, Caracas
Domingo Alvarez
Domingo Alvarez is an architect who graduated
from the Central University of Venezuela in 1959.
He specialized in urban design at the University In-
stitute of Architecture in Venice from 1959 to 1961.
He has been Professor of Architectonic Composi-
tion and Urban Design in the Faculty of Architec-
ture at the Central University of Venezuela since
1961. He created a series of works in the audio-
visual field, in museography and in the visual arts.
In 1979, he was appointed Chief Project Architect
and made responsible for the supervision of the ar-
chitecture, organization, interior decoration and
public image of the Children’s Museum in Caracas.
At present, he holds the post of Adviser to the Presi-
dent of the Children‘s Museum Foundation and has
recently been appointed by the Venezuelan State as
‘Commissioner’ for Venezuela at the 1986 Venice
Biennial. 1961, First Prize for Town Planning for his
‘System to Regulate the Harbour Zone for the City
ofvenice’, Italy. 1968, O.C.I. Prize ‘For Research
in the Visual Arts’, at the 29th Salon of Venezualan
Art, in the Bellas Artes Museum, Caracas. 1973,
National Prize for ‘VisualArts in Venezuela’. 1973,
Salon at the Bellas Artes Museum, Caracas.
10
The Children’s Museum building, framed
by the other buildings of the complex.
The Children’s Museum of Caracas is the
first experiment of its kind in Latin
America and is intended to provide a new
alternative in creative and participatory
education, and another learning resource
for our children and young people who
will build the future.
With this aim in mind, the Children’s
Museum (private) Foundation was
established on 5 March 1974. It was set up
with the basic objective of ‘carrying out
programmes to promote the child’s
recreation and training, and providing
the Museum with the resources needed
for its full operation’. 1
From the end of 1973 up to 1978, the
concept of the museum was discussed and
developed. During thar time contacts
were made with institutions in other
countries and the premises, objectives
and principles to be followed by the
Museum were laid down as follows:
The Children’s Museum of Caracas proposes to ac-
quaint the rising generations with the discoveries
made by the mind of man in a world that is chang-
ing at a bewildering pace, to arouse their curiosity
to understand its secrets fully, and to help them,
throbgh untrammelled participation, to feel
capable of controlling and handling the com-
plicated instruments with which they will be faced
in later life.
It should strive to stimulate in the child and
young person an intense desire to know and to
learn. with the idea of taking part in the endless
process of change that is going on in the universe.
The child should be made to feel that he is an active
participant in a great and harmonious joint venture
to which he feels himself to be irrevocably commit-
ted. We want to get rid of the word ‘forbidden’. We
must invite children to touch and handle
things. . .2
In 1979, the Foundation launched a pro-
gramme to assemble the material and
financial resources required to support
the project. The Venezuelan Govern-
ment was interested and made available,
rent free, a centrally situated building
that was under construction in the
capital. At about the same time a team of
professional staff was engaged to work
out the details of the project and its pro-
gramming. They received training at the
Exploratotium in San Francisco, and the
1. Children’s Museum Foundation,
constitution and Statutes, Caracas, 1983.
2. Alicia Pietri de Caldera, Inaugural Address
rzt the ChildrenT itluseurn, 7 August 1982.
Children’s Museum in Boston and at the
Ontario Science Centre in Toronto,
Canada, these being the institutions that
have given us the most help and guidance
in our undertaking.
On returning to Venezuela, the ream
reviewed the programmes of those cen-
tres, studying and analysing them in
order to adapt &em to the needs and par-
ticularities of the country. It was decided
that work should be concentrated in four
basic areas: physics, biology, com-
munication and ecology. The pro-
gramme to be followed was worked out,
and another team, made up of architects
and designers, was to continue with the
work of remodelling and adapting the
building to suit the programme.
The museum building is situated in
Central Park, an urban area in the centre
of the city. Ir is entirely visible from the
main avenue, where there is heavy traffic.
Full advantagehad to be taken of this cir-
cumstance: I consequently tried to make
the museum into a sort of symbol for the
city, a big toy. Thus within the frame-
work of the surrounding buildings
which, in theatrical terms, provided a
large backdrop, I designed it as a big box
of colours made up of outsize blocks-
blue, red, yellow, black and white-
which suggest that the whole thing can
be put up and taken down (Fig. lo).
The ‘Du&Room’
Inside, activities take place in an area of
some 4,000 square metres of usable floor
space distributed on five levels.
The route to be followed begins at the
entrance, with an experience which
transports the visitor beyond reality. It
was imperative to do away with
everything that suggested daily life and
humdrum reality. The visirór had to be
immersed from the outset in an at-
mosphere of wonder, in a world of the
future, a world of dreams and illusions.
I accordingly used the ‘camera
obscura’, black as a colour, and mirrors,
11
The Great Virtual Sphere and staircase
where the tour of the Children’s Museum
begins.
72
12, 13, 14
Areas devoted to mechanics, oil, physics,
communication and biology, using the
‘camera obscura’ to throw into visible relief
only what is meant to stand out. It will be
noted that parts of the structure such as
pipes, conduits, electrical installations and
service apparatus have been left visible in
order to arouse the children’s curiosity.
to create a space which would not appear
to be limited by walls and where no tac-
tile limitations would be felt. Walls as
such would disappear, being relegated to
a secondary place. In a space of this kind,
the idea of happening replaces the idea of
the work being viewed; the surroundings
should play a fundamental part, and the
visitor should be enveloped in an im-
material and ambiguous atmosphere,
ambivalent when observed either in its
totality or in a fragmentary fashion.
There should be a series of things to at-
tract the spectator’sattention and to whet
his appetite for finding out what comes
next; the work or the thing being shown
should emerge as a result of the force of
the impact produced on perception and
thought.
I created a setting, an illusory space fill-
ed with reflections of different densities
and dominated by a large virtual sphere,
five metres in diameter, that floats
weightlessly in the centre (Fig. 11). By
the use of projections, it might equally
well seem to be a planet of water, a ball
of fire, a stretch of sky, like the wonderful
memory, many times magnified, of that
first ‘big’ multicoloured ball with which
we all played as children. All around rise
the staircases that lead to the museum as
such, where another unusual vision is
created, again with the use of mirrors.
The reflection of the children, going up
the steps, whose treads are coloured
lights, is multiplied eight times as they go
by, walking like little spiders through the
air, on the ceiling, up the walls, down
staircases which appear to be upside
down, giving reality to the visions im-
agined and drawn with such mastery by
Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972).
At the top of the stairway., the child
enters the Tunnel of the Changing
Jungle. I have built a tunnel, a reflecting
chamber, some 6 metres long in reality,
made up of two parallel mirror walls,
with entrance and exit doors (also made
of mirrors) at both ends, set at an angle
of 45 degrees to the main axis of the tun-
nel. This forms a structure that visually
reproduces an imaginary city composed
of large crystal cubes looking like
buildings and streets at right angles that
stretch out to infinity. The back of the
mirror forming one of the walls has a pic-
ture of a tropical forest engraved on it.
Outside the tunnel, nine spotlights each
equipped with a coloured wheel with
alternating blue, red and green acetates,
play upon this wall continuously. The
result is that, as the light mixes in space,
it produces all the colours of the spec-
Domingo Alvarez
trum and, as it is filtered through the
thousands of leaves, lianas, branches,
tree trunks and flowers that make up the
engraved picture and act as small back-
projection screens, there is an inward
multiplication, in the geometrical order
imparted by the artificial structure bring-
ing into being an illusory city made up of
buildings that take shape from the pic-
ture of the jungle.
Following the sequence, children com-
ing out of the tunnel find the Informa-
tion Module (Figs 12, 13, 14). On this
floor, they find the Planet Earth, the
temporary exhibitions area, the small
auditorium and the electricity show. On
the next floor are perception, sound
mechanics, energy (oil) and a physics
laboratory. They go up another storey
and come upon biology (area of life),
reproduction, the brain, the body,
microscopes, and dental surgery; in the
communication sector, they meet the
telegraph, telephone, television, photo-
graphy, computers, and the printed
word; and on the terrace, where one part
is roofed over and another is exposed to
the elements, they find Ecology in-
cluding Hydrology (man and the river),
the undersea world, recycling, seed, solar
energy and a Vivarium. (figs 15, 16) So
far as the surroundings are concerned,
everything is done in ‘camera obscura’.
Black is the predominant colour of the
ceilings, floors and walls, in order, as ex-
plained above, to counteract, neutralize
and reduce the importance of walls, par-
titions, materials and architectonic space
and the predominating influence they
have on exhibitions.
Some sections of the structure, pipes,
conduits, installations and service ap-
pliances have been left visible, again for
the purpose of arousing the child’s
curiosity.
The expedient of the ‘dark room’,
together with other devices such as the
use of lighting of graphics (applied on an
architectonic scale) enabled us to stress
and make evident only what we wished to
bring out: the direction to be followed,
the character of the different sectors, the
exhibits, the explanations; and above all
to show clearly the connection between
the various experiences.
On the question of graphics employed
on an architectonic scale, the designer,
Jorge Blanco, who was responsible for this
part, had this to say:
It was a challenge. Professionally speaking, it has
been the most interesting experience I have ever
had. It changed the scale at which I am accustomed
to work. The experience is like a great book that one
can walk into. Graphics here serve as a stimulus.
 . .~
---- 73

15
Children working at recyling in the covered
part of the terrace.

16
The garden on the terrace.

groups coming with their teachers from

CFtering for children, it is illustrative rather than The present and future opportunities
symbolic. I had to create a character that I called
schools, but on Saturdays and Sundays that the museum offers in connection
‘Museito’, with apersonality of his own. He was not
visitors circulate freely. As an additional with the development of new activities -
to have anything to do with anything similar already
aid, to help them in assimilating the
in existence (Mickey Mouse, Mafalda, etc.). By his
research programmes, the setting-up of
meaning of what they are experiencing,
scale and his presence he was to be regarded as the travelling exhibitions, production of
the children can call on ‘friends’
host of the museum and to live with the visitor. teaching materials, books, video tapes,
-university students who are following educational games, etc., are unlimited.
Ex-Zooringthe maseum courses related to the field that they are Further projects and programmes will be
concerned with in the museum -who carried out by the Children’s Museum
The whole space of the museum should are chosen and constantly evaluated by Foundation, as it pursues its objective of
form, and be felt as, a complete at- the Education Division, together with contributing to the all-round education
mosphere or ‘a suspended bubble’ in the heads of all the departments covered of the child through recreation, games
which the visitor feels himself wrapped, by the Museum and their assistants. and other alternative forms of creative
materially immersed in such a way that he Since the museum opened, the main and participatory education, which are all
behaves like some species ‘swimming difficulty has been to specify how long new ways for our children to learn. W
under water’, continuing in unrestricted each stage of the process should last in
wonderment as far as his eyes and senses order to achieve the final objective: to [ Trunslatedfrom Spanish]
draw him. . . selecting, exercising and have the child acting freely.
undergoing one experience after another, We first of all had to go through the
creating an infinite number of connec- stage of making the museum known; it
tions between all the things produced in was at least a year and a half before we
turn by the succession of events. On were able to move on to the next stage,
emerging from this creative entity learning and teaching how to use the
(operating in the same way as the museum.
cinema), the mind fixes the experience Seminars and guidance courses are run
(the museum itself) in a final image sum- for primary and secondary school-
ming up the whole, which echoes in the teachers, both public and private, and
memory as the reflection of something they are also provided with printed
that has been, that has existed, that has material to help them.
been felt, that has been experienced. In As part of the process of formal educa-
other words, the child’s memory of the tion which the child receives at school and
museum must not be one of rooms, walls at home, the museum ‘should act as a
and partitions, confined areas, mecha- laboratory to activate, support, stimu-
nism or supports; it must be one of activi- late, strengthen and broaden the know-
ty, action, situations, proofs obtained, ledge that is imparted there. What is
things tried, practice, experiments and most important is that the Museum, like
experiences. a catalyst, should stir and quicken a
More than 1,200 children come each whole series of questions about what the
day in two sessions. The museum is open child is learning, what science has to do
from Wednesday to Sunday and is closed and how it is applied in technology,
on Mondays and Tuesdays for mainten- which will help to guide him or her
ance. On weekdays, priority is given to towards the future.
74

Dr Alfred Waldis

Born in 1919 in Lucerne, has been President of the

Swiss Transport hluseum since 1981. He is a
founder member and President of the International
Association o f Transport Museums, the Swiss
Association of Museums, the Swiss branch of ICOM
and was formerly a member of the Executive and
Consultative Committees o f the International
Council of Museums. He has been awarded the Prix
Culturel de Suisse Centrale, the Council of Europe
prize for creative museum management, the Paul
Tissandier diploma, the Copernicus medal, the title
of honorary correspondant of the Ecole Polytechni-
que Fédérale de Zurich, an honorary doctorate from
the Haute Ecole de Saint-Gall and the badge of
honour of Lucerne.

17
In the foreground, the first Swiss train
Spanisch-Brötli-Bahn, 1847.

Since its inauguration on 1July 1959, the
Swiss Transport Museum, (Musée Suisse
des Transports) Lucerne, has had nearly
13 million visitors. In the intervening 25
years, its influence as a museum and as a
place for people to become acquainted
with technology has extended far beyond
local and regional frontiers. By virtue of
its extensive collections, covering all
fields of transport and tourism, and of
the archives, planetarium and art
museum that make up the rest of the
museum complex, it ranks as the largest
of transport museumsand is known for its
pioneering work in the presentation of
exhibitions and in management and
financing.
The main task of any museum is to
track down objects representative of the
cultural heritage, to acquire them and af-
ford them adequate protection against
the destructive action of time, nature and
man, so as to preserve them for posterity.
The same definition perfectly fits the
function of transport museums. The ob-
jects collected in these museums, such as
vehicles and equipment for the transmis-
sion of information, are in a sense
'monuments' of technology created to
serve man, developed to improve living
conditions and intended to establish rela-
tions between people. Transport
museum collections thus cover all fields
relating to the 'transport' of persons, ob
jects and information.
From radway museum to transport
museum
The idea of establishing a museum in
Switzerland devoted to a particular
means of transport- railways- goes
back a hundred years, but it was not until
1918 that arailway museum, albeir avery
modest one, was set up in the Zurich
goods station (Fig 17). The idea of
creating a proper transport museum
showing the development of all means of
communication and tourism only took
shape, however, in connection with the
National Exhibition of 1939. In 1942, an
Association for a Swiss Transport
Museum was founded in Zurich and
Raphael Cottier, the man behind the
idea, became its president. As it was not
possible to set up the museum in Zurich,
the association moved its headquarters to
Lucerne in 1950. Work began on the
museum in 1959, substantial contribu-
tions being made by the Swiss Transport
and Comdunications Authority, the
Confederation, the Swiss Post Office and
road, river and air transport enterprises.
The museum was inaugurated on 1July
1959. At that time, it comprised exhibi-
tion rooms devoted only to rail and road
The Swiss Transbort Museum: twenty-five years of service to transbort md communicutons
18 transport, postal and telecommunication
The Planetarium fitted with a Zeiss services. a lecture room and archives: the
Projector 3OO people. Commentaries other departments -aeronautics, dater
are provided in four languages.
transport, cable-cars and tourism -were
installed in one of the two exhibition
halls of the Post Ofice.
The stages of devezopment
As the number of visitors exceeded all ex-
pectations, it soon became necessary to
extend the museum. On 1July 1969, on
the occasion of the tenth anniversary of
the Transport Museum, our country’s
first planetarium was inaugurated (Fig
18) and the main restaurant and ad-
ministrative building went into service at
the same time. Three years later, the
aeronautics and astronautics exhibition
hall with its ‘Cosmorama’was set up (Fig
19). Meanwhile, the other departments
kept constantly abreast of current
75
developments, but as some of them did
not possess their own exhibition halls or
did not have enough space, a further
stage of expansion began in 1976, when
the Commune of Lucerne made the
necessary land available free of charge.
The Hans Erni Museum was opened to
the public on 1 5 September 1979. On 1
July 1982, in connection with the celebra-
tion of the centenary of the Gotthard
Line, another exhibition hall devoted to
railway transport was inaugurated. The
extension work was completed with the
exhibition hall for water transport, cable-
cars and tourism, including the ‘Swiss-
orama’ (Fig 20, 21); the inauguration of
this building on 2 July 1984 was at the
same time the main event in the twen-
tieth anniversary celebrations of the
Transport Museum.
The collections of the Swiss Transport
Museum occupy twelve buildings and in-
76 Dr Ayred Wdds

Museum was able in 1969 to open

Switzerland’sfirst and only planetarium.
Equipped with the most up-to-date Zeiss
projectors, it gives afaithful reproduction
of the night sky. The planetarium, which
has seating for 300, is an educational
facility for young and old alike, and in
particular for schools.
The Cosmorama, with a screen surface
of 170 square metres, shows visitors the
most important milestones in the history
of astronautics. The. Swissorama, in-
augurated in 1984, is a special attraction:
it consists of a circular screen with a cir-
cumference of 60 meters and a height of
5 meters on to which a film is projected.
This system, invented by Ernst A.
Heiniger, is the first to give a 360” wrap-
around image without ‘joins’ or distor-
tions. The spectators, 400 of whom can
be accommodated at a time, are, as it
were, surrounded by a panorama and feel
as if they are in the middle of the land-
scape. The film, entitled Impressions of
Switzerlund, financed by the Migros Co-
operative Society, lasts 20 minutes and il-
lustrates the landscapes, culture and
economy of our country.
The Hans Erni Museum nicely com-
plements the collections of the Transport
Museum. Over 300 works-paintings,
drawings and prints -and many
sculptures and ceramics illustrate his af-
finities with technology in general and
communications in particular.

Varied activities
In addition to its permanent collections,
the Transport Museum displays special
exhibitions which provide an opportuni-
19 chde several thousand objects from every t y to acquaint the public with recent or
In the centre, the N. 20 ArbaLète, the first aspect of transport and communication, historical developments. A special event
Swiss jet aeroplane. including post and telecommunications, for model-railway enthusiasts, begun five
astronautics and tourism. Among the years ago and held over several days every
main exhibits are 60 locomotives and autumn, arouses interest beyond the
railway carriages (including the world’s frontiers of Switzerland.
most powerful electric locomotive) more Since its inception the museum with its
than 40 cars, 50 cycles, motorcycles and meeting rooms of up to 400 places, has
20
The new exhibition hall for water transport, horse-drawn carriages, 35 aeroplanes, a hosted lectures and events of all kinds.
cablecars and tourism including the steamboat, several other boats and cable- The museum is supported in its role as
‘Swissorama’. cars, two space capsules, a space-suit as a forum for discussion of transport prob-
worn by the astronauts on the moon and lems by the Association Suisse pour
fragments of moon rock, as well as postal 1’Etudedes Transports (Swiss Association
and telecommunicationsequipment (Fig for the Study of Transport) which is at-
22, 23). The collections also comprise tached to it.
hundreds of scale models, motors and The museum’s archives comprise more
audio-visual. installations, in particular than 50.000 works as well as a large
video recorders, and many pieces of ap- number of plans, photographs and
paratus that visitors may operate documents relating to the history of
themselves. transport in Switzerland.
Thanks to a donation from the The Transport Museum has a collec-
Longines watch factory, the Transport tion of more than 10.000 posters, a selec-
The Swiss Tramport Afuseam: tzoenty-$ve years of sersice to transport aiid comnzanications
tion of which is presented each year in
different towns; these exhibitions have
proved very popular.
The museum’s publications -thirty-
eight to date -together with hundreds
of illustrated leaflets on the most impor-
tant exhibits, make a substantial con-
tribution to public information.
The museum constantly makes the
fruits of its experience available to local
and international organizations and to
other museums; special mention needs to
be made of its co-operation with the 1964
National Exhibition in the field of
transport, with the Federal Commission
set up to study an overall approach to
transport, and with cultural institutions
such as the Association of Swiss Museums
and International Association of
Transport Museums (IATM).
The needs of our times
With the considerable development in
recent decades, and a new trend has
emerged, leading to a democratization of
museums, which have thus become lively
meeting-placesand cultural centres. The
power of attraction exercised by museums
today is no doubt due to the way in which
they combine the requirements for train-
77
ing, information and entertainment of
society today.
The range of activities covered by
transport museums has also grown. With
the advent of astronautics and informa-
tion satellites, space has come to be in-
cluded in the vast field of communica-
tions, since rockets are also a means of
transport. Tourism, the development of
which has been accelerated by air, land
and sea transport, has also become one of
the themes of transport museums.
Another important role played by these 21
museums -creating and developing an The cablecar section includes among its
understanding of the problems of exhibits the first cablecar in the world
transport and transport enterprises - (installed at Wetterbum, near Grindelwald,
in 1908).
derives from the fact that their exhibits
are closely connected with everyday life.
Without attempting to advertise them,
they show the importance of such enter-
prises and the services they offer.
There are several hundred such
museums around the world, and they
cover different areas: 18 per cent are
devoted to railways, 11 per cent to post
and telecommunications, 11 per cent to
cars, cycles and motorcycles, 17 per cent
to aviation and astronautics and 16 per
cent to shipping, while 27 per cent cover
several fields. The International Associa- 22
Space-suit worn by astronaut Edgar Mitchell
on the A p o l o 14 flight to the moon.
78 Di. Alfred Wala’ii

Lucerne municipal authorities.

The Transport Museum has an impor-
tant job to do in this connection: to show
how, in the space of a few generations,
man’s mobility has developed, how
transport technology has changed the
world and how dependent we have
become upon the smooth operation of
transport. In order to understand this
dependence and the limitations it en-
tails, it is essential to know the main
outlines of the development of transport.
An awareness of their origins and
historical development make it possible,
,
1..

as it were, to establish the transition bet-

23 Since it is a private museum, which ween past and future and to foresee the
The principle of ‘hydropneumatic receives no subsidies and whose losses are possibilities that lie ahead. The task of
suspension’ is illustrated by a D.S. Citroënnot indemnified, expenditure must be drawing attention to these matters is now
(Automobile Section). entirely covered from income, 12 per cent more than ever necessary and important.
of which derives from members’ Table 1, below, gives an idea of the
tion of Transport Museums is affiliated to subscriptions, 54 per cent from admission cost of the various stages of building (the
the International Council of Museums. charges and 34 per cent from auxiliary value of the exhibits, insured for more
enterprises (bookstalls, rental of res- than 5 million Swiss francs, has not been
A specìaZ case taurant and office block). Annual expen- taken into account):
diture (approximately 7 million Swiss Museums can add to the attractions of a
The Transport Museum occupies a special francs in 1984) breaks down as follows: locality or a region. The example of the
place among Swiss and foreign museums staff costs, 50 per cent; administration, Swiss Transport Museum shows that a
in more than one respect. With as many operations and maintenance, 31 per cent; museum can exert a favourable economic
as 600-700,000 visitors a year-more interest on captital from external sources, influence by its placing of contracts and
than a tenth of the country’s popula- 7 per cent; insurance, tax and amortiza- commissions and by acting as an
tion-it has the highest attendance of tion, 12 per cent. employer.
any museum in Switzerland. The museum has always made a point
It is one of the few museums run as a of calling as little as possible upon the Prospects
private enterprise, using methods which public authorities for help in such things
have long since proved essential in as building work and the setting-up of ex- Since the Transport Museum opened
management, especially in the fields of hibitions. Mention must be made here of twenty-five years ago, improvements and
planning and financial policy, marketing the valuable support given by major additions have been made several times
and public relations. transport and communication enter- to the premises and the collections. The
The Association ‘Musée Suisse des prises, in particular the Federal Railways second phase of extension work is now
Transports’ owns the installations, is the and private railways, the Post Office and nearing completion, and in the period
employer of the staff and places con- Swissair, which cover a large part of the ahead emphasis will be laid on consolida-
tracts; the association has at present more cost of their exhibition halls or collec- ting of existing achievements. A collec-
than 20,000 members-private in- tions. Another equally important factor tion of objects relating to transport and
dividuals, enterprises and authorities - is that the 40,000 square-metre site is communicationshows the main stages of
from all over Switzerland. made available free of charge by the technical development using various
methods of presentation, from actual
vehicles via scale models to video films.
Table 1. Cost of the various stages of building the museum (millions of Swiss francs) The task of a transport museum is now
considered to be that of showing the ef-
Stage Original Present Federal Interest Contributions fects of technology on man, the economy
cost value contribution by exhibitors, and society. Technology is not only ob-
Swiss jects; it has certain repercussions, which a
Transport transport museum has to reflect, if it
Museum, wishes to convey an overall view of
donations, etc. transport and communications.

Construction [ Translatedfrom French]

1957-59 6.5 25 15 Yo 7% 78 Yo
Extension
1967-72 19 40 11 Yo 45 Yo 44 %
Extension
1978-84 30 30 o Yo 6 Yo 94 %
 *

Victor J. Danilov
President and director of the Museum of Science
and Industry, Chicago. Has been i m " e n t a 1 in
initiating and expanding multifaceted educational
offerings during his thirteen years with the
museum, A leader in advocating a greater educa-
tional role for museums. Dr Danilov is p a t Presi-
dent of the Association of Science-Technology
Centers, Vice-chairman of the ICOM International
Committee of Science and Technology Museums,
and President of the Science Museum Exhibit
laborative. He is the author of ten books and more
than 150 professional articles. His latest book,
Science mid Tecb?iologjiCenters, was published by
the MIT Press in 1()82.
In 1983, the Museum of Science and In-
dustry in Chicago opened an innovative
Science Education Center that improved
and expanded the institution's extensive
educational offerings. It was another step
in the museum's accelerating efforts to
further public understanding of science
and technology and to play a more im-
portant role in advancing tscience
literacy' in an increasingly technological
world.
Fifty years ago, the museum opened as
the first successful contemporary science
and technology museum in the United
States. Since that time, it has welcomed
more than 12 million visitors. Its current
annual attendance is about 4 million,
making it the most popular museum of
its type in the world.
A leader in participatory and educa-
tional exhibition policy in a wide variety
of disciplines, the museum has Eone

24
Science Education Center, Museum of
Science and Industry, Chicago. The
Children's Science Library is part of the
Science Education Center.
80
25
Personalized information on nutrition is
provided through the use of a computer
system in the Food for Lzye exhibition at the
Musedm of Science and Industry.
beyond exhibitions alone to live science
demonstrations, teachers’ guides and
other publications, in-service teacher in-
stitutes, annual student events, radio and
television programmes, and other ac-
tivities. More than twenty science
demonstrations are given in exhibitions
and theatres, covering such fields as sim-
ple machines, cryogenics, electricity,
magnetism, chemistry, optics, lasers, and
micro-organisms. One demonstration
-the million-volt surge generator -
can be heard throughout the museum
building. Annual educational events in-
clude the Student Science Fair, Non-
Public School Science Exposition, In-
dustrial Education Exhibition, Home
Economics Exhibition, Exceptional
Children’s Week Program, Video Fair,
and various career conferences.
The Museum of Science and Industry
was the first to sponsor a ‘Children’s
Science Book Fair,’ which features more
than 1,000 children’s science books,
authors’ workshops and science demon-
strations; it presented science-oriented
plays as part of an experimental ‘science
playhouse’ series; and it served as an
‘academic interest center’, in which two
school classes from different parts of the
city spend a week at the museum utilit-
ing the exhibit halls as a classroom and
laboratory.
The museum also sought to go beyond
the walls of the institution with radio and
television programming. A weekly radio
interview programme called Science
Alive!, is distributed to nearly sixty sta-
tions as a public service. In addition, a
member of the museum staff appears on
a local children’s television programme
to explain how things work.
Ex-unding the army of offerings
There is an impressive array of educa-
tional offerings. However, it became ob-
vious that the museum’s educational pxo-
gramme needed a new expanded thrust.
The surge ofnew scientific,technological
and medical advances; the increasing
concern about environmental pollution,
nuclear energy, and other such public
issues; and inquiries about other types of
science learning opportunities; all these
contributed to the formation of a com-
prehensive Education Department and
an umbrella -like the Science Educa-
tion Center -for new educational in-
itiatives.
In exhibitions, steps were taken to give
greater prominence to the impact on
society of science and technology. The
VictorJ. DaniLov
Universe of Science examined the nature
of science and research and how new
developments have changed our under-
standing of the physical and biological
worlds (Fig. 27). Eveqday Chemistly
looked at the basic principles of chemistry
and their relationship to daily life.
Technology: Chance or Choice? focused
on the major scientific and technological
developments of the last half century,
how they have affected our lives and seem
to have influenced our future.
The Museum of Science and Industry
began to offer other types of learning
experiences -public lectures, science
classes, field trips and summer camps.
The ‘Distinguished Scientist Lecture
Series’ presented free Sunday afternoon
talks by leading scientists and engineers
on such topics as artificial intelligence,
particle physics, masers and lasers,
science and peace, and forecasts for 1984
and beyond.
A wide range of science classes are now
offered for pre-school, elementary and
secondary students, children and
parents, and adults. They deal with such
subjects as the senses, simple machines,
musical science, crystals, mathematics,
light and optics, states of matter and
computers. More than 5,000 people have
taken computer courses at the museum in
the last two years (Fig. 28). The thirty-six
computer classes make use of twenty-five
microcomputers of different makes.
Some classes are tied to television pro-
grammes-such as the 3-2-1 Contact
series on public television. The program-
mes seek to spark off children’s curiosity
about how the world works and help
them come into closer contact with
science and technology in their everyday
lives. Workshops are also held to
familiarize teachers with the concepts -
in areas such as sound, force, food,
growth, communication, light, time and
sight -presented in the television pro-
grammes and provide practical ways to
extend these concepts in the classroom.
In-service workshops, science ad-
vances, teaching techniques, and many
other museum resources are available to
teachers, as well as one- and two-week
summer workshops with college credit for
elementary teachers on the use of infor-
mal resources in an inquiry approach to
science teaching as part of the Science
Education Center’s programme.
Twelve all-day field trips to industrial
sites and research laboratories in the
Chicago area are offered. This year, the
public will have an opportunity to visit
steel, oil, electrical, machine-tool, soap,
Informal science educiztion ìp7 Chicdg0
television and automobile manufactur-
ing facilities; see research on the nature
and behaviour of matter, cement resting,
energy, conservation, and robotics
development; learn about an incinerator
landfill and a hazardous-waste treatment
plant; watch the production of ice cream,
frozen baked goods, and gourmet selec-
tions at a leading hotel; and visit a prin-
ting plant, post office, livestock ex-
change, and stone quarry.
The summer camp programme has
enabled youngsters to conduct biological
research, live on a farm, explore geo-
logical formations and go on wilderness
canoe trips. In 1984, a science/computer
camp combined learning with pleasure.
In addition to recreation, campers were
exposed to rocketry, photography, biol-
ogy, geology, astronomy, pond ecology,
farm studies, physics, mathematics and
computers.
The many faci2itie.r ut the Science
Center
In addition to serving as the focal point
for the foregoing activities, the Science
Education Center includes a large science
library, a reference library, a science
materials loan center, student labo-
ratories for independent research, a pre-
school science exhibition, a grant pro-
gramme to improve science teaching, and
various offices and meeting rooms.
The Kresge Library contains more than
IO,OOO books, periodicals, films, casset-
tes, filmstrips, videotapes, slides, com-
puter software, maps, posters, learning
games and toys, information and cur-
riculum files, puzzles, and other educa-
tional materials. The materials are divid-
ed into three collections:(a) materials for
young people -pre-school to senior
high school level; (b) materials for
teachers and parents to aid in teaching
science to those groups; and (c) a general
popular science collection of books and
periodicals for adults and museum staff
members.
Children seeking resources for science
projects, participants in museum classes,
parents and teachers who want to work
more effectively with their children and
students, and any museum visitor in-
vestigating exhibit subjects can use the
library seven days a week (Fig. 24). The
youth section of the library is divided
structurally to provide areas for pre-
schoolchildren at one end and older
children at the other. At the pre-school
end, there is a free-standing mini-theatre
and shelved play area. A partially enclos-
81
ed computer learning section can be
found at the other end where young peo-
ple can use the library’s collection of
science software on four Apple IIe
microcomputers. There is also space for
children to view audiovisual materials on
filmstrip viewers, and slide viewers, as 26
well as cassette players with headphones One of the science classes given at the
and a record player. Along the outer wall Museum of Science and Industry.
areas of the youth section are special focus ”
units containing books on subjects such
as the human body, space, energy and
science projects. The focus units are sup-
plemented with posters, globes, simple
inhouse projects and study print. One of
the units deals with careers in science and
related occupations with an emphasis on
women and minorities.
The second level of the library houses
the general adult science collection and
teaching resources such as textbooks,
reports, trade catalogues, and education
periodicals. It also contains the Interlake
Science Service, where teachers can
review commercial and museum-produc-
ed activity classroom kits. Microcom-
puters are available for educators to
preview science software for classroom
use. Film-strip viewers, slide viewers, and
video-cassette equipment are accessible
for looking at audio-visual materials.
Teachers will find laminating equip-
ment, a photocopier, and slide- and
filmstrip-production machines for mak-
ing original materials to take to their 27
schools. The Universe of Science makes extensive use
The library will have a NASA Regional of participatory devices to communicate
information about the basic sciences and
Teacher Resource Room with a collection the nature of science and research.
of slides, filmstrips, and videocassettes
relating to NASA space programmes that
can be reproduced for the cost of
materials on the library’s reproduction
and duplicating equipment. The NASA
resources also include teacher curriculum
packets and handout sheets.
The third level of the library has back
issues of over 100 periodicals and a rare-
book room with the museum’s collection
of World Fair items and other historical
materials.
The Kresge Library is one of several
librariesin the Chicago metropolitan area
sharing a main-frame computer to
provide touch terminal access to the
libraries’ collective holdings. The
Museum library’s participation not only
provides access to the bibliographic
records of the cluster’s forty-two member
libraries, but also dial-up retrievabilityto
the seven other state systems, including
the Illinois State Library, that utilize the
same automation technology. There will
be a touch terminal in the browsing area
82 Victor T. Danilov

and youth section on the library’s first and other resources, and co-operation
level and also on the second level. with Chicago-area colleges and univer-
The Kresge Library collections are sities. With the support of the Mellon
diverse and varie in format, yet provide and Kemper Foundation, the museum
one of the most comprehensive gather- has been able to extend its services to
ings of information to further science teachers and schools within the greater
education for all levels and ages in the Chicago area.
country. The focus is on teachers, to increase the
quantity and quality of their in-service
Laboratory work training and to upgrade the support ser-
vices and resources available to them.
Youngsters in Grades 7 to 12 may engage Thus the museum has a summer teacher-
in laboratory studies by becoming training programme entitled ‘Summerof
members of the museum’s two-year-old Science’, in which outstanding science
Science Club, which meets twice a month educators from all over the United States
to hear talks and to discuss research ac- present three-day courses on various
tivities. The facility is adjacent to the topics. Now in its second summer, the
library. The Seabury Laboratory was com- programme continues to address three
pleted in the autumn of 1981 as the in- identified needs: (a) to help teachers to
itial phase in a broader plan to make the teach science effectively by increasing
Museum of Science and Industry a true their confidence; (b) to increase teachers’
science centre, by providing equipment knowledge of basic scientific concepts;
of a general nature which would be found and (c) to demonstrate methods to in-
in any well-equipped laboratory while volve children in the processes of science.
not duplicating to any degree a typical In addition, the museum has teacher-
high-school or college laboratory (Figs. training workshops throughout the
25, 26). academic year. Day-long Saturday
The Seabury Laboratory actually con- workshops are offered during the autumn
sists of two laboratory rooms, a work- and spring seasons. These workshops
room, and an office, whose geometry was share similar goals with the Summer of
specially designed for flexibility. The Science programme, but differ in that
tables are all movable and outlets are they deal with more specific topics.
recessed in the floor around the room so Upon request, special teacher-training
that power is readily available anywhere. workshops are developed to serve a
Water, gas, and compressed air are pro- special need. For example, local school
vided along side counters in each room systems request day-long workshops to
and in the workroom. introduce their teachers to inquiry
While some Science Club members do teaching in science. Special workshops
entire experiments during a club also accompany exhibitions. The Black
meeting, many use the club and the uni- Creativity exhibition was accompanied
que equipment to perform tests as parr of by a teacher workshop designed for
a bigger project such as a science fair. The teachers.
laboratory contains excellent test equip- The museum also continues to develop
ment in the form of oscilloscopes, digital teachers’ and students’ guides to exhibi-
multimeters, a chart recorder, an X-Y tions. 3-2-1 Contact guides correlate
plotter and a microcomputer system. topics from the popular television pro-
A special exhibition for children of 3 to gramme with exhibits in the museum.
6 years of age opened during the summer Open Doors focuses on language skills
of 1984. It contains more than twenty which can be learned while on a field trip
units dealing with force and motion, to the museum. Teachers are provided
sound, and light and optics. It is built to with teaching materials and the museum
the scale, comprehensionand strength of will soon begin a loan kit programme for
pre-school children and restricted to schools. The kits will emphasize inquiry
them and their parents. and hands-on activities and deal with a
variety of topics for the elementary
Focas on scieizce teachers and grades.
teaching Steps are also being taken to organize
a Chicago-area Science Education Con-
The Science Education Center, which sortium with sixteen colleges and univer-
houses the museum’s education staff sities in the metropolitan region which
aims to improve science teaching through could foster co-operative efforts to im-
in-service and summer teacher-training prove science teacher-training .
programmes, development of science kits The consortium will offer science and
hfornzal science education in Chicago
education programmes for teachers
(preservice and inservice); develop new
programmes to respond to specific needs;
involve government agencies, business
and industry in supporting science educa-
tion; and engage in other joint activities
to further the training of science teachers.
Furtt5er development
Three other developments will enhance
the Museum of Science and Industry’s
position as a centre of informal science
education. An Information Technology
Resource Center has been established and
plans have been announced for the
Crown Space Center, scheduled to open
in mid-1986. A ‘Newscience Gallery’ is
also in the planning stage.
The Information Technology Resource
Center seeks to assist non-profit otganiza-
tions in the Chicago area-such as
cultural, educational, medical and social-
welfare groups -in utilizing computers,
cable television, and other new electronic
techniques in their operations through
consulting, training, conferences, pro-
duct information and the sharing of
facilities, services, and other resources.
The Crown Space Center will be a
83
metres of space an‘tOmnimaxz
computer courses here. Twenty-five
microcomputers are used in thirty-six classes
space theatre, and an outdoor court with at variouslevels.
space hardware. It will be the site for new
space science demonstrations and classes
and the centre for an expanded space
education programme in the central
United States.
The Newscience Gallery will be a col-
ourful participatory, three-dimensional
newspaper of science and technology.
It will seek to explain and interpret-
promptly and interestingly -the latest
advances, issues and trends in science,
technology, medicine, industry and
related fields. The gallery will cover three
or four topics at any one time, with at
least one subject being changed every
quarter. It is an attempt to respond to
fast-breaking developments-a com-
mon museum problem.
As can be seen, the Museum of Science
and Industry has placed increasing em-
phasis on educational activities that go far
beyond normal display and collection of-
ferings. It is convinced that science and
technology museums must assume a
greater responsibility for voluntary public
science education. It is costly, time-
consuming, and perhaps beyond the
84 VictorJ. Danilov

traditional role of some museums -but

29
Technology: Chance or Choice? is a new
exhibition dealing with the impact of
science and technology. This unit is
concerned with nuclear energy.
it is necessary in a rapidly changing
technological world.
The public have few places to turn to
for a better understanding of scientific
principles, technological applications
and the social implications shaping their
future. Educational exhibits and ac-
tivities help to produce an informed
citizenry in scientific and technological
matters.
Unlike many other institutions,
museums tend to be loved and revered by
the public. People by the millions come
to museums to learn and to enjoy.
Museums bring words and pictures to
life. In addition to being storehouses of
objects and interpreters of our scientific
and technological heritage, they are in-
struments of education. It is no longer a
question of whether museums should
educate, but rather how well they per-
form this function, especially in the
science and technology field. w

Technology: chance or choice?

One of the most difficult challenges for fiftieth anniversary celebrations was a the case of the Chicago museum-to
science and technology museums is to major new permanent exhibition on the think about the consequences (both good
bring out the impact of science and impact of science and technology over the and bad) of scientific and technological
technology. In general, such museums last half century (Fig. 29). It was accom- advances and to help museum visitors to
have not yet found a satisfactory way to panied by a public seminar dealing with be better informed on public policy
assess and present the human implica- the same subject. questions.
tions and consequences of scientific The project began in 1980 with the
discoveries and their technological ap- Emphass on socìaZ impact hiring of a researcher-called a
plications. ‘humanist in residence’ -and the for-
In most instances, museums have Entitled Technology: Chance or Choice?, mation of a Humanities Advisory Com-
avoided the impact issue and confined this exhibition was an innovative attempt mittee, consisting of five scholars drawn
their exhibits to scientific advances and to present an interdisciplinary overview primarily from the history and philoso-
their use by society without making any of the consequences of scientific and phy of science fields. The project director
judgements whatsoever. They assume, by technological developments during the was Dr David A. Ucko, science director at
implication, that scientific and techno- lifetime of the United States oldest, the museum.
logical progress is for the common good, largest, and most popular contemporary It became obvious early on that it
regardless of any inherent or concomitant science and technology museum. More would not be possible to cover everything
problems. than $500,000 were raised in contribu- within the limitations of the 7,000-
Fortunately, the situation is changing. tions and grants to make it possible. square-foot space and the budget avail-
In the last decade or so, science and The emphasis was on the social or able. Hence some early developments
technology museums have begun dealing human impact of technology since 1933, such as the automobile were omitted,
with such controversial topics as en- rather than the ‘nuts and bolts’ usually while other advances such as laser rays
vironmental pollution, medical side ef- found in museum exhibits. More often, were not included because of their
fects, automotive and air safety, weather technology is presented in isolation -or limited application or impact.
modification, job displacement, and in a favourable light -without examin- After considerable discussion, it was
‘nuclearwinter’. Such issues are being in- ing the social priorities, trade-offs, and decided to organize the exhibition into
creasingly incorporated into existing or implications accompanying decisions five sections dealing with some of the
new exhibitions. about technology. most far-reaching developments. They
In 1983, however, the principal feature The objective was to get the museum- are:
of the Museum of Science and Industry’s going public -some 4-million a year in Past: an overview of major developments
Technology: chance or choice?
in science and technology since 1933
within the context of social history,
providing background for other
elements displayed.
Physical environment: the impact of
nuclear energy, synthetics, and space
exploration.
Living .world: antibiotics, the birth-
control pill, and the Green Revolu-
tion.
Information systems: automation, com-
puters, and television.
Fzlhre: the potential effects of genetic
engineering and microelectronics.
Varied display techniques
To explain the impact of such scientific
and technological developments, a varie-
ty of display techniques were employ-
ed- artefacts, computers, videotapes,
cartoons, newsreels, photo-essays, pos-
ters, history wall, recorded messages,
growing plants, an operating robot, and
others.
Historic objects appear throughout to
provide perspective, but the exhibition is
characterized by a contemporary ‘hands-
on’ flavour in keeping with the mu-
seum’s participatory exhibit philosophy,
which seeks to make museum-goingboth
enlightening and entertaining.
The introductory ‘Past’ section makes
use of a roulette-like ‘wheel of chance’,
five slide shows depicting each decade, a
history wall of developments, and car-
toons relating to science and technology.
Each of the major sections begins with
an ‘impact’ statement, which identifies
the key issues related to the technology
covered in the section. A typical state-
ment is the one used for the ‘Green
Revolution’ section which reads as
follows:
GREEN REVOLUTION
Techniques developed in the laboratory, the
field, and the drafting room over the last half
century have greatly transformed agriculture.
New methods of hybridization create crop
varieties that meet special needs. Fertilizers,
pesticides, and weed killers increase crop
yields. Machines now do much of the hard,
tedious work of harvesting. Since this Green
Revolution,more food than ever before is be-
ing produced for the people of the world.
U N P L A N N E D CONSEQUENCES
The Green Revolution has had some
unwelcome effects, too. Pesticides such as
85
30
Growing plants illustrate the role of
hydroponics in the ‘Green Revolution’
section of Technology: Chmce or Choice?
exhibit at the Museum of Science and
Industry in Chicago.
DDT remain in the food chain, frequently
killing animals, and posing health threats to
people. Researchers cannot keep up with in-
sects that quickly evolve pesticide-restistant
strains. Genetically diverse wild plant species
are disappearing,while their new hybrids are
more easily devastated by epidemics of crop
disease. Mechanization sometimes puts peo-
ple out of work, and many of the new techni-
ques tend to help big agri-businesses more
than the small farmer (another endangered
species).
CHOICES A N D DECISIONS
The GreenRevolutionpresents the world with
difficult questions.
Can we expect food surpluses to erase the
threat of famine and starvation?
Will they be used as weapons of diplomacy?
Will agricultural technology concentrate
political power?
Can scientistsand farmers co-operate interna-
tionally to find ways to adapt new techni-
ques to local needs?
How can we make the most of limited land
resources without damaging the living
world?
Only people, not technology, can answer
these critical questions.
Copy and photographs accompany each
section of the exhibit. Brief photo-essays
supplement the impact statement (Fig
30). A history panel provides a short
chronology that highlights the human
aspects of the development of each
technology, and a ‘how it works’ section
helps to demystify the technology for the
visitor.
Microcomputer interaction
The principal device utilized here is the
mirocomputer. Eight computer units ac-
tively involve the visitor in the exhibition
content and reinforce the importance of
making choices about technology.
In each section, the computers pose
three multiple-choice questions to the
visitor (Fig. 31). These questions have no
single ‘correct’ answer. They are designed
to make the public think about issues
raised by a particular technology.
After selecting one of four possible
responses, the visitor is shown a bar graph
indicating how the previous 100 visitors
86
31
Technology: Chance or Choice?, exhibition
at the Museum of Science and Industry,
Chicago. Visitors are invited to answer
multiple-choice questions posed by
microcomputers. The questions have no
single ‘coJrect’answer and are designed to
make museum-goers think about the issues
raised by particular technologies. After
responding, a visitor is shown a bar graph
indicating how the previous 100 people
replied to the question.
32
Visitors can operate a robot in the
Information Systems area of Technology:
Chance or Choice? exhibit at Chicago’s
Museum of Science and Industry.
VictorJ. Danilov
responded to the same question. In the ters which have public policy im-
nuclear energy portion, for example, the plications.
computer terminal asks: ‘Whoseopinion Exhibits that examine the human im-
on nuclear weapons do you share?’ The pact of science and technology are likely
responses (and the percentages on a par- to become more common, as museums
ticular day) were: recognize their growing responsibility to
Peace cannot be kept by force . . . only explain the consequences of scientificand
achieved by understanding -Einstein technological developments.
(61 per cent) As the world becomes increasingly
Physicists have known sin . . . a dependent upon technology, the general
knowledge they cannot lose - public will need the assistance of
Oppenheimer (17 per cent) museums to an even greater degree, if it
Stability depends on power -Teller (11 is to make informed decisions and an-
per cent) ticipate both the favourable and
None of these (11 per cent) undesirable impacts of science and
technology in the years ahead. w
In the ‘Future’ section, an interactive
slide/tape programme is presented to a
group of up to nine visitors on possible
directions for genetic engineering and
micro-electronics. Sitting in a semicircle,
the visitors are encouraged to discuss their
choices before voting.
Various other exhibit techniques are
used to communicate specific content.
Early newsreels, for instance, show how
technologies may be viewed very dif-
ferently when new and after the passage
of time. A videotape on nuclear weapons
highlights personal reactions of different
people to the atomic bomb.
A ‘tdhìng’ comfluter
The ELIZA computer programme allows
visitors to ‘talk’ to a computer, and see
for themselves the strengths and limita-
tions of a classic artificial intelligence pro-
gramme. An operating industrial robot
draws visitors’ attention to a technology
that will have profound social implica-
tions (Fig. 32). Three versions of the same
news story (birth of the first American
baby produced by in vitro fertilization)
give visitors some idea of news editing on
television.
Several techniques reinforce the social
context of technology and relate it to
popular culture. Film posters, such as
those from The China Syndrome and Dr.
Strangelove, reflect some popular views
of nuclear energy. A film clip from The
Gradaate is used in the synthetics area,
and one with Charlie Chaplin in Modern
Times is used in the automation section
(it is started by ‘punching in’ on a time
clock).
The exhibition barely touches on some
of the complex issues raised by scientific
and technological developments in the
last half century, but it performs an in-
valuable service in increasing public
awareness of scientific and technical mat-
 87

Detelin Dachev

Born in 1937 in Bulgaria. Doctor of geological

sciences: specialist in mineralogy. Has worked as a
geologist specializing in mineral prospection in
j h r e prospects Bulgaria, Algeria, Tunisia and Mozambique, and
also as keeper of the collection in the museum at
Klement OhridUniversity in Sofia. He helped to set
up a geology museum attached to the National
Directorate for Geology and the Mining Industry in
Luanda, Angola. He is at present employed by the
In many cities throughout the world drawn to the fact that this process is large- Committee for Geology in Bulgaria.
geological museums and the geological ly concealed, uncontrollable and, there-
collections in natural science museums fore, extremely dangerous.
are as well known as those in fine arts What is involved here, of course, is not
museums. There ate three main reasons just the conservation of material valuable
for renewed interest in these interna- to science but, above all, the need to The basic function of museums is
tional centres of science: the impressive popularize a new conception of, and a the spread of scìent$ic knowZedge
amount of material collected and new relationship to, the protection and
displayed there and the large number of conservation of nature. To suppose that In the developed countries, science is
unique samples; the modern presenta- these problems are not relevant to the popularized by a large number of scien-
tion of the collections and their im- developing world is the worst way of tific institutes, universities and the mass
aginative design; the scientific activity understanding them. media, whereas in the developing coun-
conducted by these museums. tries, the responsibilities of museums and
Many countries in Asia, Africa and The organization of the coZZection museum workers are much greater
Latin America have both unique samples of unique sumpdes and their precisely because of the lack of specializ-
and the potential for developing signifi- scient& processing cannot keep ed agencies for the spread of science. In
cant museological and scientific work. puce with the intensive expZoitatìon any developing country, institutional
The achievements of world science are of minerd resources and university museums should be
not, however, always put to use in the engaged in large-scale, well-organized
scientific activities of the developing There are many sad instances of the ir- popularization and educational work.
countries. Is there any reason why, for ex- revocable loss of unique samples in the The most important point is that, at the
ample, the geological and natural science recent history of European countries. Un- present stage, these tasks can be com-
museums in most of these countries fortunately, such examples may also be pleted with comparatively modest
should be in the same condition as Euro- observed in some developing countries, resources (this question should be the
pean and American museums at the start where intensive mineral prospecting and subject of a separate publication).
of the twentieth century or why there are exploitation take priority over other in- The unthinking comparison between
no such museums at all in certain terests. museums in the developed and the
countries? Geological research and exploitation developing countries has resulted in an
It is very important to bear in mind today make no provision for the collec- underestimation of the potential of
here that this neglect of museums and na- tion of unique samples and only science museums in countries which have as yet
tional science is still prevalent five, ten teaching institutes, museums, founda- neither scientific research institutes nor
and, in some cases, even fifteen years tions and individuals are able to act on well organized geological services.
after the achievement of national in- behalf of science and future generations. Scientific research and public informa-
dependence. It is still unclear in our view This system must be reviewed in order to tion work can be reorganized in natural
to what extent this situation is the result prevent the loss of unique samples. science and geological museums, so that
of particular features of national develop- Work might be carried out on the basis these museums become effective educa-
ment and to what extent it depends on of the following plan. First stage: tional and scientific centres (on the basis
aspects of international aid. What mat- preliminary survey of promising regions of which it will subsequently be much
ters most at present is to note that it ex- for the collection of unique samples; sec- easier to develop scientific institutes).
ists. The problem is not new and the pur- ond stage: geological survey, prospection This kind of initiative would be par-
pose of this article is not simply to and collection of unique geological ticularly useful and timely in certain
promote an exchange of views but to urge samples; third stage: exploration and col- countries because of their particular social
radical action to reorganize museum- lection of samples (including unique and political conditions. Thus, for exam-
work in the developing countries. samples); fourth stage: organization of ple, in those developing countries where
A general look at the situation prompts specialized work by museums to collect tensions or war exclude any possibility of
the conclusion that two important factors and process samples throughout the normal widespread geological work, the
which are prejudicial to science are in- country. best course is to consolidate and develop
volved: the first is the considerable In our opinion, there would be no dif- the national scientific basis so that, when
backwardness of science and museology ficulty in reorganizing geological work peace comes, the people can carry out
in many developing countries, which is and exploitation in this way in countries practical work which has already been
unwarranted given the present level of in- where they are not yet widely developed. mapped out and planned in scientific
ternational aid, and the second is the ir- All that is required is that governments terms.
recoverable loss of geological samples of should ensure the efficient organization The role of museums in this area is
value to science; attention should be of the work and provide incentives. twofold: scientific research work con-
88
cerned with the collection and study of
samples and nature conservation forecast-
ing; educational work to encourage the
spread of scientific knowledge and the
recruitment of new scientific workers..
It should not however be forgotten
here that the scientific content of the col-
lections and the work of museums is not
the only aspect that interests young peo-
ple. The fascinating and entertaining
aspect of one or more routes through a
museum should not be neglected. Thus,
natural science museums in countries
with semi-precious stones could have
lapidary collections labelled in such a way
as to arouse the interest of young people,
for example: ‘Will your job be to look for
precious stones?’.
Anyone wishing to interest young peo-
ple in the problems of science in the
developing countries must direct their ef-
forts towards the entertaining and attrac-
tive aspects, particularly if these are rele-
vant to local conditions.
Museums to bouse unique sainples
This area of conservation is the most
topical and urgent development-related
task for museums in developing coun-
tries.
The irreparable loss of samples is
already proceeding too quickly where in-
tensive prospecting, exploration and ex-
ploitation of mineral resources are under
way. The pressing nature of this problem
requires national scientists and all scien-
tists familiar with the problem to adopt a
new humanitarian approach to research
and information in the earth sciences.
Such an approach also necessitates the
reorganization of scientific work.
It is interesting to note that there has
been a sharp increase in the prices of
geological samples on the world market
in recent years. This alone constitutes a
solid argument for the rapid organization
of an effective system for the collection of
samples in the developing countries.
Organization of the collection of do-
cuments, tools, instruments and photo-
graphs of historical interest, shedding
light on the history of the development of
geological science in each country, would
be another important part of this
organisation. It is, of course, equally im-
portant to document the present stage of
development (collection of photographs,
for example, recording the build-up of
national personnel, the preparation of
modern maps, etc.).
There are also secondary functions
alongside these basic functions of
museums, but it is important to point out
that in the different types of museums
considered below each of these basic
functions has different implications for
layout and development.
Types of museums and geoZogicaZ
coZZectiom
A national, natural science museum
should be an outstanding cultural and
scientific institution. The fact that the
strictly scientific and educational side
has, in some developed countries, been
modified with a view to making displays
more attractive may be explained by the
way in which science has been intensively
developed in specialized institutes in
those countries.
In our view, the policy of establishing
national, natural history museums in
developing countries on the basis of the
European model should be radically
changed. The principles of the tradi-
tional museum should, however, remain
the basis for the organization of scientific
work and the arrangement of the collec-
tions. Nevertheless, new sections must be
set up, scientific research must be made
more rational and more intensive, and
special attention must be given to scien-
tific information and educational work.
The new structure of national, natural
science museums should not differ essen-
tially at this stage from the traditional
structure.
As it is the problems of the geological
sciences that are being examined here, it
is appropriate to concentrate on the possi-
ble changes in the structure of the
museum affecting the geological units.
First, it would be useful to present ‘native
minerals’ and ‘native rocks’ separately
from the collections of minerals and rocks
of other countries held in the museum.
In addition to the traditional sections,
the new structure of the museum should
also include: a section entitled ‘Unique
samples, reserves and scientific elabora-
tion’ with adjacent laboratories; and a
section entitled ‘Methods for the spread
1. The traditional structure of national natural
science museums. Mineralogy and Petrography
Department: (a) minerals section; rocks section.
Historical Geology and Paleontology
Department: (a) historical geology section;
(b) paleontology section. Botany Department:
(a) anatomy and morphology section; (b) higher
plants section; (c) plant communities section.
Zoology Department: (a) invertebrates section;
(b) insects section; (c) fish section; (d) amphibians
and reptiles section; (e) ornithology section:
(f) mammals section. Certain auxiliary units such
as herbaria, laboratories, etc., are normally
attached to these scientific sections.
Detelin Dachev
of scientific knowledge’. The following
facilities must be attached to this section:
(a) a library with a wide range of scientific
and popular science works; (b) work-
rooms for young people and/or science
study groups, amateur collections, etc.
The reorganization of the museum
should be carefully structured. It is essen-
tial to plan not only for the future scien-
tific and technical development of each
section, but for its design and for
catalogues, guidebooks and lists of
threatened species of plants, animals,
minerals and fossils.
There is great scope in this area for the
initiative and inventiveness of the people
involved in museum work. However, a
mistaken idea has gained currency in
some developing countries to the effect
that the people as a whole should create
museums.
Of course, there is the possibility of
mass participation in the search for in-
teresting samples, but mass participation
in museology should go no further than
this. Only qualified specialists should be
responsible for the scientific and
technical processing of material and the
subsequent presentation of the col-
lection.
There is no room for amateurism in
modern science, particularly when it is
directly concerned with the dissemina-
tion of scientific knowledge.
Obtaining maximum financial sup-
port from the State and from public and
private sources is a most important step in
the reorganization of national natural
science museums. One element here is
the support for developing countries pro-
vided by international organizations such
as Unesco. Paradoxically, most of these
organizations sometimes prefer to
finance extremely narrow types of scien-
tific work, of which the present or future
relevance may be unclear, while little
money is allocated to consolidate the
museums’ work of collecting threatened
species.
To return to national natural science
museums, they should be reorganized
along the following lines: the accent
should be on unique national samples;
the level of scientific work in the museum
and in the scientific classification of
samples should be high; special attention
should be paid to the presentation of col-
lections and the design of exhibition
rooms, libraries, etc. ; training of mu-
seum staff should be reinforced; and
museum visits, advertising and methods
of work with young people reorganized.
Finally, samples for a collection entitled
Organization of geo/ogicd museums i~i
develbping coum&x
‘History of National Science’ should, if
possible, be gathered at the very begin-
ning of the work.
University nzzcsezcnzs
The geological museum of a university or
higher educational establishment has
clearly defined functions which are to
serve as an auxiliary unit in the educa-
tional process and, where possible, to
organize related scientific research work.
The bare minimum of geological collec-
tions can be organized in the university of
every country on the basis of: mine-
rals/ petrography; paleontology/strati-
graphy; geodynamics.
With these as a foundation, new sub-
disciplinary collections can then be add-
ed, such as: national mineral deposits;
oryctology (as an introduction to paleon-
tology); geodynamics of the earth’s in-
terior and surface, etc.
In our view, national and foreign
samples should be separated in university
museums, as they are in other museums.
The rearrangement of the collections
along modern and educationally more
helpful lines is a very important element
in the reorganization of such museums,
as are effective lighting, positioning of
display cases and other aspects of design.
The collections designed for educa-
tional purposes occupy an important
place in university museums. Most of the
samples in these collections are usually to
be found in lecture halls or laboratories.
They must also be carefully displayed,
with due regard for the principles of
scientific classification, presentation, etc.
The teaching role of university mu-
seums does not exclude staff and students
from participating in research work and
nature conservation. On the contrary, the
reorganization o f these museums must
take account of the ambitions and aspira-
tions of young people and include a wide
programme of field and research work in-
volving students in the collection and
conservation of unique samples, the
establishment of reserves, etc.
The museums in Maputo, Mozam-
bique, and Luanda, Angola, may be
mentioned as examples of well-organized
university museums. But these mu-
seums, like many similar museums in the
developing countries, fail to attract the
public and are not adapted to present-
day requirements and the specific
character of science in these countries.
Geological museums attached to
government departments and institu-
tions have specific functions: to gather
future prospects 89
together scientifically and aesthetically
the most representative and interesting
samples collected at any time by the
employees of the geological service or of
other departments to which the museum
is attached, and to function as an educa-
tional unit in the training of its own staff.
Basic collections (minerals/ petro-
graphy and paleontology /stratigraphy),
may also be built up in departmental and
institutional museums, but in our view
the most complete and representative
collections should be those reflecting the
work of the department or enterprise. For
example, the geological museum of a
copper mining enterprise should concen-
trate on developing a collection on the
‘geology of mineral deposits’, composed
of sections such as ‘stratigraphy and tec-
tonics of mineral deposits’, ‘mineral
associations’, etc. The museum of a na-
tional geological service might include a
wider range of collections, for example:
‘the stratigraphy of specific regions of the
country’ a ‘lapidary collection’, etc. This
type of museum must nevertheless also.
develop a collection of ‘national mineral
deposits’. A historical collection con-
sisting of documents, photographs, in-
struments, etc., would also enhance this
type of museum.
The belief that scientific precision and
accurate classification are not necessary
for the collections of such museums is 33 and 34
profoundly mistaken. Some departmen- The Museum of the National Directorate
for Geology and the Mining Industry,
tal or institutional geological museums Luanda.
are still quite inadequate and some of
them quite frankly resemble storehouses
for bits of rock, minerals and fossils. In
our view, those in charge of any depart-
ment or institution which organizes a
geological museum must ensure that the
samples are dealt with in a competent,
scientific way by their own staff or with
the assistance of specialized institutions.
It is here that the issue of unique
samples arises. It is geological institutions
(national, provincial and private bodies
and enterprises) that carry out most of the
geological prospection, exploration and
exploitation work.
The reorganization of museums at-
tached to government departments and
institutions (more specifically, the
collecting of samples) should include the
four stages discussed earlier. Major state
intervention is, nevertheless, undoubt-
edly required in order to carry out such
reorganization.
The first and most vital job in
reorganizing departmentaUinstitutiona1
museums is to ensure that the depart-
ments and institutions concerned include
90 Detelin Dachev

one or more geologists in their research the United Nations Development Pro- 35
teams or on the staff of their museums for gramme (UNDP) and of geologists from The Museum, both an educat~onaland
preliminary search work and the collec- Geominas. These are of paleontology, research
tion of unique samples. stratigraphy, petrography, geodynamics,
The Geominas Museum attached to lapidary, oryctology, two mineralogical
the National Directorate for Geology and collections ‘The Minerals of Angola’ and
the Mining Industry in Luanda, Angola ‘The Minerals of Other Countries’ and
provides an example of far-reaching also collections entitled ‘Mineral
reorganization (figs 33 and 34). The pur- Deposits of Angola’, ‘Implements Con-
pose of this reorganization wa5 to nected with Human Activity in the An-
establish, on the basis of the small thropogenic Era’ and ‘The History of
number of samples already held and the Geology in Angola’.
great potential for collecting which exists The attention of visitors to the mu-
in Angola, museum collections which seum is drawn to unique, valuable and
could be used to popularize earth particularly beautiful samples by means
sciences, to provide both training and a of special lighting. In this way, the
basis for future scientific research work museum attached to the National Direc-
and to preserve unique samples, docu- torate for Geology and the Mining In-
ments, tools, etc., which throw light on dustry of Angola is achieving its objec-
the history of these sciences. In addition tives. Its frequent visitors include
to the purely technical and design aspects students, schoolchildren, interested
of the work, considerable laboratory and members of the public and members of
field work was carried out, in order to col- oficial delegations (Fig. 35). The
lect and classify samples following the museum also helps geologists with an in-
principles of the various branches of termediate level of training to acquire
geology. Eleven collections were put higher qualifications. The standard of
together with the help of specialists from research work is good and the immediate
Orga?iization of geological museums in developing countries: future prospects
aim is to turn the museum into a small
scientific research centre and a base for
the training of personnel. The museum
has built up useful contacts with similar
institutions in several other countries.
The geological collections of city
natural history museums should be
developed and reorganized along the
same lines as national, departmental and
institutional museums. While private
geological collections are a special case in
the area of nature conservation, they do
have certain advantages. Such collec-
tions, though often put together for com-
mercial purposes, can play an important
part in preserving unique and threatened
geological samples for future genera-
tions. Personal initiative is a great force in
scientific prospection by collectors and, if
carefully directed, it can produce a rich
return for the national culture (there are,
as we know, examples where private col-
lections and foundations have been the
starting point for museums of national
importance). The task of the State and
the relevant authorities in the developing
countries at this stage is to regulate the ac-
quisition, registration and movement of
samples in private collections. Finally, it
should be stressed that the formation of
private collections is one of the most ef-
fective and flexible ways of making
geology known among young people.
The proper and timely organization
and reorganization of geological and
natural science museums in the develop-
ing countries is an extremely urgent task.
Unlike similar museums in the developed
countries, those in the developing coun-
tries should, in our view, be transformed
into centres for scientific research and the
collection of unique samples and for the
effective spread of scientific knowledge
among the general public.
In order to achieve this, an effort must
be made at two levels. On the one hand,
regional systems must be organized for
the co-ordination of geological and
natural science museums. On the other,
a start should be made at the national
level, on: the systematization of existing
museum collections and, where no such
collections exist, preliminary work to
establish small, but well organized, col-
lections; the training of nationals in
museum and scientific work; linking
scientific work with practical work (with
other organizations engaged in field work
and exploitation); the establishment of
national projects (or projects linked with
regional projects) under the guidance
of Unesco and other United Nations
organizations for the conservation of uni-
91
que geological objects and samples is as The organization of museums in
important in our opinion as,for example, developing countries should not be based
the conservation of unique archaeological on the local traditions, local resources and
items. specific problems of the country. There
The process of reorganizing museums should also be international aid for such
should be well programmed over time; organization (or reorganization), provid-
museums may be classified as follows, ac- ed in the form of subsidies, skilled per-
cording to their stage of development: sonnel and information about scientific
First generation maseams, which have classification and the modern layout of
the following characteristics: the main museums.
collections are established; elementary In concluding our observations, we
sample collection is organized, and is should like to state that, in our view, all
partly linked to geological prospecting the prospecting and reorganization
and exploration groups; basic scientific already under way in various parts of the
work is carried out (systematization of world will lead to a greater interest in uni-
samples, related reports and publications que geological objects and the creation of
etc.); initial efforts are being made to a new geological discipline which we
popularize science (regular visits to might call geosozology (from the Greek
museums by groups, etc.). ‘sozo’, to save) or the science of the con-
Secondgeneration maseams, with the servation of geological objects or even of
following characteristics: exhibition and the earth itself. It is our belief that this
scientific research units/ departments are science will be different from the an-
established; collections are properly thropomorphic view of nature. In order
classified into branches (e.g. mineralogy, to develop in this way, science requires a
palaeontology, etc.); goal-oriented scien- new social paradigm, a new humanitari-
tific work with the accent on nature con- an outlook for an age in which man will
servation is closely linked to applied co-exist fully with nature.
geology; there is an organized system of
educational and other activities to [ Translatedfrom R.ussian]
popularize science; established links with
relevant international organizations and
museums in neighbouring countries; ac-
tive exchange of samples and informa-
tion; preliminary work is being carried
out on the organization of museums and
reserves in the provinces.
Third generation museums are fully
developed national geological or natural
science museums. Their structure and ac-
tivities broadly correspond to the major
cultural, educational and scientific tasks
required for the economic and cultural
development of the country. These in-
clude: modern, well-presented collec-
tions with proper classification of ex-
hibits; a well organized system for the
collection of samples; special measures to
prevent losses of unique and museum
samples; highly organized and differen-
tiated scientific work; a highly organized
system of activities for the popularization
of science; special forms and methods of
work to attract young people; informa-
tion and publicity provided through the
mass media; close links with museums in
other countries and with international
organizations.
These are of course only examples of
how museums might be developed and it
must be remembered that national fac-
tors and the qualifications and initiative
of museum workers themselves will pro-
duce a range of great diversity.
92
Thepreserzution of natard bistory specimem
Didogue between a ?mseoZogist, Geneviève Meurgaes,
and a museum-user, Serge Cron, organizer of socio-educutìonaZactivities
Geneviève Meurgues
Born in Parris on 4 February 1931. Chemical
engineer, distinction in biochemistry at the Conser-
vatoire National des Arts et Métiers, graduate
degree in Natural Sciences and Advanced Studies
Diploma in Zoology. Head of the Department of
Museological and Educational Research of the Na-
tional Museological Service, National Museum of
Natural History, Paris. Thesis for engineering
diploma on 'The biosynthesis of nucleic acids in
Aspergillus niger'.
Numerous publications on techniques developed
in the laboratory for preserving natural history
specimens (plants, molluscs. insects, etc.). popular
science and scientific exhibitions. Member of the
Association of Scientific Writers (France).
36
Fuchsia flower: facsimile model made by
the Carnegie Museum (Pittsburg).
Cron: My visit to your museum with my
pupils has left me very disappointed. I
thought I would be able to use it as the
starting point for an introduction to
nature, and all we saw were shapeless,
colourless plants and faded, dusty
animals. It all seems very remote from
nature, and anyone seeing such a sight
may wonder whether, given the non-stop
development of audio-visual techniques
and opportunities to travel, natural
science museums still serve a purpose
nowadays.
Meurgues: Indeed they do, probably
more than ever in our industrialized
world, which is so long in information
and so short in poetry. For a museum is
not just a place in which to learn or ac-
quire culture, it can also be somewhere to
go for a few moment's respite from the
cares of the day -somewhere where the
mind can take flight and dream. A
museum should be a place where the
visitor can be enriched, not just culturally
but intellectually and spiritually as well;
and if the museologist has done his job
properly the visitor should experience a
kind of elation.
Crow Do you think that you can achieve
your end by presenting us with a series of
dusty, shapeless animal corpses that smell
of moth-balls?
Neurgues: No, of course not. But old-
fashioned displays of this kind date from
a time when no distinction was drawn
between a scientific collection, intended
for research workers and a collection con-
ceived for cultural and educational ends
in view, that is to say for the public. In the
first case, the main consideration is to en-
sure that the information given on the
specimen -origin, name of collector
and date of collection-is accurate and
that the specific characteristics necessary
for systematic identification are preserv-
ed. In addition, in order to identify
species and sub-species it is essential to
work, not on a single specimen, but on a
series of individuals of the same species.
This explains why old displays include
veritable armies of animals of the same
species -though it should not be forgot-
ten that the slaughter will have been
spread over a period. The second type of
collection is the kind intended for the
public, and in this area spectacular efforts
have been made in recent decades. Our
task as museologists is to reveal nature in
such a way that visitors will understand it
and love it; and no museologist today is
in any doubt that, if nature is to be loved,
it must be presented as well as possible.
Nature, of course, is life; it is also light,
colour and movement; it is poetry and
beauty. If we want to capture the visitor's
attention, we must appeal to his sensibili-
ty, and so we must look to the aesthetic
side. The scientific message will only get
across if the public are receptive, and we
shall not achieve this by showing them
fusty museums.
Cron. All this is fine in theory, but why
are these principles not put into practice?
I wonder whether the public might not
be given a more effective introduction to
nature if they were taken to a forest or a
meadow in springtime.
Meurgues. You can be certain that the *)
museologist -who is himself an educa-
tor and, above all, a naturalist- has
already asked himself this question. But
this is where the specific problem of con-
servation rears its head. The preservation
of natural forms and colours is not a sim-
ple matter. Take the case of plants. Here
the curator and museologist are con-
fronted with two major problems: the
preservation of shapes and the preserva-
tion of colour. In the oldest museums,
plants were displayed in the form of a
herbarium, of interest only to the pur-
poseful visitor already attracted to
botany. Nowadays the few botanical
galleries to be found in the world display
either actual plants preserved by
freeze-drying, or else facsimile models.
The Natural Science Museum, Ottawa is
pursuing an interesting experiment with
a botanical gallery of living specimens,
but this type of display is expensive to
maintain. American museums display
completely lifelike artificial plants, and
the only problem of preservation is the
minor one of dust; they are often mould-
ed in wax or plastic by volunteer helpers
The preservation of nutural' histoq specimens 93

(Fig. 36). In Chinese museums, the

plants are made of silk and bear a
remarkable likeness to the original. For
the preservation of real plants, the
technique of lyophilization or freeze-
drying is applied.' Fungi, some species of
which contain up to per cent water, res-
pond very well to freeze-drying and look
completely lifelike. Flowering plants are
more difficult to prepare because the
37
chlorophyll normally concentrated in the Dioramas made by the National Museum of
chloroplasts migrates into the tissues, Natural History (New York): stuffed
with the result that the specimen fades animals and artificial vegetation.
and has to be artificially retinted. The
coloured pigments in flowers respond to
dehydration in various ways according to
their chemical composition (flavonic or 38 ( 4 , (b)
Diorama made by the Field Museum
anthocyanic; the yellow pigments withs- (Chicago): stuffed animals in an entirely
tand the process perfectly) and their artificial habitat.
distribution in the tissues. Once the
specimen has been prepared in this way,
the problem is how to preserve it over
time. It must obviously be protected
from damp and also from oxygen, which
would oxidize the coloured pigments in a
reaction catalysed by the ultraviolet rays.
The solution is to preserve the mounted
specimen in an oxygen-free medium, i.e.
in an inert gas such as nitrogen or
anhydrous argon.

Cr012. You have just referred to the harm-

ful effects of ultraviolet rays. It seems to
me that this is a general problem; there
are hardly any coloured pigments that
can withstand them indefinitely. Perhaps
this explains the discoloration of the
specimens that so disappointed us on our
visit to your museum.

Meurgues. Indeed; and even the sunlight

that the curator-naturalist needs so badly
in order to live causes him a lot of anxiety.
However, modern museology has made
great strides, and certain aberrations -
such as museums built completely win-
dowless for fear of the sunlight -are on
the way out. Glass that filters the
ultraviolet out of the sunlight, is ob-
tainable today. Museums are now being
built that have windows made of this
glass. It is also recommended practice to
make display windows of it and to
employ artificial light containing little or
no ultraviolet radiation as secondary
lighting. There are also anti-ultraviolet

1. The process consists in slow dehydration at

low temperature in a vacuum. The specimen for
dehydration is frozen so that all the liquids are
solidified; it is then placed in a vacuum,
whereupon the water is transformed from the
solid to the gaseous state without passing through
the liquid state, and thus without damage to the
tissues.
94
39
Diorama made by the Zoologisk M L W I ~
(Copenhagen): stuffed animals. Natural
tree-trunks in the foreground against a
painted backdrop. The leaves are artificial.
varnishes which, when applied to the
light source or to the glass panes,
eliminate the harmful effects of this kind
Of radiation.
Cron. I am gradually beginning to realize
the difficulties of preserving plants in a
lifelike condition. But why is it that the
animals always look so stiff and un-
natural?
Meargues. With plants, although preser-
vation is a complex problem, there is
nevertheless some uniformity of physico-
chemical structure. But this is not true of
animals: there are basic differences be-
tween a jellyfish and a large mammal!
These differences relate to the skeleton
-whether present or absent, internal or
external; to the integuments -mem-
brane, skin, shell, scales, fur or feathers;
and to the chemical constitution of the
Geneviève Meurgues
internal environment -the presence or
absence of lipids. Each zoological group
presents its own problems.
Insects, with their external skeleton,
are fairly easy to preserve; they simply
have to be dried following preparation.
Their soft-skinned larvae are more dif-
ficult to prepare, but freeze-dry well. If
they are to be displayed to the public,
they need only be dehydrated by these
techniques. Larvae intended for scientific
collections are kept in a preservative
medium -70 per cent ethyl alcohol or
alcohol-aceticacid. Parasites are a scourge
of insect collections, whatever their
nature: museum-beetles, psocids, and
micro-ants and mildews that develop in
damp places. The recommended remedy
in such cases is to use a pesticide such as
lindane for either prevention or cure. The
colours of insects, like those of plants, are
damaged by ultraviolet rays. To protect
them, it is sufficient to apply one of the
methods suggested for the preservation .
of plant pigments.
Cron. I am a keen skin-diver and it seems
to me that the sea is where you find the
most spectacular animal shapes and col-
ours. Yet these animals are not to be
found in museums.
Meurgues. Marine animals -sponges,
hydroida, worms, jellyfish and molluscs
-present museologists with what is
without doubt their greatest problem.
Traditionally such animals were kept in
liquid preservatives, but the colours
quickly fade and this method is now used
only for scientific collections. Where the
specimens are intended for public display
and no satisfactory technique is available,
we fall back on the facsimile model. For
example, consider a soft-skinned jelly-
fish: this animal can only keep its shape
in a liquid medium and there is no such
medium that will preserve the animal's
colours. The only solution is to make a
model in wax, glass or plastic.
Cron. I'find that kind of display un-
satisfactory, because I always wonder
whether the execution is faithful. I would
rather have a good photograph.
Meurgzles. Chinese museologists have
developed a graphic technique which can
provide a very good substitute for the real
thing. They take a black-and-white
photograph of the specimen concerned
and paint in the colours on the negative
in transparent varnish. Lit from behind,
this image produces a three-dimensional
The preservation of natural' history specimens
impression and, although the colours are
artificial, the photograph faithfully
reproduces shapes.
-
Molluscs animals whose biology is
fascinating -are represented in mu-
seums only by their shells because the soft
part is difficult to preserve. However,
there are ways of keeping the whole
animal for display. The problem is to
keep them fully extended until death; in
other words, to keep the soft part outside
the shell. This can be done by using bar-
biturates, but the dose needed varies with
the species, the age of the specimen and
the muscles to be treated. A drug which
in a given species acts upon the muscles of
the siphons will have no effect on the
pedal muscles and vice versa. Once the
animal is dead in the fully extended
state -which in the case of the shellfish
means outside the shell with the in-
teguments distended -the tissues can
be dehydrated by freeze-drying. Thus
treated, the animal can be displayed in its
natural habitat: in the case of a filtering
animal such as a cockle, the sand in which
it usually lives, water being simulated in
plastic. If the aim is to show the public
how these animals feed, such a presenta-
tion is essential.
Cron. I can see the difficulties you have in
preserving invertebrates -animals with-
out a skeletal structure; but why is it that
vertebrates -often the animals most
fascinating to the public because of their
size and because they are more familiar to
us - are so often mere caricatures.
Meurgues. Perhaps because here, even
more than in the cases we have been
discussing, artistic talent is the deciding
factor. Mammals and birds are prepared
by taxidermists, who are naturalists,
technicians and at the same time artists
specializing in animals. The technique of
preparing mammals and birds begins at
the animal's death, with taking its
measurements, noting any colours liable
to fade (eyes, mucous membranes) and
cutting up the body, while noting all
anatomical features relating to the
skeleton, the positioning of the muscles
and their relief. The skin is treated
separately by tanning in alum; in small
animals, parts of the skeleton such as the
skull or leg bones may remain attached.
With small or medium-sized animals up
to the size of a German shepherd dog, a
wire framework is used to reconstruct the
shape of the animal. This is then covered
by the skin and stuffed full of tow and
wood fibre. This operation is followed by
95
modelling, and here the taxidermist
must use all his talent in order to give a
dead animal the appearance of life (Figs.
37,40). With larger animals, the techni-
que is to use mannequins made of wire
mesh and plaster. The skin is stuffed as
before. Some taxidermists construct, on
the basis of an anatomical model, a thin
shell of fibreglass and plastic to serve as a
mannequin. Such a shell, being less
susceptible to variations in temperature
and humidity than other materials, is
more durable. When they are intended
to serve scientific purposes, mammals
and birds are treated differently. The
technique employed is to stuff the skin
with tow, without attempting to restore
the real shape of the animal. Certain
parts of the skeleton vital to the iden-
tification of the specimen are retained
within the skin. Such animals can also be
kept in a liquid preservative (alcohol or
formalin); this is the usual procedure 40
with anatomical collections. As with in- Close-up of the leaves in the Copenhagen
sects (Fig. 41), mildew will develop on diorama.
skins and feathers if the ambient humidi-
t y and temperature are too high. On the
other hand, if the ambient air is too dry,
cracks will appear. Certain insects -
museum beetles and dermestids -may
also infest feathers and skins; whole col-
lections have been decimated in this way.
It is therefore recommended that mam-
mal and bird collections should be kept at
a temperature of not more than 18-20 " C
and relative humidity of 70 and be pro-
O ,
tected from parasites by periodic treat-
ment with pesticides (naphthaline or
lindane).
Cron. So much for the characteristicsmell
that haunts the galleries of natural
science museums! Why is it that in-
teresting animals such as fish are so often
displayed in jars?
Meurgues. Because fish, like reptiles and
amphibians, are not easy to preserve for
museological purposes. The most wide-
spread method of preserving these three
categories of animals is to use a liquid
preservative (alcohol or formalin). Cer-
tain kinds of fish were preserved in her-
baria. Nowadays this form of preserva-
tion is used mainly for scientific
collections; the coloured pigments are i
destroyed by the preservative fluids but
the anatomical characteristics are main-
tained intact. It is also possible to
preserve reptiles in a bath of liquid paraf-
fin, though this presents some draw-
backs. Other preserving media based on
osmic acid have been developed, but they
96 Geneviève Meurgues

41
Facsimile of a fly made by the British
Museum (Natural History), London.
proved to be very expensive and toxic, with current techniques, and so the
and have been abandoned. As with museologist has recourse to the artificial.
mammals and birds, it is possible to The dioramas on show in the big
preserve reptiles, amphibians and fish by American museums are made up of en-
dehydrating them in successive baths of tirely artificial vegetation -trees, plants
increasingly concentrated ethyl alcohol and flowers -using the technique I
and giving them a final treatment with described to you a moment ago. One very
terpineol to restore their suppleness and important factor is lighting. A balance
shine. Unfortunately this method does has to be struck between the lighting in
not fix coloured pigments, and within the room and the display lighting, which
one or two years the natural colours fade. must be effective but not dazzling. The
It is therefore desirable to colour the lighting is often the charm of a diorama.
specimens artificially. The freeze-drying It is also possible to create an illusion of
technique can be used successfully on water by using blue lighting, for example
fish, once they have been prepared, but in displays of marine animals.
here again the colours fade and it is Live animals have their educational
necessary to retint (Figs. 42-44). Fac- value too, but this would not be enough.
similes in wax or in resin and wax give It is impossible to acclimatize all species
satisfactory results where shape is con- in a zoo. As a rule, most of the animals
cerned but are disappointing in colour. displayed belong to species which have
The Chinese technique of painting a film been domesticated in their countries of
negative with transparent paints is par- origin, and this is a limiting factor.
ticularly effective with fish. Animals such as bears and the great apes
are tending to disappear from zoos,
Cron. I have another complaint to make: because they suffer in captivity.
not being allowed to touch the objects A display of live animals is essential to
displayed in your museums. I understand convey some elements of biology,
from your explanations how valuable all behaviour, biological rhythms and any
the specimens are, but I should like to be other attribute that is difficult to explain
able to stroke an animal. with dead specimens. In large cities, the
‘children’sfarm’, which brings the coun-
Meurgues. We are well aware of this try to the town in the shape of domestic
problem, and there are museums where livestock, is proving very popular with
animals such as mammals and birds are youngsters, who have a chance to watch
accessible, in particular to children. The the gestation, birth and development of
public is very keen on the kind of display young animals. But this is not enough,
that recreates nature, known as a and a museum needs to exhibit at several
diorama. When a specimen of any kind levels in order to cater for different
has been mounted, we can display it groups of users.
either in a systematic arrangement or in a
diorama, that is to say in its ecological set- Cron. Would it be true to say that the
ting. It is of great educational value to most important role of the natural science
recreate the ecosystem in which the museum is to educate? What other func-
specimen developed, because it gives the tions do museums perform?
visitor an idea of what things are really
like. But a diorama is the most difficult Meurgues. Many. A museum is perhaps
thing of all to make, first and foremost first and foremost a storehouse, for
because, like any other kind of museum without its collections, which must be
display, it needs to be done well. Being maintained and enriched, it would have
taken from life, it must not betray no real purpose. A museum curator is also
nature, and scientific accuracy is essen- a ‘field worker’, who can only do his or
tial; for example, it is unthinkable that her job properly to the extent that he or
an orchid which grows in chalky soil she is familiar with nature through
should ever be shown in a diorama where repeated contact with it. To com-
the substrate was siliceous! municate with the public, he or she needs
to be a keen naturalist; in my view, no
Cron. Well then, supposing you want to one can be a museologist unless he or she
recreate a forest or at least a fragment of is an enthusiast with a positive passion for
one, how do you set about freeze-drying the work.
a tree? As we have been saying all along, a
natural science museum is also a cultural
Meurgzles. The preservation of large-scale centre, and the events staged for the
plants in their natural state is not feasible various categories of users may include
The preservation of naturd hihory specimens 97

42
Freeze-dried salmon, Musée National
d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris).

permanent or temporary exhibitions,

talks and guided tours of the various
displays. If the museum is to come alive,
it is vital that such events should be laid
on, and this is where the activities
organizer comes into his own,
Building up a natural science museum
is an extremely difficult task -almost a
gamble. To return to the theme of our
discussion, namely the preservation of
natural specimens, the museologist is
confronted by another problem -a
problem of conscience. Many of us have
upheld the principle that natural science
museums should display only natural
specimens-former living organisms -
on the ground that these are more ‘real’
to the public. But besides museologists
we are also naturalists, and this means
that we sometimes hesitate to sacrifice an
animal or a plant. Moreover, although
technology has made great advances in
our field, it does not always provide us
with the technique to preserve a
specimen; hence our recourse to the fac-
simile model. The question that many of
us are asking is whether we should be
doggedly strivingto develop conservation
techniques for natural botanical or
zoological specimens or whether we
should be trying to imitate nature as
43
perfectly as possible by artificial means. , Close-up of the salmon’s scales.
1; ,
Cron. Perhaps that is one for the public
to answer.

[ Trundatedfrom French]

44
Freeze-dried mollusc, Musée National
d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris). Displayed in its
reconstituted habitat.
98
Maseams and the historv of science d J
in the Reflabkic of Koreu
Seong-Rae Park As yet, the Republic of Korea has
nowhere to display a collection of the
Born in 1939 at Kongju. Graduated from Seoul Na- scientific and technological achievements
tional University with a B.A. degree in physics in made throughout its history. An example
1961; University of Kansas M.A. degree in history of such achievements is the golden crown
of science in 1969; Ph.D in Korean history at
University of Hawaii in 1977. From 1961-1965, he excavated from the fifth century Silla
was a reporter for the daily newspaper Cboson Ilbo. tombs. This is both a work of art and a
He is the author of ‘Portents in Korean History’ technical achievement illustrating the
(Journalof Social Sciences andHumanities, No. 48, highly developed metal crafts of the an-
1978); ‘Birth of Neo-Confucian Portentism in Early
cient period of Korean history.
Yi Korea’ (Korea Joumal, No. 18-7, 1978); ‘In-
troduction of Western Science in Korea, This golden treasure can be traced back
1876-1910’ (Proceedings, International East- West to the numerous excavations of bronze re-
Center Alumni Reunion Convention and Sym- mains from the neolithic age and we
posium, 1979). know that the bronze technology was in-
herited by the Korean people of the
Three Kingdoms period (A.D. 313-686)
during which bronze bells and armour
were produced.
The golden crown is also related to the
metal type printing technique of the thir-
teenth century onwards, that is, from the
late Koryö to early Chojon period.
Korean development of metal type
printing is widely believed to be the first
of its kind, making its appearance some
two centuries before that of the famous
German inventor Gutenberg. Ancient
metal technology explains only a part of
the origin of the Korean metal type prin-
ting, the other element being the print-
ing technique itself. This is exemplified
by a Buddhist scripture in wood block
printing of the early eighth century
found in Korea and now in the National
Museum. This scroll of paper is probably
the first specimen of its kind in the
world.’
Another source of pride is the star-
gazing tower (the Ch ’ömsöngdae,
seventh century) still standing in Kyöng-
ju and the oldest astronomical obser-
vatory remaining in the East.
The same is true of the turtle-boat (the
köbuksön) used during the Japanese in-
vasions of Korea at the end of the six-
teenth century. Some question whether
the boat was really ironclad as was gene-
rally believed, but with its fierce looking
dragon head pouring out smoke, it was at
least the first armoured battle-ship. It was
also in Korea that the first rain-gauge was
invented in the fifteenth century.
The Nntionul Science Museum
The National Science Museum is not a
science history museum, but rather’ a
science hall where schoolchildren may
familiarise themselves with the basics of
modern science. This institution has a
long-term plan to expand in order to
cover much broader areas of natural
science with a comprehensive collection
of Korea’s traditional scientific-tech-
nological heritage. But the proposed plan
is to take some years to implement and
has not yet been finalized.
In 1962, the Government of the
Republic of Korea promulgated the
Cultural Properties Protection Act.
Thanks to this legislation, many types of
cultural property have been designated as
‘national treasures’, ‘ordinary treasures’,
and so on, according to their degree of
significance. Government financial sup-
port is provided to the owners or keepers
of the designated treasures. About 200
‘national treasures’ and 600 ‘ordinary
treasures’ have been selected up to now,
and more are designated annually by a
board set up under the auspices of the
Ministry of Culture and Information.
’
In the list, however, we find only a few
traditional science objects including the
star-gazing tower in Kyönuk, the print-
ing wood-blocks of the Buddhist
Tn)ituka in Haein-sa Temple, and the
wood-block printed Buddhist scroll of
the eighth century. Some additional
items of science and technology are in-
cluded in the list of ‘ordinary treasures’,
but the overall number in the list is very
small.2
The main reason why the historical ob-
jects in traditional science and technology
are so neglected by Korean museums and
national cultural policy lies in the low
academic status accorded to the history of
science in the Republic of Korea. In the
Republic of Korea, there are only half a
dozen full-time historians of science,
though the number is a little higher when
1. See ‘Korean Treasures’, Illuseum, No. 149,
1986.
2 . ibid.’
Museums and the histoty of scieiice in the Republic of Korea
part-time historians are added. There
are no university departments where
students may study this subject. An en-
couraging sign however is the graduate
training programme in the field begun at
Seoul National University in 1984.
Because of the shortage of research per-
sonnel in the history of science, institu-
tional support for the field is weak. There
are, therefore, few historians, archaeol-
ogists, museum personnel and cultural
policy-makers in the Republic of Korea
interested in the traditional scientificand
technical achievements of the past. Even
so, the economic growth attained during
the past years means that Koreans today
are very aware of the need for science and
technology, that science and technology
is modern -not traditional.
Several measures are needed to re-
spond to the difficulties of Korean
museums. First of all, massive efforts
must be made to collect as many scientific
objects of the past as possible. Recently
the National Science Museum of Korea
made a tentative survey of science and
technology remains in order to determine
the possibility of collectingthem. The list
drawn up shows 266 items scattered
around the Republic of Korea, some ac-
tually preserved and some known only
from records. Admittedly the list is far
from complete, since it was compiled
from secondary sources. It does however
reveal that a thorough search is urgently
needed for science and technology assets
in all parts of the country and in all kinds
of historical records.
This collection must be supplemented
by an effort to reconstruct the lost objects
which we know only from records. Such
items are numerous and reconstruction
would be very difficult even with enough
financial support. In these cases, many
problems could be solved with the help of
comparative studies in China and Japan,
or the West if appropriate.
The area where measures are most
urgently needed is that of the history of
science, where activities must be con-
siderably developed. No matter how
many science and technology objects the
99
country’s museums can gather together the historians of science in the Republic
or rebuild, their significance will never be of Korea frequently seek advanced formal
fully understood unless the history of training, and their work is thereby much
Korean science finds its rightful place in improved. In this connection, the con-
school and university curricula. struction of the National Science
Study of the history of science is a fairly Museum, as part of the government’s
recent development in the Republic of long-term cultural development plan for
Korea, because traditional Korean histo- the coming decade, should be vigorously
riography took little account of science encouraged. When this project receives
and technology. Indeed, the first scholar- the attention it deserves the history of
ly attention paid to Korea’s scientific science in Korea will be more firmly bas-
tradition originated among foreigners. ed, gain wider popular support and will
The western missionaries stationed in grow and flourish.
Korea toward the end of the nineteenth
century and the Japanese officials serving
in the Japanese Government-General
during the early twentieth century were
the first ‘historians of science’ in Korea.
Through their efforts some of the most
obvious achievements of Korean science
were introduced to the Koreans and to
the world, including the star-gazing
tower, rain gauge, metal type printing
and turtle boat.
The first book, however, was written
by a Korean historian-the ChosZn
Kwahak-sa (History of Science in Korea)
by Hong I-söp in 1944. Originally the
book was published in Japanese, to be
republished in Korean after the Libera-
tion in 1945. Then followed the book by
Jeon Sang-woon.3 This book was first
published in Korean in 1966, revised in
the English edition, and again published
in Korean in 1977, with the title H m ’guk
Kwahak Kisul-sa (History of Science and
Technology in Korea). While Hong I-söp
provides an overall view of Korea’s scien-
tific and technical achievements against a
broader perspective of Korean history,
Jeon Sang-woon explains their scientific
and technical aspects.
These two books are more or less com-
plementary, and they have been followed
by a series of monographs on medicine,
printing, agriculture, geography, ship-
building, fire-arms and mathematics.
Popular books on the history of Korean
science have also been produced in the re-
cent past.
3. Science utzd Technology in Korea:
Although our understanding of Trudìtional Imtruments and Technipex,
Korea’s scientific tradition is still limited, Cambridge, Mass., The MIT Press, 1974.
100
Science maseams beyon their foíw wa2J.s
Saroj Ghose
Dr. Saroj Ghose is Director of the National Council
of Science Museums, India. Born in Calcutta, he
graduated in Electrical Communication Engineer-
ing at Jadavpur University, Calcutta. After his
Master’s Degree from Herbert University, Cam-
bridge, Mass. he obtained a Ph.D. from the Smit-
shonian Institution, Washington, D.C., United
States. He has developed science museums and cen-
tres in Calcutta, Bombay, Delhi and other smaller
places; introduced a series of outreach activities to
take science museums throughout India. He has
worked in science museums in the United States
and designed a science exhibition for the Festival of
India being held there, 1985-86. He was Vice-
President of the International Committee for
Education and Cultural Action of ICOM from 1974
to 1980 and has been vice-president of the Interna-
tional Committee for Science and Technology
Museums (ICOM). Since 1984 he has been Chair-
man of the Indian National Committee of ICOM.
The International Year of the Child,
celebrated all over the world in 1979, pro-
duced a spectacular and much sought
after gift for 3 million children in Bom-
bay. A municipal garbage ground, used
for dumping an ever-expanding city’s
refuse for the last hundred years, was
transformed into a Garden of Eden: a
lush green park, full of flowers and par-
ticipatory exhibits, merging with the
landscape. It welcomed hundreds of
children, from toddlers to teenagers,
usually escorted by their parents or
teachers. They jumped and ran and
shouted like’any other children in a
similar situation. But these children were
offered more than simple amusement -
the chance to press levers, turn wheels,
roll balls, pull strings, look through
peepholes and, finally, ponder over these
happenings and try to assimilate the in-
formation they contained.
From science pm2 to science centre
The idea of a science park emerged from
economic and strategic considerations. A
fairly large Science Centre, primarily par-
ticipatory, had been in the planning
stage in Bombay for some time and it was
felt that about 50 per cent of the total
financial outlay for the project would
have to be spent on the building alone.
While a building of the required size
would take at least three years to con-
struct, exhibits to fill up the building, if
to be developed mostly in-house, would
take many years more to complete. Once
a project starts, however, the people and,
even more so, the financiers hate to see it
progress at a snail’s pace. The question
we raised therefore was whether some ac-
tivities could be initiated even though
there was no building. Could such ac-
tivities not be organized in consonance
with the objectives of a science centre and
generate sufficient local enthusiasm for a
next phase? In a word, the question was
whether an outdoor science centre could
effectively be built in the first phase.
Together with this pressing need, the
International Year of the Child, much
talked about at the time, created a desire
to achieve something constructive. The
programmes adopted ranged from ar-
ranging mid-day meals in schools or the
administration of triple antegen injec-
tions to children, to the holding of sit-in
drawing competitions and shooting a
series of children’s films. In many cases,
it was feared that the effect would be
ephemeral. An outdoor science centre, a
low capital intensive and less time con-
suming project, would probably turn out
to be a permanent gift to the children of
the city and its surrounding areas with
far-reaching effects on the community as
a whole.
The real problem lay in the definition
of design criteria. In the process,
however, there emerged an entirely new
brand of science museum exhibits-
sturdy enough to stand up to visitors’
rough handling, durable enough to face
the fury of the hot sun and torrential
monsoon of Bombay, and yet par-
ticipatory, with moving and working
parts (Fig 45). The exhibits are designed
to merge with the surrounding landscape
like a garden sculpture and to be safe for
children as well as adult visitors (Fig. 46).
They provide entertainment but are dif-
ferent from those in amusement parks.
They are more thought-provoking than
action-oriented. Above all, they are
developed on basic concepts of science.
The simpler exhibits are scientific ver-
sions of commonplace park fixtures. A
series of swings of varying length urge
visitors to note the basic law of the pen-
dulum: the longer the swing the slower
its movement. A slightly off-centred
fulcrum in a see-saw demonstrates the
principles of the lever-a small child
derives enormous pleasure and con-
fidence in lifting up his parents on the
other side.
Other exhibits, however, are designed
to go beyond such commonplace park
games. A swing has been developed to
Science inuseums beyond their four wul% 101

demonstrate coupled oscillation or sym- 45

pathetic vibration. Two people sit on A municipal garbage ground, used for
dumping an ever-expanding city's refuse for
two swings hanging from an oscillating the last 100 years was turned into an
plank. If one starts swinging, the other exciting science park in the Nehru Science
visitor, though sitting still, swings auto- Centre Bombay.
matically. The second visitor attains a
maximum swing when the first one, who
initiated the swing, almost stops. But 46
that is for a moment only. The first visitor The fountain in a science park consists of
again gains momentum while the second water wheels of different types turning with
jets of water.
visitor almost comes to a halt. This pro-
cess goes on alternately. 47
For obvious reasons, exhibits demon- Toddlers pumping up water from a pool by
strating the principles of mechanics are an Archimedian screw.
easy to make and maintain in a science
park. Sometimes typical indoor science
exhibits are blown up to a larger scale,
but with appropriate safeguards. Exhibits
to show that less effort is required to lift
a larger load drawn on an inclined plane
or if lifted with compound pulley blocks,
are typical examples. The use of three
systems of lever, of different types of gear
including odd types such as square, ellip-
tical, planetary or wormgears, lifting of
102
water by an Archimedian screw, turning
of different types of water wheels by jets
of water or lifting a large group of people
standing on a platform by means of a
small hydraulic pump, add fun to the
children’s learning process (Fig. 47).
Certain exhibits, though simple in
principle, create a sensation through
their presentation. Large parabolic reflec-
tors made of fibre-glass placed at a
distance of a hundred feet create an out-
door whispering gallery. Two ancient-
looking statues, separated by more than
two hundred feet and connected by a hid-
den underground plumbing pipe-line
transmit the voices from one to another
and explain how in older days priests
could have deceived naive worshippers by
demonstrating that a god was speaking to
them. This exhibit, named Isis Speaks, is
a particularly popular one in the Science
Park.
Excitement is everywhere. Roll a ball
through three successiveloops to demon-
strate the effect of centrifugal force or
along three different channels to show it
travels fastest on a cycloidal path. Stand
on a turn-table and turn alarge umbrella,
you start turning in the opposite direc-
tion. Again, turn on a turntable slowly
with both hands outstretched with a
dumb-bell in each hand. Now move your
hands closer together and you turn faster
(Fig 48). Watch how the colour of the
landscape changes when you look
through changing and overlapping col-
our filters. Make pipes chime, take
readings from a sundial and note the
maximum-minimum temperatures, hu-
midity, atmosphericpressure and rainfall
of the day from weather station in-
struments. Most exciting is to observe
how an object becomes weightless in a
free fall. You may see this in a science
park without travelling into outer space.
Amidst the plants and trees stand large
artefacts such as a windmill, a railway
engine, an early horse-drawn or electric
tramcar, a hydroelectric turbine, a super-
sonic jet fighter and other aircraft, a huge
sundial or simply a garden sculpture.
Somewhere in the park stands an aviary
full of local as well as rare birds.
Elsewhere you find a pet area designed to
evoke a symbiotic relationship between
children and animals. A pool maintain-
ing a natural eco-system or pits infested
with snakes and reptiles are designed to
present a well-knit story on ecological
balance and the protection of the en-
vironment.
In a science park, exhibits are displayed
among trees, shrubs, flower beds, ponds
and garden pathways, all picturesquely
landscaped, which is what makes the ex-
hibits so interesting. The entire area is
surrounded by lofty trees. Large bushy
trees which flower at different seasons
give shade to rest and recreational areas.
Fruit-bearing trees attract birds. A large
variety of smaller ornamental plants,
shrubs and seasonal flower beds add col-
our to the green. Planting is done
systematically at the initial stage after
consulting landscape architects and hor-
ticulturists. Rare specimens of plants, not
growing in the locality, find a special
place in a science park. They include
strange fruits, flowers, medicinal and
aromatic plants, spices, economic crops
such as tea, coffee, cocoa, rubber, cotton,
jute, etc. Greenhouses with cactii, suc-
culents and bonsai are places of special at-
traction. Sensitive plants and delicate ex-
hibits are guarded not by fences but by
multicoloured hedges. Serpentine path-
ways layered with pebbles or red brick
dust lead visitors from one exhibition
area to another.
What appears encouraging and rewar-
ding is the behaviour of the adults. Enter-
ing the park as a casual visitor with the
sole purpose of keeping an eye on their
children so that they do not get lost,
parents do not realise that they become
fully engrossed and absorbed and literally
lose themselves in the exhibits.
Thus the experiment which began
almost half-heartedly seven years ago and
was accelerated by then pressing circum-
stances, has now become a characteristic
feature of the many science centres which
have sprung up all over India in recent
years. All science centres, whether
developed or under development in In-
dia, start with a science park. The science
park starts the science centre off well,
creating great expectations in the locality,
giving an idea of the shape of the fully-
fledged science centre to come and bring-
ing in even more money for the project.
The museum O B wheeds
The very idea of taking a science museum
or science centre beyond its four walls
began to take shape in a different way
more than twenty years ago. India, at that
time, had only two science museums
more than 2,000 kilometres apart. The
science planners were concerned with the
need to create a scientific temper in the
community, so as to bridge the age-old
gap between science and society. Science
communication was considered equally
important in the context of scientific
Saroj Ghose
research and industrial development. In a
country with a very low literacy rate and
with few school-going children in rural
areas, museums were found to be a good
vehicle for non-formalscience education.
Moreover, with increasing democratiza-
tion, museums became much more ac-
countable to the people at large. Serious
consideration was given to the question
of taking the message of science to the
large rural population. If such people
could not come easily to science museums
located in big cities, why should the
science museums not go to the people? If
it is difficult to make such people
museumminded, why not make mu-
seums people-minded?From such think-
ing emerged a series of outreach pro-
grammes encompassing a large cross-
section of society.
The idea took root. The first attempt
was to reach the rural interior through
science exhibitions on wheels. Science
museums and centres in India now run a
fleet of eight large exhibition buses which
move through the rural areas, stopping at
one place for three days before moving to
another some 20 miles away (Fig 49).
Such exhibitions on wheels remain oper-
tive for nine months a year and come back
to the science museums during school
vacation periods for major repair and
overhaul. Somewhat expensive to start
with, mobile science exhibition buses
have enormous mobility and penetrating
power compared with conventional
travelling exhibits which are sent by truck
or train and set up in a hall.
Exhibition sites are usually a village
school, which is the only available infra-
structure for such activities and is general-
ly a common meeting place for people of
all ages (Fig 50). Exhibits are conceived
and developed on subjects relating to
local needs. Agriculture, energy, the use
of electricity, water, earth science, nutri-
tion, public health and other such topics
are covered by the mobile exhibitions. To
make them more effective and to keep to
the tradition of participatory science cen-
tres, the exhibits are invariably three
dimensional, participatory or, at least,
animated. Each mobile unit consists of
twenty-four exhibits telling a story and
mounted on two levels in a bus. Half of
the exhibits placed on the floor of the bus
facing the outside are at eye level for
visitors outside the bus and the remaing-
ing half are placed on the upper level for
visitors standing inside the bus. Each unit
has its own generator for non-electrified
areas and is supplemented by audio-
visual programmes.
Science museums beyond their four w d s 103

The design of these mobile exhibits 48

takes into consideration a range of prac- Turn on a turntable slowly with both hands
tical problems and apparently contradic- stretched with two heavy loads in each
hand. Now move your hands closer together
tory requirements. The exhibits must with the load and you turn faster.
work but with a minimum of moving Conservation of angular momentum is now
parts because of travelling conditions. easy to understand not only for the children
They must be simple and easy to main- but also for the Governor of the State!
tain on the road yet must be ingenious in
order to create and hold interest. For in-
terchangeability of exhibits between
units operated by different museums, all
exhibits must be encased in uniformly 49
sized cabinets. Yet, at the same time, A typical Mobile Science Exhibition bus,
they must look different to break one of eight units of different types, being
monotony. Texts must be in the regional run by science centres throughout the year
in the rural interior.
language for better understanding and
easily interchangeable for a country
where language, including scripts chan-
ges almost every 300 miles.
Moving the exhibition every three days
for nine months a year, according to a
schedule drawn up well in advance and
keeping all exhibits working on the road,
requires very careful planning and 50
logistic support. The experience of the Working exhibits in Mobile Science
Indian Science Centres is that it is far Exhibition buses attract both children and
easier to conceive, create and commission adults.
a mobile unit than to keep it running.

Other means to brìdge the gdp

Our experience has gradually revealed
that it is not possible to achieve the target
of reaching the people with mobile
science exhibitions alone. It has turned 51
out to be a good exposure-oriented pro- Science Centres organize training for school
gramme, but has failed to sustain its in- science teachers in the evolution of new
itial impact, as the same place cannot be ideas in teaching aids and science kits.
visited frequently enough in a country as
large as India. The mobile units gener-
ated a demand from the rural interior not
only for more visits of such units but also
for some kind of round-the-year activity.
A chain of small district science centres in
different zones of the country has
gradually grown up out of this demand. 52
These District Science Centres are essen- Science Hobby Centres are run in rural and
tially low capital intensive and activity- urban schools for cultivating children’s
oriented. Exhibits are used only for sup- creative faculties as well as for developing
teaching aids from scrapped materials.
porting such activities. They are not
museums as such, rather they are non-
formal educational institutions in the
true sense of the term (Fig 51).
The first set of activities,aimed to sup-
plement school science education with a
composite programme called ‘Build your
own Laboratory’, started with the formal
training of school science,teachers in the
use of effective teaching aids and science
kits and development of such aids with
the help of schoolchildren (Fig. 5 2 ) . In
the second phase of this programme,
science centres helped rural schools inset-
104 Saroj Ghose

verting Indian science museums and cen-

tres into action-oriented and utility-
based institutions, which may even
become powerful tools for social transfor-
mation. Activities now extend to farmers,
workers in small industries, tribal
groups,’ jobless housewives, school
dropouts and physically handicapped
persons. It now seems possible that
within another two decades, museums
may be a widely recognised forum for
ushering in material and intellectual
changes in our people’s scientific con-
cepts, technological attainments, social
structure and value systems. Time alone
will determine whether this transforma-
tion will take place.

Ensuring a basic infastructure at

53
Large numbers of schoolchildren and
teachers are involved in science fairs
organized at district, state and national
levels.
ting up science hobby centres to cultivate
creative faculties as well as to develop
teaching aids from scrap materials which
did not require costly machines or ex-
perienced technicians. The entire activity
is aimed at involving schoolchildren
under the leadership and guidance of
their own teachers. The third phase in-
volved science teachers again in deliver-
ing demonstration lectures with the help
of teaching aids prepared on subjects
covered by their school curricula.
Apart from such activities to supple-
ment formal education in schools, the
science centres organize various activities
in the areas of non-formal education,
general awareness and science com-
munication. On the one hand, they in-
volve school students and teachers in
science fairs, science camps, competitive
science seminars, quizzes and so on (Fig.
SS), while on the other they involve
young children as well as adults in wide
ranging activities of general interest such
as computer programming, amateur
telescope making and environmental
studies. These activities are being decen-
tralized progressively from big cities to
district towns, then to villages, quite
often with organizational support from
various governmental agencies which
already have some kind of infra-structure
in rural areas. Many of the activities are
multifunctional and regenerative in
character. For the science museums in In-
dia, science no longer remains in an ivory
tower nor do the museums themselves re-
main inside their show-cases. Both go to
the community in an attempt to bridge
the communication gap.
It is precisely this growing link between
science and society that is gradually con-
the national levez
Several years ago, at an international con-
ference on science museums and centres,
an elated museum administrator
declared that she was going to build a
science centre unique in approach and
character, which would be developed en-
tirely outdoors without any building or
massive infrastructure. Indeed, ifsuch ac-
tivities as described above could be
generated in and for the community out-
side the four walls of a museum, she ask-
ed, do we need a museum building at all,
particularly when more than half of our
resources are eaten up by that mammoth?
Whatever the objectives of a science
museum or centre -communication of
science, fostering a spirit of inquiry and
creativity, inculcating scientifictemper in
the community or imparting non-formal
science education -the buildings or in-
frastructure are only the means and not
the end. The question therefore hangs on
whether a successful science centre needs
any massive infrastructure at all. Before
jumping to any conclusions, one has to
remember that behind the extensive
outreach activities of Indian science cen-
tres remains a strong infrastructure where
ideas generate, programmes take shape
and activities regenerate. Science mu-
seum exhibits can be purchased from out-
side but an interactivesciencecentre itself
cannot be bought at any price. It has to
be developed meticulously through a
creative process and this process of crea-
tion and sustenance require some kind of
minimum infrastructure.
1. See article by S.K. Bagchi, ‘Science Museum
and Social Relevance- An Indian Experiment’.
Science museum1 beyond their four u d s
India has learned through her failures.
Back in the early 1950s a chain of twenty-
six or so activity-oriented rural science
centres, called Vijnan-Mandir(Temple of
Science) were set up in agro-based areas
in different parts of the country. India
needed a green revolution for which its
barely literate farmers had to be exposed
to improved techniques and implements,
not through books and literature (there
was no television at that time), but
through a non-formal medium. The Vij-
nan Mandirs had audiovisual displays,
exhibits, training facilitiesand utility ser-
vices such as soil testing, etc. and a group
of motivated young people to run them.
Within a decade, the entire chain was in
a shambles. Audio-visual material, once
prepared, was never updated; projectors
had no spares;training programmes stop-
ped for lack of instructors; soil could no!
be tested for want of chemicals and new
concepts became fewer and fewer. At a
much later stage, a task force set up by the
Planning Commission identified the
primary cause of failure as lack of
guidance, co-ordination and infra-
structural support. The Vt;inan Mandi&
had to function in isolation without any
back-up for the creation of new exhibi-
tions, organisation of new activities, con-
tinuous updating of information and ex-
tension of training facilities. With a view
to developing a science museum move-
ment in the country, the task force urged
the establishment of a central coor-
105
dinating agency to pool and optimise 54
available resources, to carry out the free The Nehru Science Centre, Bombay, the
exchange of exhibits and personnel be- largest of its kind in India has a very
tween under its control, pro- fascinating building and infrastructure for
the development of new concepts in
mote research and training facilities for
sustained growth of activities and the
development of new science centres in
the country. The task force recommend-
ed a four-tier decentralized system in
order to reach the people at large. Four
large science museums or centres at the
national level were to be developed in
four zones of the country. These national
museums were to set up a strong infra-
structure for the development of new
science centres and the generation of new
exhibits and activities in each particular
zone. At the second level, six Regional
Science Centres were to be created in
various State capitals with a limited ex-
hibit development capability to give
organisational support to even smaller
science centres in the zone. At the third
level, twenty District Science Centres
were to be set up for outreach activities in
the particular district. At the grass roots
level, mobile science exhibition units,
controlled from the local District Science
Centre, were to travel through the in-
terior.
It was an ambitious but realistic plan.
A National Council of Science Museums
was set up te ensure overall co-ordination
and sypport. Three national level science
museums and centres are now function-
ing in Calcutta, Bangalore and Bombay.
106
A large science centre is being developed
in Delhi. One Regional Science Centre
has been set up at Patna, while four more
are being developed at Guwahati,
Bhubaneswar, Lucknow and Bhopal.
Four District Science Centres have been
set up in the eastern, southern and
western zones of the country, while ten
more are being planned during the cur-
rent five year plan period. New
‘museobuses’ are being developed for
each science centre. A central research
and training laboratory is being built up
for the proper developmentof manpower
resources. It is a well co-ordinated activity
aimed at total implementation of the
plan.
Although there are certain features in
museums carefully avoid regimentation
in concept and approach. The Birla In-
dustrial & Technological Museum at
Calcutta and the Visvesvaraya Industrial
& Technological Museum at Bangalore,
the two national level science museums in
the east and south zones of the country
put the emphasis on industrial and
technological subjects like motive power,
electro-technics, timber, paper and pulp,
metallurgy, nuclear energy, transport,
communication, petroleum and mining,
with a balanced approach towards
artefacts as well as didactic exhibits. The
two museums also have a section on
popular science, primarily presenting
physics-oriented demonstration exhibits.
Scieme maseams aBd sociaZ TeZevame -
an IndiaB exPeiment
The new Nehru Science Centre in Bom-
bay (Fig. 54) is largely participatory with
indoor and outdoor exhibits and an
overall emphasis on teaching science
through fun and entertainment. The
fourth national level centre at Delhi is go-
ing to be different from the other three.
It is designed to reflect the country’s
5,000 years old heritage in science and
technology, and establish a continuum
up to the present developments in
agriculture, energy, nuclear science, elec-
tronics and space.
The character and format of the various
regional and district science centres also
vary. There are certain core exhibits and
activities common to all centres in the
general areas of science methods, world
munication. Utility-based activities and
supporting exhibits are, however, typical
of each particular area. Because of the
vast territory and the diversity in social
and cultural patterns, requirements and
relevance are different in different places.
Such regional and district science centres
are oriented more to specific local needs
and problems such as soil treatment,
harvesting, pest control, water manage-
ment, fighting epidemics and chronic
diseases, nutrition, improvisation of
techniques in handicrafts and small in-
dustries, local environmental protection
and so on.
Museums have evolved considerably
since they first came into existence several
S. K. Bagchi
Graduate in science from Calcutta University,
Diploma in mining engineering from the Indian
School of Mines, Dhanbad. Holder of first-class
mine manager’s certificate of competency of the
Government of India. Curator of Mining
Metallurgy and Petroleum divisions at Birla In-
dustrial and Technological Museum. Calcutta since
1962. Director of the museum since 1979. Author
of ‘A New Gallery on Mining at Birla Industrial and
Technological Museum’, Curator(New York), Vol.
XI, No. 1, March 1968; ‘Museums and Teaching of
Mining Engineering in India’, The Ca/cuttca
Review, (Calcutta University), 1971; ‘Science and
Technological Museums in India’, Technohgy &
Cul’ture, Vol. 16, No. 4, October, 1975; ‘New
gallery on Transport in the BITM’, itlzlreicm,
Unesco, Vol. XXVIII, No. 1, 1976; ‘Development
of Science and Technology-the Growth of
Modern Science Museums’ in the BITM publication
A h e t l m of Science, 1984.
Saroj Ghose
centuries ago. India too has covered
much ground since achieving indepen-
dence in 1947: technology in India is
undergoing rapid changes, from tradi-
tional intuitional skills to industrializa-
tion and sophisticated modern applica-
tions. The country’s science museums
and centres, while living through a major
experiment, are themselves experiencing
the cultural shocks of rapid change. This
on-going experience re-shapes their
priorities, goals and philosophies. It is a
dynamic process, adapting to the needs
of time and shifting its emphasis con-
tinuously. Stabilization will be reached
some day, but whether that will signify
the peak of development or a kind of
stagnation is an open question. .
The Task Force on Science Museums set
up by the Planning Commission of India
decided that science museums should be
developed in India at a three-tier level -
national, regional and district. The Na-
tional Council of Science Museums,
which governs and plans new science
museums in the country, decided that
the district level museums should be set
up in the underdeveloped regions of the
country and should be activity-based
centres.
The first District Science Centre was
started at Purulia, about 250 miles from
Calcutta. There follows an account of the
experience of a District Science Centre,
set up in a poor community, which is try-
ing to anchor its roots in the soil.
Science museums and social relevance -an Indian experiment 107

The Study Group of Experts had em- ‘Kheria Sabar Welfare Association’ -a day problems. A primitive community,
phasised that the District Science Centres direct result of the developmental ac- which was ignorant of agricultural prac-
should act as catalysts by arranging tivities undertaken by the DSC and a tices and land use, is absorbing new
various training programmes. Moreover, reflection of a new understanding that agricultural practices and producing food
after its opening in December 1982, the was growing. on land which has remained unproduc-
centre was approached by a social worker, When this very good response from the tive for generations. They have under-
working among the Santhal tribals of the Kherias was observed a modest integrated taken water management programmes
district with a request to undertake a pro- development programme was chalked and food production has increased
gramme for them. The District Science out. Since the Kherias have little educa- substantially. Those who have been train-
Officer (DSO), who had made a detailed tion, it was felt that unless they were ed have started to produce various kinds
survey of agricultural implements in trained to produce on the basis of local of craft products and at present work is
South India, found that many of the im- resources and their own skills it would be going on in 45 villages, mainly inhabited
plements used there could be used for difficult to improve their economic lot. by Kherias. In this way, a science centre
dry-land farming in Purulia. A selected As a result of project proposals submit- in a rural community is finding new
group of farmers from a few villages came ted to the Department of Science and meanings. Here the museum not only
to the centre for about two weeks and Technology (DST), the Government communicates but also transforms. W
produced a set of agricultural im- Planning Commission and two other
plements based on the South Indian non-governmental agencies, by 1984 a
design. News of this reached the Kheria project o f 180,000 rupees was approved
Sabars’ - a very poor tribal community by the DST for introducing science
of about ~0,oOo-who requested a and technology amongst women.
similar programme. When the forests CRESSIDA2 approved funds for one bio-
were cut down in order to meet the in- mass plant. The Government of West
creasing demands of industrialisation Bengal provided 410,000 rupees in
and urbanization the Kherias lost their March 1985 under the Integrated Tribal
natural habitat. Today, the Kherias live Development Project.
in small hamlets outside the main village Thus training programmes in two
and have very little land; the average traditional craft areas were started for
holding being only 2 to 4 acres for a whole women: one the production of bamboo
village. and vegetablefibre products and another
Their request for a programme was stone blockmaking. Both programmes
granted and after training for the produc- contained a marketing element and the
tion of instruments was completed the Kheria began earning from the ventures.
District Science Officer went to the field From the funds provided by the Rural
to show them how to use the implements, Development Consortium, which were
because some were quite new to the meant for only six wells, eleven wells and
Kherias. one big tank measuring 60 x 37 feet have
However, they also required seeds, fer- been completed. Provision of water has
tilizers and, above all, water. Seed and generated a new awakening among the
fertilizer were provided by government tribals. They have developed faith in
agencies, but water was a problem. Very themselves. At the end of March 1985,
few Kheria villages had wells, so a project the money provided by the Government
was prepared for digging wells and put- of West Bengal for one year was invested
ting up small earth-dams wherever there in water management, goat raising and
was a stream or rivulet. A small grant of other programmes. Work has started.
44,000 rupees was made available by the Already six non-formal schools and
Rural Development Consortium, a non- two baby crèches have been opened.
governmental agency, to dig six dug Tribals are building houses on their plot
wells. The main emphases during these to house these schools. A bio-mass plant
activities were the following: (a) to has been installed at a village. Health ex-
develop a spirit of self-determination and hibitions on malaria and diarrhoea are
self-help among the Kherias and through being shown in different villages.
it to develop the decision-making capaci- Are these the functions of a science
ty of the tribals; and (b) to introduce such museum? To answer this question it
science and technology as the tribals should be remembered that Kherias are
understand and maintain. in a very primitive stage of existence. For
By the end of 1983, the results were them, there is little difference between
very encouraging:good harvests of crops; science, technology and craft and there is
lands which had remained fallow were a tremendous amount of cultural inertia
cultivated. In November 1983, about to be overcome if they are to change their
5,000 Kherias assembled at the village of age-old customs and habits. Training
1. Sabar means hunter.
Maldi, where the project was first started programmes alone will serve no purpose 2. Centre for Regional Ecological and Science
and formed their own organization called unless applied in practice to solve day-to- Studies in Development Alternatives.
108

Dagmar Kleps’ová

Born in 1928 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. School-

leaving Certificate at the State high school in
Prague. Studied modern languages (English,
French, Russian, German and Swedish). Member of
the staff of the Prague National Museum of
Technology since 1950. Head of the Department of
Cultural Education and External Relations since
1964. Specialist in the organization of exhibitions,
public relations and external cultural relations.
Member of ICOM and member of the Executive
Board of the International Commission for the Ex-
change of International Exhibitions (ICOM-ICEE).
Collaborator ofJ. Kuba in the Czechoslovak Com-
mission of ICOM and the International Committee
on Sciences and Technology (ICOM-CIMUSET).

55
The Transport Gallery. The collection of
locomotives.

The Prague National Museum of Tech-
nology is one of the oldest of its kind in
Europe. From the beginning of the
seventeenth century, Prague was able to
boast of having the earliest collections in
the field of technology, amassed by the
indefatigable collector and protector of
the arts, the Emperor Rudolph 11.1 In
1722, the Museum Mathhematicum was
founded by the Jesuits of Prague and the
first technological museum was in-
augurated in 1799. Over the centuries,
the collections were enlarged and
gradually brought together within the
present building, which was built for this
purpose in the 1940s. It was nationalized
in 1951 and since then, has been the Na-
tional Museum of Technology, under the
responsibility of the Czechoslovak Minis-
try of Culture.
The nine major collections of the
museum are mainly composed of signifi-
cant landmarks in the development of
technology in national as well as interna-
l. Rudolph II of Hapsburg (Vienna
1552 -Prague 1612). Emperor, son of Maximilian
II. Showed greater interest in the arts and
sciences than in politics (he extended his
protection to Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler).
He was succeeded by his brother, Mathias II.
tional terms, presented to the public in
the form of permanent or temporary ex-
hibitions.
The museum provides visitors with
various permanent exhibitions based on
such themes as transport (road, rail, air
and sea), photography and films (In-
terkamera), the measurement of time,
electronics, astronomy, the mining in-
dustry, metallurgy, the engineering in-
dustry and nuclear energy.
The transport gallery, with a surface
area of over 2,400 m2, houses the largest
exhibition in the museum (Fig. 55). As
Czechoslovakia was the first country to
have a railway in Europe, its railway
history has been extremely rich in major
events, all ofwhich are highlighted in the
transport gallery, where visitors can ad-
mire the exact replica of the first pas-
senger carriage called Hannibd or the
earliest locomotive to have been preser-
ved within the country, called Kladno
and dating back to 1855; the first
locomotive to have been built locally, in
1900, called Nazdar. Among the various
exhibits, there are also the express
locomotive No. 375 (1911), the largest
exhibit in the museum, and two carriages
dating back to 1891 and 1900, both of
The Prague Nutiond Mireum of Technolowv:J suwev
which were part of the royal train. These
carriages were built in Prague and are
magnificently decorated, in pure art
nozlveazl, with ceilings decorated by the
famous Czech painter, zenidek.
The history of the motor car is
illustrated by the first car built in
Czechoslovakia, the President, in 1897,
together with the Benz Viktoria of 1899
and the Tatra racing car of 1899, as well
as a large number of pre-war and post-war
foreign cars (Fig. 56). A special place is
reserved for aviation with Blériot’s
monoplane of 1911, used by the pioneer
of Czech aviation, Kaspar, together with
several other machines such as the Rus-
sian Anstra of 1917, the American Trac-
tor and the Austrian Knowller. The
Czechoslovak Avia plant is represented
by aircraft such as the Avia BH-9 and
BH-IO, dating from the 1920s. The
Taube-Limuzino, built by the famous
109
56
The Transport Gallery. Collection of motor
cars. The first racing car built in
Czechoslovakia(1899), with a two-cylinder,
four-stroke Benz engine; maximum speed
of 112 kph.
manufacturer, Igo Etrich, also dates from 57
The Interkamera exhibition.
this period. The national aeronautical in-
dustry is represented by the C-104
acrobatics biplane and the Sokol M1-C
private aeroplane. This part of the exhibi-
tion includes a collection of models il-
lustrating the historical and technical
development of aviation, aeroplane
engines and propellers.
The Itzterhumera permanent exhibi-
tion on photographic and cinemato-
graphic techniques was set up recently
(Fig. 57). This collection, which is one of
the largest in the museum, includes over
3,000 objects of Czechoslovak or foreign
origin and provides a comprehensiveview
of past and present developmentsin this
sector. In the section devoted to photo-
graphy, visitors can admire a number of
early lenses, a collection of daguer-
roetypes, together with the original ap-
paratus and a fund of documentation on
110 Dugmar Klepiová

the developmentof photographic techni-

ques since the early days of black and
white up to the advent of colour. As for
the cameras, there are specimens of all
familiar early or recent models, including
several unique examples such as a magic
lantern, stereoscopic apparatus, a
multiple-slide camera or various cameras
for three-colour photography.
The exhibition on cinematographic
techniques illustrates the development of
films sinGe the early days of the recording
and reproduction of movement and the
invention of the cinematograph, etc. Ex-
hibits include stroboscopes, studies by
Muybridge and Marey on movement,
Reynaud’s praxinoscope, together with
various movie-cameras ranging from
Démény’s phonoscope to modern equip-
ment, including the o-ginal camera of
the Lumière brothers. A new exhibition
on the period prior to the birth of the
cinema was set up at the end of 1985.
The most modern exhibition in this
museum is perhaps The Measurement of
Time (Fig. 58). A wide selection of ob-
jects provides a glimpse of the history of
chronometrical instruments since the ear-
ly sundials, water-clocks and sandglasses
up to the quartz wrist watches of today.
Among the most precious items, mention
should be made of the Hindu pilgrim’s
chronometer, various types of apparatus
built by the Czech inventor, Romuald
Boiek, a set of late sixteenth-century
chronometers and objects manufactured
in the workshops of eminent European
clockmakers such as Quaro, Breguet,
Harrison, Leroy, Lépine, etc. The
technical development of clockmaking is
58 illustrated in greater detail by a series of
The exhibition on The Measwement of pendulum clocks built in the early nine-
Time, inaugurated in 1.983. teenth century by Josef Boiek, a clock-
maker and engineer in Prague.
The exhibition on electronics was
designed both for the specialist and the
layman (Fig. 59). The latter will be in-
terested to discover the principle of the
electronic valve, the history of sound
recording, technological developments
in radio and television, telegraphy and
the telephone. It is planned to develop
this exhibition through the help of an in-
ternational project which will involve the
participation, under the auspices of
Unesco, of the Palais de la Découverte in
Paris and the Evoluon Museum set up by
Philips at Eindhoven. Referred to as 3M
(The Modern Museum Model), this pro-
ject aims at setting up, within the Prague
National Museum of Technology, a
59 model exhibition on acoustics which will
The exhibition on electronics. lay special emphasis on providing
The Prague N&ond Museum of Technology: a survey 111

polytechnic education for the general

public and, more especially, young peo-
ple. The exhibition will make use of the
latest techniques and will also serve as a
training centre for curators from Third
World countries. The inauguration is
planned for May 1988, the eightieth an-
niversary of the foundation of the
museum.
The collection of astronomical in-
struments includes objects of which some
are unique in the world, such as the sex-
tant of Jost Biirgi, used by Tycho Brahé
and Johannes Kepler, the quadrant of J.
Klein of 1762, that of G. Fellwöck, the
instruments of E. Habermel, engineer to
the court of the Emperor Rudolph II, in-
cluding his sundial and astronomical
clock, together with other treasures such
as the fifteenth-century Gothic astrolabe,
a sixteenth-century torquetum and six-
teenth-century armillary spheres; a col-
lection of geodesic protractors, especially
the theodolite of the Prague master, H.
Stolle, of the early seventeenth-century
and numerous eighteenth-century
geodesic astrolabes.
The section devoted to the mining in-
dustry is located in a genuine mining con-
text: the galleries and blasting sites
situated in the basement of the Museum
building (Fig. 60). In this impressive set-
ting, visitors can become familiar with all
the varieties of ores to be found in
Czechoslovakia and can admire the
machines and tools that have been used
for their extraction from the Stone Age
up to the nineteenth century. The same
applies to the exhibition entitled The
History of Iron, which includes over 150
objets which have played a part in the exhibition is brought up to date from 60
production or transformation of iron. time to time. The coal mine in the basement of the
The history of engineering is il- From the time when the National Mu- m ~ e ~ A~ mmml
m . setting for an
lustrated by steam engines, turbines and seum of Technology was founded, it was
models which provide an indication of planned that, in addition to the collec- I
the main developments in the construc- tions, effortswould be made to constitute
tion of steam engines during the nine- archives of drawings and photographs,
teenth and early twentieth centuries; a together with a collection of all written
historical collection of unique internal evidence concerning Czechoslovak tech-
combustion engines and hydraulic nologists. The documents that have been
machines (Fig. 61). collected are currently in the “Archives of
A two-part exhibition is devoted to the history of technology and industry”.
nuclear energy. The first part provides a The documentation has been divided in-
description of the basic principles of to two major categories: the actual
atomic research with the aid of careful- documents and the collections. The
ly-defined explanatory notices which can documents concern various major
be understood by the young people who technical corporationsand factories, with
visit the museum. Measuring apparatus drawings and plans provided by the
are in a section with scale models of Prague Polytechnic College and include
atomic power stations built in bequests of numerous manuscripts on the
Czechoslovakia and a permanent kinetic life and work of various inventors, men of
model, which illustrates the operation of science and leading figures in
a 440 MW water-reactor. This part of the Czechoslovak industry, such as FrantiSek
The Prdgue Natìomd il.lusetrnz of Technol'ogy: a survey 113

61
The history of engineering illustrated by a
permanent exhibition of turbines and steam The other part of the archives, which is
engines. Inaugurated in 1977.
Josef and FrantiSek Antonin Gerstner,
Josef Bof&, FrantiSek Kfiiik and others.
.
very substantial, is composed of collec-
tions of prints, photographs, newspaper
cuttings, commercial publications,
manuscripts,plans, blueprints, portraits,
graphical drawings, etc. The documents
on the history of national and interna-
tional aviation represent perhaps one of
the largest collections of their kind, en-
joying considerable international renown
among specialists in this field.
The archives on architecture include
over 200,000 plans, sketches, drawings
and reproductions and provide a com-
prehensive picture of the history of
Czechoslovak architecture during the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries,
dealing either with every aspect of the
work of a particular architect (as in the
case of Barvitius, Ztek, Schulz, Fanata,
Kotëra, Gotár, Janak and others) or
specific buildings (the National Theatre,
the Artists' Academy, etc.) or even with
materials that have played a part in the
transformation of various urban areas.
The museum library, which specializes
in the technological history of Czecho-
slovakia is an important feature. With a
collection of some 200,000 volumes, it
has brought together virtually all the
literature in the field of Czechoslovak
technology since the 1830s, together with
an interesting selection of foreign works
spanning several centuries. In addition to
this, acquisitions are made regularly and
there are publications on all fields of
technology and science. A unique,
systematized collection, classlfied accord-
ing to the international decimal system,
the library has also brought together an-
notated bibliographies on the history of
technology in Czechoslovakia.
In terms of both theory and method-
ology and museum practice, the Museum
plays a leading part as a specialized scien-
tific centre in museological research. Its
scientific activities are supervised and
promoted by the Museum Scientific and
Technological Council in collaboration
with the Friends of the National Museum
of Technology, which include eminent
scientists and experts. The results of their
research are published by the museum
which has its own publishing facilities.
Since 1955, five collections have been
published: the Annals -Sborníky (21
volumes); Dissertations -Rozpravy (100
volumes); Catalogues (8 volumes);
bibliographies and reference works
(mostly re-edited or translated from
earlier historical works) (22 volumes), etc.
All these publications are destined for
the international exchange service and
the catalogues are published almost ex-
clusively in English, while other publica-
tions contain abstracts in various foreign
languages.
Every year, the National Museum of
Technology organizes several seminars
and conferences for specialists and ex-
perts from all over the world. The
Department of Cultural Education and
External Relations is responsible for one
of the most important activities of the
Museum: the organization of temporary
exhibitions. The development and rapid
growth of technology, particularly during
the 1970s and 1980s, cannot be covered
by traditional museographical methods
and the principal role of temporary ex-
hibitions is therefore to enable the public
to achieve a better understanding of con-
temporary times and of the prospects
opened up by modern technology. A re-
cent exhibition on the theme of 'Light
and Energy', highlighted individual
energy consumption (all luminous
sources) and economic and social
organization in the production field.
Presented in 1985, the exhibition Higher
Education Establishments for Science
and Scientz$c Practice provided the
public with a display of the major results
of national scientific and research activity
and their contribution to the economy.
Visitors were given an opportunity of
making themselves familiar with various
forms of apparatus devised by researchers
and collaborators in Czechoslovak higher
education, a tele-education studio and a
computer technology laboratory.
In 1986, an exhibition entitled The
Use of Lasers in Technology will be held
and other exhibitions are being prepared
on themes such as Man and Water,
Robotization -from Force to Reason,
Energy Sources for the 21st Century,
Technology in Administration and
Organization. These projects encourage
active collaboration with the various sec-
tors of industry and national research in-
stitutions.
On average, there are twelve tem-
porary exhibitions at the Museum every
year, approximately eight of which are
sent abroad. Itinerant exhibitions are an
important feature of the international
collaboration encouraged by the museum
and various members of staff contribute
to these activities through the interna-
tional commissions of ICOM.
For many years, the museum has been
in close co-operation with the Moscow
Polytechnic Museum, the Palais de la
114
62-63
The inter-museum exhibition of polytechnic
training for young people, with the active
participation of visitors.
Découverte in Paris, various ‘Maisons de
la Culture’ in France, the Deutsches
Museum in Munich, the Science Museum
in London, the Tekniska Museet in
Stockholm, the Museum of Finnish Ar-
chitecture in Helsinki, the Museum of
Technical Sciences in Warsaw, the
Polytechnic Museum in Sofia, the
Transport and Technological Museum in
Berlin, the Museum of Technology in
Vienna, the Technical Exhibition Centre
at the Advanced Technical College of
Delft and with numerous other cultural
institutions.
Exhibitions of another kind have been
prepared jointly with foreign partners.
An example is the joint exhibition set up
by the museums of technology of the
Soviet Union, Poland, the German
Democratic Republic and Czechoslova-
kia, on the theme of polytechnic train-
ing, with each museum presenting its
own views on this problem (Figs. 62 and
63). It is planned to organize, in co-
operation with museums abroad, an
itinerant exhibition Museums o f
Technology and Young People. Another
interesting example of co-operation was
the exhibition on sound recording
prepared with the assistance of the Palais
de la Découverte in Paris, which proved
an enormous success. The Prague Na-
tional Museum of Technology provided
the historical contribution, produced all
the notices, display cabinets and presen-
tation equipment, while the Palais de la
Découverte concentrated on the presen-
tation of explanations of scientific prin-
ciples through experiments and contem-
porary technology. The exhibition
entitled Bels, Decibels and Phones,
subsequently renamed The Secret of
Sound, was shown in many towns in
France, the Netherlands, Austria,
Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic
Republic, Bulgaria, the USSR and
Poland. Among the exhibitions of the
Museum which have met with con-
siderable success abroad, mention should
be made of The Mzlsical-Boxes ofPrague,
The Lights o f the Past, Travel in Former
Times, Steam Locomotives, The Techni-
que of Wri2ing asReJ7ectedoverthe Cen-
turi‘es, The Czech Artistic Melting-pot,
Technology and Advertising Posters at
the Beginning of the Century and various
exhibitions on the history of Czechoslo-
vak architecture.
Most of the cultural and educational
activities of any museum should be aim-
ed at encouraging the participation of
young people and this principle is all the
more important for a museum of
technology. It is our task at the National
Museum of Technology to reflect on a
new concept of participation by young
people. At the present time, we are
witnessing incredibly rapid develop-
ments in science and technology and in
their influence in all fields of human life.
The pace of development, however, is
continually increasing and it is at a time
of scientific and technological revolution
that the real justification for the existence
of museums of technology becomes clear.
Their purpose must be to awaken among
schoolchildren a genuine interest in
scientific and technological discoveries,
to bring them within their grasp and to
provide them with information on cur-
rent progress in this field. While a
museum can never replace school, it can,
Dagmar Klephvá
nevertheless, become a valuable partner
within the secondary education system.
It is with this aim in mind that the Na-
tional Museum of Technology organizes
specialized conferences, competitions
and film shows closely related to educa-
tional syllabuses. Our concern is to set up
new activities and to give them new forms
by using all the recent technology in the
fields of, for example, physics or infor-
matics. Furthermore, we contribute to
the education of young people by en-
couraging them to take an interest, not
only in the exact sciences themselves, but
also in their technical and practical ap-
plications. A team of specialists of the
museum is studying a completely new
museum concept, with particular regard
to a new system of computerized
documentation and the part it can play
not only in museum research but also in
the Museum’s educational aims. The in-
stallation of terminals can provide a
computer-assisted system which can
foster a ‘dialogue’ with visitors by asking
them questions and, on the basis of their
answers, indicate to them what they
should see or read, etc.
Much has yet to be achieved, however,
in this field, for the classic display of ob-
jects no longer holds the attention of the
younger generation. Consequently, the
major tasks which our museum has to
tackle are how to reveal the history of a
rich scientific and technological tradition
without which there could be no develop-
ment as we know it and how to avoid fall-
ing behind scientific and technological
progress, while at the same time conduc-
ting exploratory work to assess the social,
economic and cultural effects of such pro-
gress. In our view, this would appear to
be the only way a museum can contribute
to helping young people to prepare for
the life that awaits them at the dawn of
the twenty-first century. 4
[ Translatedfrom French]

the site of
64
The museum on t h e site of t h e ancient
copper m i n e of Tonglushan on the day it
was opened.
Hu Jun
Born in Shanghai in 1934. Studied at Dongwu
University and the Shanghai Institute of Finance
and Economics. After serving for a period in the
Ministry of Industry, worked for the Department of
the Cultural Heritage. Currently, Secretary-
General of the Society of Chinesr Museums and
Head of the Museum Section of the Department of
Archaeology of the Chinese Ministry of Culture.
Member of the International Council of Museums
(ICOM).
Note: Chronology of the first Chinese dynasties:
Shang dynasty, sixteenth to eleventh century
B.C.; Western Zhou, eleventh century to 771
B.C.; Chunqiu period (Spring and Autumn
period), 770-476 B.C.; Zhanguo period (Warring
States period), 475-221 B.C.;Western Han, 206
B.c.-A.D. 24; Eastern Han, 25-220 A.D.
ancient copper mine
The museum on the site of the ancient
copper mine of Tonglushan (Fig. 64) was
opened on 5 December 1984 in
Huangshi, a pretty town in Hubei pro-
vince on the banks of the Yangzijiang.
Although its total area is only 1,700 m2,
since its opening the museum has arous-
ed enormous interest among Chinese
museologists and researchers, because of
its scientific, technical and historical im-
portance.
I* search of the ‘bronze czGGtzcre’ of
antiqzlity
China’s magnificent ‘bronze culture’
paved the way for the civilization of anti-
quity. Before the Tonglushan site was
discovered, excavations had brought to
light four to five thousand large and
medium-sized bronze items bearing in-
scriptions. Many of these bronzes, com-
bining beauty of form with masterly
technique, are on display in museums
throughout China. Examples are the j u e
wine vase of Erlitou and the rectangular
fangding vase of Duling (beginning of
the Shang dynasty), the rectangular
fangding vase dedicated to Simuwu (end
of the Shang dynasty), the large yu vase
(da yzldilzg) (beginning of the Western
Zhou dynasty), the ding tripod vase and
he ewer from the principality of Wei
(middle of the Western Zhou era).
Jizibai’s pan vase from the princiality of
Guo and the ding tripod vase from Yu
115
(end of the Western Zhou dynasty), the
bronze sword of King Goujian of the
kingdom of Yue and the spear of King
Fucha of the kingdom of Wu (Chunqiu
and Zhanguo periods), the hufu tiger-
shaped military seals (Qin dynasty) and
the Changxin palace lamp (Han era). All
these and many more works of art,
created two to three thousand years ago,
are admired by large numbers of Chinese
and foreign visitors. 1
But what process was used to smelt
these fine ancient bronzes and to extract
the copper of which bronze is an alloy?
What technique was used to convert the
copper ore into bronze? And above all,
where were the mines and foundries?
Like the great Egyptian pyramids of Giza,
south of Cairo, built with more than two
million blocks of stone weighing two-
and-a-half tons each, the Chinese
bronzes haunted specialists with a series
of enigmas that were as fascinating as
they were difficult to solve.
Foundry sites had, of course, been
discovered on a number of occasions. In
Henan Province for example, a foundry
from the early Shang dynasty was dis-
covered containing charcoal dust, red
terra cotta, copper ore, fragments of
crucibles and terracotta moulds. The site
of another foundry dating from the
beginning of the Western Zhou dynasty
contained red terra cotta, furnace walls
and dilzg tripod vases. Excavations in
Shanxi Province uncovered the site of a
116
65
Visitors filled with admiration at the
remains of the 2,700-year-old mine, which
can be viewed on the great hall of the site.
bronze foundry with tens of thousands of
fragments of terra cotta moulds. Each
new discovery was greeted with en-
thusiasm by specialists in ancient Chinese
bronzes. To their great regret, however,
no copper mine from the period had ever
been discovered, and certainly no site
combining a mine and a foundry. When
Tonglushan came to light, therefore,
their excitement and satisfaction knew no
bounds, since the site contained both a
foundry and a mine, dating from the
remote past, which had remained active
Ha Jun
for a relatively long period. They were in
a particularly remarkable state of preser-
vation and were exceptionally interesting
for research purposes.
A miracdous discovery
Tonglushan is nowadays a rich open-cast
copper mine. When it was first worked,
the mine was at an altitude of 87 metres,
but in the course of a few decades it has
gradually subsided until it is now below
sea level. In 1965, when the copper face
A museum on the site o f an ancient cobber mine
was 16 metres above sea level, the miracle
occurred: countless posts that had been
used to prop up the ancient mine shafts
were gradually uncovered, together with
some of the tools used in extracting the
ore. A number of ancient furnaces,
bronze slag originallyseveral metres deep
and a dozen or so copper ingots in the
form of flat cakes were also found. More
interesting still, a large quantity of pot-
sherds of the Chunqizl era (Spring and
Autumn) were scattered all over the site.
It was possible to recognize fragments of
dizg tripod vases, Li tripod pots, dozl
goblets, guan jars, etc. A small number
of objects characteristicof the end of the
Western Zhou dynasty were also found.
The local authorities decided to safe-
guard the site and assembled a team of
archaeologists to carry out scientific ex-
cavations. Two former mining sites were
chosen for excavation. The first, at the
northern end of the open-cast mine, was
explored over an area of 50 m2 and the se-
cond, at the southern end of the modern
mine, over an area of 120 m2. The vast
117
site of the ancient copper mine then
began to emerge from the deep under-
ground sleep in which it had lain for be-
tween two and three thousand years.
The northern site contained eight ver-
tical and one oblique shaft. The props
used were small cylindrical posts measur-
ing 5 to 10 cm. in diameter. Many of the
mining tools discovered were made of
wood. According to the archaeologists,
this mine dates back to the Chunqia era.
The southern site was found to contain
seven vertical shafts, one transverse shaft
118 H z Jlcn

and ten horizontal galleries on three
levels. The wooden props were thicker,
measuring up to 20 cm. in diameter in
most cases. The mining tools found here
were mostly iron but some were also
made of wood, bamboo or cane. Ex-
amination showed the shafts to have been
worked during the Zhanguo period (the
Warring States).
The study made of the excavation finds
showed that the copper mine and foun-
66 dry had been in use from the Western
Bronze axe, adze and hoe discovered on the Zhou dynasty until the Western Han era
site. (1027 B.C.-8 A . D . ) and that the site
covered an area of about 2 km. from
north to south and 1 km. from east to
west. The finds take us back in imagina-
tion some two to three thousand years.
We can conjure up a vivid scene of toiling
slaves, with neither mechanical assistance
nor motor power, relying on their
primitive tools to dig shafts to a depth of
over 50 metres to mine the ore. Using
rudimentary methods, they solved the
problems of ventilation at the bottom of
the shafts, draining the water and remov-
ing it to the surface, lighting and proping
The second section consists of a room
adjacent to the great hall, where a clear
picture of the site is provided by a display
of objects, diagrams, photographs, etc.
This enables visitors to form a fairly com-
plete idea of the layout of the different
levels of shaft in the ancient mine and ex-
plains particular aspects that cannot be
shown directly -geological and topo-
graphical data, stages of development of
the mine, datingmethods, etc. Lastly, in-
formation about the characteristics of the
mine can be gathered from a large num-
ber of ore samples, especially different
varieties of ore found in the shafts of the
ancient mine -malachite, natural cop-
per, magnetite, haematite, azurite, cup-
rite, etc.
The third section, the ‘Ancient Mine
and Foundry Exhibition’, is housed in
the museum of the town of Huangshi. It
contains a display of the mining tools and
everyday articles discovered on the site
(Fig. 66). The exhibition occupies three
rooms -the entrance hall, the mine
room and the foundry room.
In the entrance hall, there is a large L

67
Cross-section reconstitution of the mine of
the Chz~nqilcperiod, in the entrance hall of
the exhibition of finds from the
Tonglushan mine and foundry site
(museum of the town of Huangshi).
up the galleries. One is left speechless horizontal scale model showing the lay-
with admiration! out of the Tonglushan mine and foun-
dry, and another model providing a cross-
A new type of arci5aeoZogicaZ sectional view of the shafts and galleries
museum where the miners extracted the copper
over 2,000 years ago (Fig. 67).
To safeguard this extraordinary site and The mine room was designed around
make it accessible to the public, the four main themes: the working and shor-
Chinese Government decided to build a ing up of the shafts and galleries, mining
museum there. The design of the mu- tools, prospecting methods, the removal
seum is novel, with imposing buildings of water to the surface and lighting. Each
divided into three main sections. theme is illustrated by objects found dur-
’
The first contains the great hall of ing the excavations. Fourteen mining
the site, where the ancient mineshafts, tools discovered in the sloping shafts and
discovered at the southern end of the galleries of the southern part of the mine
Tonglushan open-cast mine, are ex- are also on display. These include four
hibited in their original state (Fig. 65). iron axes, one still with its straight,
The centre of the great hall consists of a 47-cm-longhandle in perfect condition,
pit measuring about 400 m2, in which the three quadrangular iron chisels 22.5 cm.
most characteristic features of the site are long, two iron sledgehammers weighing
preserved at different levels. By following 6 kgs, an iron harrow, a hexagonal iron
the route marked out for them, visitors hoe, a notched iron cutting hoe and a
can come close to the excavation area and wooden hammer. There are also more
observe all the details of the various ver- than twenty tools that were used to load
tical and oblique shafts and galleries. In and transport the ore, such as bamboo
a corner of the hall, a sloping section of sieves and baskets, cane baskets, wooden
a gallery large enough only for a man of winches and hooks, ropes made of wild
medium height has been restored by the plant fibres, and twenty-four objects us-
museum designers, who had the clever ed for drainage, such as: wooden pipes,
idea of offering visitors, eager for the ex- buckets and gourds. The everyday articles
perience, the opportunity to do some on display include bowls made of the
exploring of their own ‘on all ‘fours’. tremella fungus, calabashes, bamboo
There is also a three-metre-wide gallery, baskets full of food, potsherds, etc. A
running all round the hall, from which series of models are used to show visitors
visitors can ‘survey the procedure’ and how the galleries were ventilated in an-
have an overall view of the site. cient times. It was already known that
A mumum on the site of an ancient copper n i n e
shafts of unequal depth would create dif-
ferences of atmosphericpressure and lead
to natural circulation of the air. By block-
ing certain abandoned galleries, currents
of fresh air could also be directed towards
the shafts so that the air reached the cop-
per face at the deepest point. Other
models show how the water was drained.
A system of wooden pipes carried the
water to tanks at the bottom of the shafts
(Fig. 68). Wooden winches were then
used to raise it in stages to the surface. A
third set of models shows how the galle-
ries were shored up. The structures were
designed in much the same way as those
used today. Having supported the pres-
sure of the gallery roof, the side walls and
the floor for over 2,000 years, they are still
relatively firm.
The main themes in the foundry room
are the design of the furnace used to
smelt the bronze, the materials used in
constructing and protecting it and
smelting techniques. Here again, the
finds from the site are displayed in such
a way as to answer the questions people
are likely to ask. The vertical smelting
furnace dating from the beginning of the
Chunqizl period is evidence of the stage
reached in the development of smelting
119
techniques in ancient times (Fig. 69).
The room also contains bronze slag from
that period in the form of thin slabs,
showing that an excellent degree of
fluidity was achieved. The melting point
of the slag was around 1,200°C, so the
temperature was well controlled.
The building of the museum on
the site of the ancient copper mine of
Tonglushan is an important event in
Chinese museology (Fig. 70). On its
opening day, it attracted large numbers
of specialists, researchers and govern-
ment officials from the whole of China,
all with warm messages of congratula-
tion. Since it opened, thousands of
Chinese and foreign visitors have visited
the museum every day. Many have ex-
pressed their enthusiasm, like the foreign
visitors who commented: ‘This site is the
only one of its kind in the world; its
discovery, exploration and preservation 68
are of great importance for world Wooden pipes, galleries and tanks found
on the site, forming a complete drainage
metallurgical history; We have seen system.
things here that cannot be seen anywhere
else; this experience will be engraved on
our memory forever’.
69
[ Transhted from Chinese] The world’s first furnace: fragments of a
vertical furnace used to smelt bronze at the
beginning of the Chunqh period.
70
Members of the archaeological team of the
Archaeological Research Centre of the social
Science Institute carrying out excavations
and research at point 1 on the Tonglushan
site in 1979 (point 1 is the area now inside
the museum).
120
InuisibZe aesthetic: a so ewhat ~ ~ V ~ ; P Z O T sZ&btl’y
Q~VS~
profozdnd interuiew with F r a d OppeBheimer
Linda Dackman Frank Oppenheimer says that little chil-
dren never seem to cry at the Explorato-
O Linda Dackman, 1983 rium in San Francisco. He once saw a
child crying, but later found out that it
was because the parents had said it was
time to go home. Oppenheimer believes
that a place like the Exploratoriumaffects
the way people live and work and how
they think about not only science and art,
but about technology and about them-
selves.
Oppenheimer’sname is virtually syno-
nymous with ‘hands-on’ or participatory
learning. As founder and director of the
Exploratorium, his ideas reverberate in
existing and planned institutions as far
flung as Argentina’s proposed Escuela
Del Sol, China’s Shanghai Science Cen-
ter and Beijing’s Science and Technology
Museum, Paris’ Parc de la Villette, and
Oklahoma City’s Omniplex.
Just as there is a visible beauty, form
and structure to the natural world that
the Exploratorium describes, there is also
an underlying beauty or aesthetic quality
in the Exploratorium itself. This beauty
has less to do with what one sees there-
-the traditional aesthetic of most mu-
seums or how one feels (which is the ob-
vious focus of its interactive exhibits)
than with how one is mude to fiel.
When asked how the Exploratorium
achieves this, Dr. Oppenheimer began
by giving a slightly askew Zen-like
answer:
Oppenheimer: If you are designing a
doorknob, there are a variety of ways of
doing it. It may actually be better to
make a doorknob square. But those big
heavy round doorknobs feel nicer.
They’re really lovely. So we use them.
On the other hand, the way food
comes packaged is just plain aggravating.
Or battery dry cells. It’s really unpleasant
to try and get a battery out of a little two-
pack. You have to cut it with a knife and
then pull up a tab and it makes an awful
crinkly noise.
Duckman: How else might batteries be
packaged?
Oppenheimer Loose! And frankfurters
too. I don’t like them packaged. They are
all sort of shrunk together that way.
Dac,&”: The Exploratorium began
with the idea that science and the world
around us are understandable. You try to
introduce people to science through
perception?
Oppenheimer: That’s right. The Ex-
ploratorium introduces people to science
by examining how they see, hear and
feel. Perception is the basis for what each
of us finds out about the world and how
we interpret it-whether we do so direct-
ly with our eyes-or develop tools, such
as microscopes or accelerators, art, poetry
or literature to help us.
Dackmuiz: So what do science, the Ex-
ploratorium and aesthetics have to do
with frankfurters?
Oppenheimer: And vacuum cleaners.
They are hard to steer and they make that
awful noise. It’s because nobody cares
what it is like to use one. I’m sure it’s not
the economics of it. It’s just that nobody
paid any attention to the feel of it or what
it was doing to other people.
Duckman: Is there a need to pay more at-
tention to ‘what feels good’ on a broad
scale? Are you saying that not only
vacuum cleaner manufacturers, but
museum directors and society in general,
have all lost sight of aesthetics in their
decision-making?
Oppenheimer: One of the things that has
puzzled me is how to involve aesthetic
decision-making in more of what society
does. It isn’t like science. You can’t go
and ask an expert, ‘Will this work or
won’t it?’ Congress can’t say, ‘Well we
can’t make up our minds, so let’s go to
the National Gallery and look around for
a while and come back.’ It doesn’t work
that way. The only way I think it can
work for vacuum cleaner people, for mu-
seums, for society as a whole, is for aes-
thetic decision-making to be part of
everybody’s experience from childhood
onwards.
That means that toys have to be made
well. That means that when children like
or dislike something they eat, their
parents should pay attention. Aesthetics
involve both the notion of cultivating
Invisible aesthetic: a somewhat hz”roz~r, slightï) profou?d interview with Frank Oppenheimer
taste and that of building up tension and
then providing a release for it. This
should be incorporated into the ex-
periences of young children so that it
becomes an integral part of their think-
ing. Eventually you will have an adult
population for whom aesthetics have
become the basis of decision-making,
rather than afterthought. When people
say that they need more art in their city,
they say it in exactly the same way as they
might say we need more benches.
Aesthetics are not deeply embedded in
the way things ought to be. I don’t think
you can get people to consider aesthetics
at a late stage. I think it has to be part of
our upbringing.
Dackman: Would you say that your deci-
sion to become a cattle rancher was an
aesthetic solution to being blacklisted for
ten years?
Oppenheimer:I think I did some things
that were not aesthetic. We had these
wonderful boggy meadows and you could
hardly grow hay in them. So we decided
that we had to dig drainage ditches and
they changed the look and the feel of the
fields.
But there was much that felt good
about it. Working with water and ir-
rigating and diverting water out of the
rivers when they were wild in the spring,
or later on in the year, when there was just
a little trickle. Watching the water spread
out all over the grass. And mowing. All
of those things were quite wonderful.
When I ploughed I thought, ‘This is go-
ing to be the right time to think about all
kinds of things.’ But I didn’t. I just
watched the furrowing and became in-
trigued by the process of the dirt turning
over.
Dackman: The untrained eye might ac-
cuse the Exploratorium of resembling
one of your old barns. How have you in-
tegrated the aesthetics of what feels good
into the Exploratorium?
Oppenheimer:One way is to try to make
exhibits that are not frustrating. Some of
the things that we put out there are there
just because they feel nice. For instance,
we have one exhibit that is simply a big
ball-bearing. Next to it is a sign that says,
‘Some machinery feels nice’. We try to
enable people to do what they want to do
or might think of doing with an exhibit.
One exhibit, The Prirm Tree, has cords
that you have to pull up so that you can
look through a prism. If the cord is too
short and doesn’t reach as far as I want,
I get very angry. At the Exploratorium,
we try not to make people angry.
Of course there are some things that we
haven’t done well. It doesn’t bother me,
but some people don’t like all the noise.
For most people, it isn’t annoying and I
think that is one of the reasons why they
behave so nicely. The fact that we aren’t
rigid about people’s behaviour within
the museum helps. They can do almost
whatever they want to do, except ride
bicycles and a few other things.
At one point, I thought I knew where
the entrance was going to be-on the
West side. But people kept coming in
through the North door. And then we
wanted to open up the East door so peo-
ple could see Maybeck’s beautiful rotun-
da. So now we have three entrances with
three separate ticket-takers. Otherwise,
we would have made everybody walk a
long way to get in just because we had
some fixed idea about where they should
enter. It seems that many things are
decided upon because they are things
that I’d like to happen to me.
Dackman: So you rely on personal in-
tuition?
Oppenheimer:That’s right. I remember
working with an artist named Doug
Hollis, who was an artist-in-residence at
the Exploratorium. It was his first at-
tempt at building a wind harp and I spent
a lot of time with him just doing odd ex-
periments, seeing how one could trans-
mit sound along wires and along rods and
how to couple it. I think I helped him to
explore further. He thought he knew ex-
actly what he was going to do, but things
never work out exactly as planned. So we
took time off to experimentwith all kinds
of things. It was great fun and he has now
become entranced with such experi-
ments.
121
Dackman: I always knew that physicists
experimented a lot, but I didn’t know
that you were doing the same thing with
aesthetics at the Exploratorium. Do you
think that other museums do enough of
this?
Oppenheimer: I know that they are in-
terested in the aesthetic result, yet they
seem to want to impose something on
people rather than make it possible for
people to make their own decisions. Like
the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Dackman: You don’t enjoy walking
through the Guggenheim?
Oppenheimer: I don’t know, because
you can’t make any decisions.
Dackman: You just have to keep going
downhill?
Oppenheimer: If you want to bring
somebody back to see a certain painting,
you have to take the elevator to the top
and go back down the ramp.
Dackmax You mean you can’t walk in
the wrong direction?
Oppenheimer: Oh you can. But most
people don’t. Even so, you see the paint-
ings in a certain order.
Dackman: How does the Exploratorium
allow people to make their own
decisions?
Oppenheimer: The Exploratorium ar-
chitects wanted to build offices with low
partitions that formed little work cubby
holes with shelves for plants. They took
me to see offices like that which they
thought were very good. Everyone was
working away in their cubby holes. Sud-
denly I shouted something out loud and
everybody popped up out of their holes.
I said to the architect, ‘See what would
happen? I wouldn’t be able to shout.’ He
replied that such a place teaches people to
talk softly. Well, I don’t want to be
taught -or to teach anyone -to talk
softly. They said something else about
stopping the children from running
about inside the museum. Well, why
122
should we stop children from running? I
had a difficult time convincing the ar-
chitects that they weren’treally doing any
harm. They hardly ever ran into anybody,
but they appeared to be a little bit out of
control and it worried the architects to see
children behaving naturally. I think it’s
quite wonderful that we don’t mind los-
ing some control. So there again was
something that I liked-I like to see the
children run-and I had to impress my
aesthetic on the place. For the architects,
it wasn’t even an aesthetic question.
Dackman: Perhaps it was more a question
of being sued.
Oppenheimer:One must make decisions
like that. The way a place is emerges from
decisions made about many details. The
general view is that an executive should
not pay attention to all these details. I
don’t think that’s the right way. It
doesn’t work when you are doing ex-
periments and it doesn’t work in art. A
lot of museums are on the right track to
start with. They have a picture of what
they should be. Then there is pressure-
its rather like people who set up a sym-
phony orchestra in order to play a certain
kind of music, and when nobody comes
to hear it, they change the repertoire.
Dackman: I know that you have been op-
posed to charging admission fees at the
Exploratorium and warded it off for 12
years. Now you do charge. Isn’t that an
erosion of the institution as you first con-
ceived it?
Oppenheimer: I was persuaded by peo-
ple I respect that it was not a bad thing
and the way we are doing it has a nice feel
to it.
The fact of saying that you can come
back as often as you like for six months
makes a difference to the whole notion of
admission fees. And it doesn’t affect the
economics of the museum. Of course, ad-
mission is free for everyone up to the age
of 19 and free for adults every Wednes-
day. It feels acceptable to me, and that
comes from my own experience. The
point is that what feels good to me has
been integrated into all aspects of the
museum’s operations, into the decision-
making process.
The Exploratorium at its best resembles a
musical composition, a symphony where
even if the listeners are not aware of the
structure of the piece, they still sense the
coherence of the composition. At the Ex-
Linda Dackman
-
ploratorium, every aspect of the museum
is part of the musical composition. Op-
penheimer is the composer. Each exhibit
elicits curiosity and thereby builds up
tension. The tension is resolved as the
visitor manipulates the exhibit and
receives intellectual and aesthetic
satisfaction. The exhibit Bernoulli
Blower looks like something borrowed
from a road construction crew-it is
made from a big orange dayglow ‘cone’.
But the Oppenheimer aesthetic is at
work. The blower supports a large rubber
ball on the stream of air it puts out. The
Bernoulli force is great enough for the
visitors to feel the tug when they pull the
ball out of the air stream. If they tap
the ball, it oscillates. This teaches them
something about the Bernoulli effect.
But visitors can also toss the ball, so that
it is captured by the air stream. Or they
can lift up their sweaters and let the air
blow on to their stomachs. Sometimes,
they simply lean over and have their hair
blown straight up. They also tear off bits
of paper and watch them dance in the air
stream- and inevitably, some people
just take the ball and have a game of
catch.
All of these approaches to the exhibit
are approved of by Dr Oppenheimer.
They feel good.
The atmosphere of the Exploratorium
is relaxed -not so much a physical relax-
ation (remember the running kids and
the noise), but a relaxed attitude towards
how people are made to feel about their
own learning. Dr Oppenheimer often
relates an anecdote about how he painted
over the skylights in the Exploratorium to
keep the Optics Section of the museum
dark. Seagulls on the roof punctured star
like holes in the paint. On one occasion,
he overheard two middle-aged women at
the museum who were looking up at the
holes in the paint scratched by the bird
feet. ‘Well, I suppose that if we knew
more, we would know what those little
lights meant,’ one said to the other.
This anecdotemakes Dr Oppenheimer
sparkle. For him the worst thing is to have
someone wonder, ‘Why in the world do
they have that here?’ The lady in his story
saw holes in the paint and assumed that
they were intentional and significant.
She didn’t understand them, but she felt
that was all right. She didn’t know it
perhaps, but she had spent the day under
the influence of the Oppenheimer
aesthetic. She felt good about not know-
ing and about her ability to learn. =

S C I E N C E A N D THE FUTURE
A uastproject in the north-east o f Paris
‘Science, that is to say the search for
knowledge, the fulfilment of the eternal
desire to know and to understand, is un-
doubtedly one of the most specific, most
noble and most exciting pursuits in the
epic history of man. To make people
aware of this extraordinary achievement,
most of which has taken place in less than
two centuries, is as important an under-
taking as that of introducing the public to
the outstanding products of that other
fascinating pursuit of the genius of man,
which is artistic creation. ’
d
The first sentence of the introduction to
the report submitted by Maurice Lévy to
the French Government in 1979 very
clearly indicates the scope of the aims
pursued by those who planned and
established what now forms the Cité des
Sciences et de l’Industrie at La Villette
(Fig. 71).
In 1977, a team led by Mr Taillibert
began to study the possibility of conver-
ting the buildings of the old slaughter-
houses at Villette into a museum of
science, technology and industy. These
disused and derelict premises occupied a
large part of a 50-hectare site in the
north-east of Paris, transferred to the
State by the City of Paris on 25 August
1970.
Following the Lévy Report, which had
been commissioned by the French Go-
vernment, La Villette was decreed a
public park, to be known as the
‘Establissement Public du Parc de la
Villette’ (EPPV). A governing board was
made responsible for planning the
establishment of a museum, creating a
park and setting aside areas for concert
halls. At the beginning of the 1980s the
government confirmed its intention to
proceed with the three components of
this ambitious project: a park (designer
and superintendent of works, Bernard
Tschumi, 1983), a Cité des Sciences et de
l’Industrie (architect, Adrien Fainsilber,
1980)and a Cité de la Musique (architect,
Christian de Porttampac, 1985). Part of
the project is now already open to the
public, and the remaining facilities are
nearing the final stage of completion.
The park, covering an area of more
than 30 hectares, continues the tradition
of the public parks of Paris: it is a place
where people can meet, with amuse-
ments and sideshows, and open-air
cultural facilities mainly intended for a
general public. In addition to the con-
struction of the two Cités, the recreation
facilities located in this area include a
concert hall for variety shows and rock
music (the Zénith, inaugurated in 1984),
a multi-purpose centre for leisure ac-
tivities, exhibitions and shows (the
Grande Halle, inaugurared in 1985) and
one of the first constructions of the Cité
123
des Sciences et de l’Industrie, the Géode
(a geodesic dome containing an Omni-
max projection room with a hemispheri-
cal screen of 1,000 mz, inaugurated in
1985). The layout of the park combines
three main features: a series of small
buildings (the ‘Folies’)in which activities
of various kinds can be organized; two
major throughfares (covered galleries
running eastlwest and northlsouth)
together with a winding avenue linking
activity centres (workshops, information
centres, a display garden, greenhouses,
children’s playrooms, refreshment stalls,
a restaurant, etc); and, areas laid out as
meadows, sports grounds, lakes and
ponds. Work will be completed in 1989.
The Cité de la Musique will contain
concert halls, hostels and teaching and
exhibition premises. It will be built in
stages, the first of which will be com-
pleted during the summer of 1989. This
will comprise the various buildings to
house the new National Higher Conser-
vatoire of Music of Paris, the Musical In-
struments Gallery (the first step towards
the establishment of a Musical In-
struments Research Centre) and an In-
stitute of Musical Education. The second
stage comprising the network of concert
halls, will complete the facilities required
to make the Cité de la Musique a focal
point of music and musical research.
The Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie
will be opened to the public in successive
stages during 1986. These began in
March with a major exhibition on the
various scientific experimentsplanned to
coincide with the reappearance of
Halley’s Comet. The exhibition will be
organized by an independent body which
was set up in February 1985 with the
status of an ‘Establissement Public à
Caractère Industriel et Commercial’
(EPIC).
The supervisory ministries responsible
for these various bodies are: (a) the
Ministry of Urban Development, Hous-
ing and Transport, for EPPV; (b) the
Ministry of Research and Technology, for
EPIC (the Cité des Sciences et de l’In-
dustrie); and (c) the Ministry of Culture,
for the Park, the Grande Halle, the
Zénith and the Cité de la Musique.
124
Jean-Paul Natali
Born in 1948 in Marseille, France. He is now cam-
pleting a State doctoral thesis in natural sciences
after several years’ research in neurophysiology. He
spent five years helping to mount the permanent
exhibitions of the Cité des Sciences et de l’In-
dustrie. He also helped to set up the department of
museological research. He is director of studies for
the optional subject ‘Introduction to Scientific and
Technological Information’ for the advanced
teaching diploma (DEA) of the University of Paris
VII; scientific adviser to the educational depart-
ment (Training for Young People) of the Resources
Directorate of the Cité.
Johanne Landry
Born in 1952 in Quebec. Trained as molecular
biologist (M.Sc. from the University of Sher-
brooke), she studied for a doctorate in History and
Socio-politics of Science at the University of Mon-
treal on the popularization of science in museums.
After a training course at the San Diego Museum
of Natural History she joined the museology
research team at the Cité des Sciences et de l’In-
dustrie at La Villette. She now works in the Interna-
tional Relations Service at the Cité.
1. ‘Any attempt to attract the visitor’s interest
must take as its starting-point a reality which is
familiar and is linked to our own everyday
experience; thus what is on display must be
arranged in such a way as to be immediately
understandable.’ (M. Lévy).
The city of Paris is already generously en-
dowed with a series of institutions of a
high cultural standard which bear witness
to- France’s outstanding history in the
field of science and technology. The
Musée d’Histoire Naturelle, the Palais de
la Découverte, the Musée de l’Homme,
the Conservatoire National des Arts et
Métiers and the Musée des Arts et des
Traditions Populaires are all striking il-
lustrations of a firm and continuing
determination to disseminate the
knowledge accumulated over the years by
scientists and inventors on behalf of
mankind.
There still existed the need, however,
for a modern centre which would en-
shrine the scientific, technological and
industrial knowledge directly applicable
to the realities of a rapidly changing
society. As part of a great cultural design,
and after less than seven years of planning
and construction, a centre, intended to
cater for the needs of a vast public will be
inaugurated at the end of the first quarter
of 1986. Breaking with traditions which
have not always reflected present cultural
problems, and resolutely adopting an
original approach towards the choice of
subject, the manner of communication
and the quality and number of resources
and services to be made available to the
public, the Cité des Sciences et de l’In-
dustrie at La Villette will provide France
as a whole with a large-scalecultural com-
plex for the dissemination and better
understanding of present-day knowledge
in the realms of science, technology and
industry.
The Cité des Sciences et de
l’Industrie
Planned as a large-scale cultural centre
devoted to scientific and technological
knowledge, the Cité des Sciences et de
l’Industrie at La Villette is an original
venture from three points of view:
-it aims at presenting at one and the
same time science and technology and
their socio-economic consequences;
-it uses the latest audio-visual and com-
puterized techniques;
-it combines the whole range of
present-day communication media,
thus appealing to an extremely varied
public.
The following facilities are installed in
the building:
-the permanent exhibition (30,000
m”;
-the temporary exhibition area and the
commercial display area (10,000 mz);
-the media library (10,500 m2);
-the lecture halls (5,600 mz);
-the reception area, the rooms devoted
’
to topics of current interest, and com-
mercial activities (9,700 m2);
-the resources centre, for youth train-
ing, regional and association projects;
-the planetarium (850 mz).
The Cité also includes the nearby
‘Géode’, whose structural originality (a
sphere 36 metres in diameter) presents an
architectural contrast to the rectangular
mass of the building.
The part of the Cité most directly ac-
cessible to the public consists of the areas
reserved for the various permanent or
temporary exhibitions. The thematic ar-
rangement of these exhibition areas, the
choice of their subject-matter, the exten-
sive use of interactive techniques and the
layout of the auditoriums for different
types of public, all clearly show that the
purpose is to make the centre first and
foremost an instrument of communica-
tion, in keeping with contemporary
cultural requirements.
Thematic arrangement of the
permanent exhibitions
From the very beginning the report by
Maurice Lévy emphasized the need for
the permanent exhibitions to be arranged
thematically.1 This thematic approach
makes it possible to include scientific and
technical ideas from various disciplines
and to take into account relevant
philosophical, epistemological, econom-
ic, sociological and other aspects. The
report also emphasized the importanceof
arrangingthe space available so as to serve
the objectives of the exhibition: ‘ ...
while the choice of individual items il-
lustrating the theme is of capital impor-
tance, the layout of the exhibits and the
visitors’ itinerary ate no less important.’
As work proceeded on the project and
The Cite’des Sciences et de l ’ l n d m i è . La Villette (Pard
new areas were opened to the public, the
importanceof the architectural structures
and the organized flow of visitors became
eve more. apparent. ‘The omnipresence
of architecture’ throughout the building,
the ‘arrangement of the internal systems
and the way visitors are routed are the
features most immediately perceived by
the visitor. Both the choice and form of
exhibits had to be substantially modified
during the design stage in order to take
account of architectural requirements.
The emphasis on ‘everyday experience’
and the integration of the items on
display into functional groups were
nevertheless retained, in keeping with
the main guidelines adopted initially.
The decision to combine these func-
tional groups into four separate sections
spread over the three upper levels of the
building reflects both the original objec-
tives and the modifications resulting
from the construction of the Cité. The
four sections deal with: (a) from the earth
to the universe: tomorrow’s trail; (b) the
adventure of life; (c) matter and man’s
use of it; and (d) languages and com-
munication.
If we compare the titles of these four
sections with the preliminary definitions
in the Lévy report (the division into four
sections on the universe, life, matter and.
technology, human societies), it is clear
that there has been no major change in
the underlying options governing the
content of the exhibitions. By contrast,
the arrangement by ‘themes’ with a view
to structuring each of these sections on
the basis of its content has given way to an
125
arrangement by ‘functional groups’ 71
whose layout is more immediately com- The Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie (on
prehensible to visitors. This change the left-hand side of the diagram) occupies
the northern part of a 50-hectare park
resulted from planning alterations which situated on the north-eastern outskirts of
finally led to the establishment of four Paris. The park, crossed by straight canals
‘project teams’, each responsible for one and roads, contains the ‘folies’. The
section of the exhibition. At the same ‘Zénith’ (concert hall for variety shows), the
Grand Halle (activities and exhibition area)
time, the teams were not only responsible and, to the far south, the Cité de la
for mounting the exhibitions but were Musique.
also required to organize themselves into
separate agencies working on particular
aspects of communication with the
public (design, communication, layout,
scenography, etc.).
The thematic arrangement of the per-
manent exhibition is reflected in the
combination of static exhibits and prac-
tical demonstrations of applied skills
linked to the everyday aspects of human
life. The exhibition thus focuses on man
and on his different relationships with
the world around him. Starting with ex-
periences which are familiar to him, the
visitor finds his attention directed
towards the knowledge resulting from
scientific and technological progress. In
this way, he moves on from the im-
mediate universe of his everyday life to
the mediate universe objectivized by
science. Four levels of relationship have
been chosen as defining the fields of in-
quiry of the four sectors.
The first sector, ‘From the earth to the
universe’, deals with man’s relationships
with the physical world of which he is
part. The exhibition places the visitor in
the extreme environmentsrepresented by
the ocean and space and makes him aware
of the precarious nature of all the in-
126
stances of equilibrium which make up
our planet. It enumerates the resources,
activities and indices which reveal its for-
mation and its evolution. Finally, it
draws attention to the connections be-
tween mathematics, science and technol-
ogy, and reminds us that the universe
is an enormous laboratory for the scien-
tists studying it. Astronomy and astro-
physics, whether represented in individ-
ual displays or in the planetarium, are
seen here as fields of experimentation
leading to knowledge of the universe.
The second sector, ‘The adventure of
life’, puts man in his biological context
and highlights his relations with the liv-
ing world. An understanding of the im-
portance of the biosphere as an ecosystem
is seen here as the complex expression of
man’s relations with his environment:
the action of living environments on
man, and man’s action on these en-
vironments. The exhibition develops the
general idea that at various levels the
phenomenon of the living world presents
problems; firstly, with regard to a
knowledge of its structures and its inner-
most operations, and secondly with
regard to the way in which it is perceived
and mastered by science, technology and
the socio-political decision-making pro-
cess. With this in view, several display
areas of this sector are designed to face the
visitor squarely with these questions and
the train of thoughts they set in motion.
The sciences and technologies concerned
with the living world are thus examined
in this sector in relation to the importance
of their impact on the lives of men and
women today.
The third sector. ‘Matter and man’s
use of it‘, concentrates on access to new
forms of technology by presenting a
general review of questions and facts on
the relations between matter and man’s
use of it. In so doing it places particular
emphasis on the fields covered by the
human sciences. The structure of matter
is shown in relation to both its
macroscopic and microscopic aspects and
its economic implications. The different
forms, uses and technical and economic
consequences of energy are examined.
Robotics and automatization are
presented by means of information both
on the scientificresearch which generates
them and on the resulting socio-cultural
aspects. The key concepts of movement
and speed are shown as inevitably linked
with an understanding of commercial ex-
changes and of transport, including the
strategies involved. Here economics is
seen in close correlation with all the
human sciences which form a bridge be-
tween the technological and the cultural
fields. In particular, it is demonstrated
that in the discovery and use of new
materials competition plays an important
role which, in the final analysis, has a
decisive influence on the nature of the
everyday products around us. The visitor
is then introduced to the concept of ‘in-
dustrial territory’ by examples chosen
from the pharmaceutical industry (Figs.
72 and 73).
The fourth sector, ‘Languages and
communication’, focuses on man as both
a being who communicates and a user of
the communication media. Psycho-
physiological, semantic and physical
aspects, and recording and playback
techniques make up the various elements
Jean-Puul Nutali und Johanne Land7y
72
Games are clearly indicated as such by their
design and draw attention to the fact that
the Cité is also a place for recreational
activities. This ‘jackpot’,in the third in
sector, distributes plastic counters and gives
information on the polymerization of
ethylene.
of the world of sound that are examined
here. In this section, the visitor is con-
fronted with the fact that communication
also operates by means of non-verbal
mechanisms linked to forms of behaviour
and expression: our image of ourselves,
our image of others, our choices, atten-
tion and cultural background are all
facets which affect the interactions be-
tween human beings. Information
technology is presented here as a ‘mode
,of creation’, a form of ‘intelligence’ and
a ‘mode of communication’. It provides
a typical example of the impact of new
technologieson the way we live and work.
By relating the different items on display
in this area, the visitor is made aware of
the subjectivity of his perceptions (Fig.
74). The visual image, which is present
everywhere in our daily lives, is examined
in this section from the scientific,
technical, historical and cultural point of
view. To conclude, this sector provides
areas where the concepts involved in com-
munication can be shown in practice:
an interactive multipurpose room, a
telecommunications centre and a general
presentation based on models applying
to different communication situations.
Interactìvìty and adaptation t o the
publìc
The most characteristic and original
feature of the permanent exhibition is
undoubtedly the decision to choose
methods which encourage genuine in-
teraction between the items on display
and the visitors. With this in mind, an in-
depth study was carried out during the
design stage. It was concerned not only
The Cité des Sciences et de I’Industie, La Ellette (Pan$
with determining the contents which
would most benefit from this approach,
but also with the most recent techniques
for putting it into effect. The extensive
opportunities provided by information
technology were fully utilized. In par-
ticular, the combined use of tree-like
sequences involving multiple choices
and of visual information stored on
videodiscs made it possible to design and
mount interactive audio-visual exhibits
which create a new relationship between
scientific and/or technical information
and the visitor.
An example of this is the presence in
the permanent exhibition of a large
number of ‘glossary terminals’ which, at
the visitor’srequest, produce a short one-
minute audio-visual response (1 minute)
providing simple explanations of a word
or concept connected with the subjects
presented in the surrounding areas.
127
73
The ‘organ which dispenses perfumes’ (the
introductory item to the third sector) is
used to test some aspects of interactivity. By
playing its keys one can diagnose one’s
ability tp distinguish between scents which
are very similar to one another.
74
Simulation places the visitor in what
appears to be a real-life situation. Here he
is asked to regulate the stage lighting of a
play. He can then compare the effects
which he has produced with those
programmed by a professional. The
interactivity thus produced enables him to
understand the complexity of the task (the
‘screens of reality’ in the fourth sector).
Another original application of these
combined techniques is the use of audio-
visual scenarios which enable the visitor
to make up different versions of a par-
ticular event by choosing from among
different sequences offering variations on
a given situation. The final result, which
is determined by the order of events
selected by the visitor, provides a per-
sonal version chosen from among a large
number of different possibilities.
The use of entertaining or informative
audio-visual sequences, of games or of
more educational software and of interac-
tive ‘machines’ is also included in the
range of devices which the public are able
to handle and operate themselves. In this
way visitors play a more active role, in
which they choose their own areas of in-
terest and are introduced to the use of
sophisticated communication techni-
ques. However, the use of these advanced
128
media in no way conflicts with that of
more traditional techniques which
establish other kinds of relations between
visitors and the scientific and techno-
logical field involved. In each display area
of the exhibition, special cultural workers
‘interact’ with the public by going
through a variety of scenarios which
adapt the information provided to the
needs expressed by visitors. In addition,
special guided tours are available for
specific groups.
All these methods, which encourage
interaction between the exhibition and
its visitors, contribute towards the basic
objective of enabling the users of the Cité
des Sciences et de l’Industrie to assimilate
scientific and technological knowledge.
Similarly, the main feature of the ar-
chitectural approach is its concern with
general communication with the public.
This is obvious from the forms of spatial
arrangement and design, both with
regard to individual display levels and the
relations between them, and with regard
to the organization of the functional
groups, sectors and various facilities. The
building as a whole, and also its internal
structures, are not just show-cases setting
off in varying ways the cultural ‘pearls’
they contain: they reflect the desire to
communicatethe essence of our scientific
and technological culture in a direct and
meaningful manner. This architectural
complex is thus instrumental in putting
across to the public the scientific and
technical information it contains. The
visitors discovers areas, structures, plann-
ed itineraries, systems and devices, which
are all addressed to him so as to help him
grasp and understand modern technolo-
gical developments. In addition the ar-
chitect has taken into account the sheer
size of the display areas by providing the
public with a well thought-out system of
signs and guidance.
The exhibition is also adapted to dif-
ferent kinds of public. For example,
almost all the exhibition and service areas
are accessible to the physically handi-
capped. In the case of each display,
everything on show is specifically design-
ed to be used and handled by people with
sensory, motor and even mental han-
dicaps.
While some of the areas are specially
set aside for certain kinds of public, such
as children, the specific criteria applied
are also respected in the design of the
areas and objects on show to visitors of all
kinds.
The temporary exhibitions
In addition to the permanent exhibi-
tions, almost 9,000 m2 of space are
available to outside organizers for tem-
porary exhibitions which may last several
months.
A total surface area of 4,000 m2 is
available for temporary exhibitions as
such, covering scientific, technological
and industrial subjects. Several exhibi-
tions, lasting from three to five months,
can run simultaneously. These will be
jointly planned and produced by teams
of external and internal experts, making
use of the operational, service and
maintenance, promotion and reception
facilities of the Cité des Sciences et de
l’Industrie. Accommodation may occa-
sionally be given to ‘ready-made’exhibi-
tions from other museums, cultural
bodies or private firms. The following ex-
hibitions are planned for the opening
year of the Cité: A Wona’erjWExhibition
(March-May 1986, 700 m2), A Living En-
cydopaedia (June-October 1986, 2,500
m2), 50 Years of Television (July-
September 1986, 700 m2), The Pdustic
Age (September-November 1986, 700
m2), An Udtra-modem Industry: Fashion
(November-January 1987, 700 mz).
The ‘Enterprisearea’ provides a surface
area of 4,500 m2 for use in a somewhat
different way. Over a six-month period a
variety of events (exhibitions, symposia,
workshops, shows, professional study
days) will be planned and organized by
separate industrial groups. The first event
of this kind will be on the subject ‘The
earth that produces our food’. Including
display material on such subjects as
agricultural production, the food-
processing industry and transport
systems, it will open in September 1986.
Resources and the ‘partnershz$ ’
pozìcy
As a public body, the Cité des Sciences et
de l’Industrieis required to act as a centre
for the dissemination of scientific and
technological culture, not only in the
Paris region but also in all the regions of
France. Decentralization is reflected in a
‘partnership’ policy under which the Cité
co-operates with regional partners in
organizing joint exhibitions, activities,
educational projects and so on. In most
cases, the regional body remains in
charge of its own project. The Cité pro-
vides advice and technical assistance and
makes material facilities available. Dur-
ing the period when the museum was be
Jean-PaulNatalì and Johanne Landy
ing planned and built, various ex-
periments and studies were carried out
(in museology , communication, educa-
tion techniques, the popularization of
science, etc); these produced an expertise
in the dissemination and presentation of
scientific and technological information
which will be valuable to any other body
wishing to carry out aproject in this field.
Projects may be of very different kinds.
They may include: educational projects
for school groups; training activities;
scientific, technical or industrial exhibi-
tions or events; activities related to the
running of communities, associations,
clubs, etc.
The partnership policy involves re-
course to various services, all adminis-
tered by the Resources Directorate of the
Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie.
The educational section
‘Villette classes’ aré similar to cl‘aSses
vertes (school in the countryside) or
classes de neige (school combined with
winter sports). Groups of schoolchildren
(8 to 16 years old) spent a fortnight carry-
ing out an educational project using
the facilities of the Cité (exhibitions, .
workshops, etc) and of the Paris region
(tours of Paris, technical projects, etc).
When complete, the Cité should be able
to cater simultaneously for some forty
classes, of which at least twenty will be
from regions other than the Ile-de-
France. They will be accommodated on
the site or in premises belonging to the
Ministry of Education.
Visits to the permanent and temporary
exhibitions, the use of the equipment in
the park and at the Cité de la Musique,
visits to the urban industrial environment
and access to the special ‘Villette class’
workshops will enable pupils to carry out
an educational project drawn up with
their own teacher. The workshop facili-
ties provide them with many different
kinds of tools and equipment which give
them a much wider range of oppor-
tunities for carrying out their work than
they would have at school.
Secondly, outside the hours reserved
for school use, these workshops will be
open to members of technical and scien-
tific clubs, who will be able to use the
same facilities.
The activities to be carried out in these
workshops cover widely varying fields
such as rocketry, urban ecology, the inter-
pretation of photographs, the manufac-
ture of small-scale models, plastic
mouldings, geology, crystallography,
The Cité des Sciences et de I’Imhstnè, La Villette (Pan>) 129

astronomy, mathematics, energy, elec-

tricity, electronics, biology, texts and
graphics, audio-visual techniques, syn-
thesized images, computer technology,
robotics and sociology.
For all ‘Villette class’ activities the
pupils are taught by their own teachers
and by specialized instructors.
After preliminary trial activities this
educational service will be gradually in-
troduced from September 1986 onwards.
School groups which, for one reason or
another, cannot be fitted into the
‘Villette class’ structure will be entitled to
apply for similar educational assistance
adapted to their needs.
Other grcjups can also make bookings
for a range of services meeting their re-
quirements (accompanied visits, access to
workshops or user-operated equipment,
facilities for holding meetings, etc.). 75
The effect of coloured shadows obtained by
lights using primary colours is continued by
Facìlìtìesfor children: the an effect of digitalization of the shadow as
‘Inventorìum’ a result of the special structure of the screen
(introductory item to the fourth sector).
The discovery rooms (for children aged 6
to 11) and the Young Children’s Area
(for children aged 3 to 6) with a total area 76
of 2,600 m2, represent a relatively new Blowing soap bubbles of different forms, in
venture in museology, being specially this case of giant size, enables comparisons
to be made between structures governed by
devised for active participation by young similar mathematical laws (introductory
children (Figs. 75, 76, 77). feature to the Inventorium, the exhibition
This venture, which is similar to that of area reserved for children).
the Discovery Rooms of museums in
Anglo-Saxon countries, is intended to
stimulate a spirit of scientific exploration
and discovery. It is the result of studies
carried out by a group of researchers and
educationalists to find the ways in which
a museum could best achieve this ob-
jective.
The Discovery Rooms and the Young
Children’s Area are also open to accom-
panying adults, and are intended to ap-
peal to the child in each of us. They thus
promote a dialogue which imbues each
visitor with the desire to know and the active (motor, sensory or cognitive)
discover the world around him. participation of the children. The
In the Young Children’s Area, the visit topics dealt with cover a whole range of
takes place in two stages. Reassured by everyday subjects (one’s body, com-
the presence of their parents, the children munication, animals, plants, com-
first of all explore the exhibitions dealing puters, energy, light, water, etc.);
with already familiar subjects (water, the Workshops (150 mz), staffed by atten-
weather, the baker’s shop, etc.). Then, if dants at fixed times, can be used by a
they feel like it, they can satisfy their small group of children for carrying
curiosity on their own in a second area out assembly work, building small-
consisting of ope,n access workshops, scale models etc.
where they can, however, call upon the Resource centres (75 m2)contain message
help of specialized workers. processing facilities to enable the dif-
The Discovery Rooms include three ferent groups of instructors, etc., to
different kinds of facilities: communicatewith one other. The pur-
A display area, of 1,000 m2 containing pose of such centres is to establish new
equipment to be operated by means of qualifications in the field of scientific
130
and technical extension work and to
develop the appropriate training
systems. During 1985, despite the fact
that arrangements had not been com-
pleted to set it up within the Cité des
Sciences et de l’Industrie, the training
centre succesfully carried out: (a) the
training of unemployed or redeployed
key personnel, in association with the
French Ministry of Labour; (b) ex-
perimental work related to the training
of 60 young people for activities of
group leadership and maintenance of
scientific and technical cultural equip-
ment; and (c) the training of manual
and technical education inspectors.
In conjunction with industrial and cul-
tural enterprises, the centre participates
in regional training activities. In the long
term, it will develop educational research
mainly concerned with extending the
range of educational strategies and pro-
ducing the necessary tools.
Resources, regions and associatiom
By making its resources available to
regions and associations the Cité helps
to disseminate scientific and technolog-
ical culture throughout the country. In
conjunction with the Association of
Museums and Centres for the Develop-
ment of Scientific, Technical and In-
dustrial Culture (AMCSTI), it has pro-
duced two national card indexes, one on
the availability of travelling exhibitions
and the other on regional exhibition
sites. It has travelling exhibition facilities
(the ‘Bulle-Villette’, with a surface area
of 200 m2) available for use by individual
regions. It also makes available facilities
for meetings, information centres and
specialized data banks for the use of
associations and scientific clubs.
Co-production activities (events to
celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the
French national medical research in-
stitute, an exhibition on the technology
of the Agence Nationale de la Valorisa-
tion de la Recherche, etc., and advisory or
back-up work (the VASTEPACA exhibi-
tion in Marseille, displays in the Paris bus
and underground transport system etc.)
show that the Cité sees itself as having a
dynamic role to play in decentralizing the
promotion of scientific, technical and in-
dustrial culture in France.
Research on the history of science
A research group on the history of science
and technology, with close links with
university circles, is especially concerned
with promoting research on the history of
the popularization of science and
technology. The research workers in this
group also act as consultants for the
design of exhibitions (historical surveys)
and for some of the training centre’s ac-
tivities. In conjunction with educational
research laboratories at the University of
Paris VII, the Cité regularly organizescon-
ferences and talks as part of a seminar on
the museology of science and techno-
logy. Researchhasalreadybeencarriedout
in this subject-areawith aview to the pos-
sible establishment of a research centre.
The servicesprovided by the Cìté
des Sciences et de Z’lndustnè
In addition to exhibition areas and the
resources made available to those in-
terested, the Cité offers a whole range of
services to both the public at large and
specific professional groups. If the centre
is to operate in a really dynamic way, it is
essential for all these services to be used
uninterruptedly and in a variety of ways.
The development of commercial pro-
ducts and services makes the centre partly
self-financing, which is exceptional in
France for this kind of establishment, and
will also make possible the continuing
renewal of all its activities and services.
The Cité exists for its public and, to some
extent, thanks to its public. All these ser-
vices, provided free or otherwise, in addi:.
tion to the exhibition areas and the
resource centres, mark the importance of
the Cité as a cultural centre for the
dissemination of scientific and techno-
logical knowledge.
The Cité’s various activities include the
production of different types ofpublica-
tions und information mutebaj. In addi-
tion to the traditional publications
generally to be found in museums
(guides, catalogues, pamphlets, etc.),
there are also products which vary with
the target public (the general public, in-
stitutions, specialized types of public,
etc.), the medium used, and the objec-
tive in view (relations with institutions,
promotion of the Cité, educational
publications, etc.). In all cases the Cité
aims primarily at joint production and
publishing with outside associates al-
ready operating in this field.
During the stage when the Cité was be-
ing designed and constructed, a monthly
newsletter with a print-run of 7,000
copies (Actaalités du Musée de La
Ellette), and a series of documents con-
taining reports of studies by various work-
Jean-Paul Natalì andJohanne Landq
ing groups (the series ‘Les Etudes’, 1,500
copies per issue), provided a foretaste of
some of the publications which will
gradually become available as the various
activities of the Cité are established.
The medin library is a huge complex of
rooms spread over three separate levels; it
covers an area of 12,000m2 and is respon-
sible for disseminating a wide range of
scientific and technological information
to all types of public, using a variety of
media (books, periodicals, films, images,
software, teaching materials). It is equip-
ped with sophisticated techniques such as
the Medici computerized publication
management system, films and images
recorded on video discs, data bank inter-
rogation facilities and so on. It contains
three sections for three different types of
public: the general public, children and
researchers (Fig. 78).
The visitor has unimpeded access to
the works for which he is looking, and can
borrow them. Through the use of the na-
tional videotex system (Transpac) and a
Minitel terminal, people living outside
Paris will be able to select from the
catalogue the works which they wish to
obtain.
In the long run the library will contain
300,000 volumes for the general public,
800,000 volumes for researchers, 10,000
collections of periodicals, 20,000 films
and audio-visual recordings and 1,000
computerized products.
A host centre connected to the telephone
system enables any person living in
France to interrogate the computerized
programmes produced by the Cité. As
part of the development of the French
telephone system, a Minitel terminal will
in the course of time be made available to
each subscriber by the Direction
Générale des Télécommunications. Each
user will then have access through the
SEVIL host centre to the programmes
produced by the Cité. These programmes
cover the following four areas: informa-
tion (CSI current activities, careers,
education, shows), communication
(message processing systems, points of
view, debates) education (teaching
materials, educational programmes) and
games (scientific and technological infor-
mation presented in the form of games
for young people) (Fig. 79).
The international conference centre con-
sists of a series of rooms with capacities
ranging from 50 to 1,000 people. These
rooms and the adjacent exhibition areas
The Cité deJ Sciewcs et de PIndzstne, La VdLette (Pan>) 131

have the most modern technical equip-

ment for adapting them to the needs of
different users (video projections, the
‘Eidophor’, video lectures, message pro-
cessing, electronic voting, simultaneous
interpretation, recordings, reproduction
systems, etc.). It will open in January
1987.

The news room consists of .an area cover-

ing 400 m2, designed as a multimedia
journal which covers current events in the
scientific and industrial fields. It has been
produced by means of co-operation be-
tween the Cité and the Association des
Journalistes de la Presse d’Information.

The science cine-chb has been operating

since 1985 in a film theatre in an old,
specially renovated building (the ‘Arlet-
ty’ auditorium) situated to the far south
of the park. It shows a daily series of scien-
tific films on a particular topic, with the
programme changing every month. En-
trance is free to private individuals and
groups of schoolchildren, who appreciate
this as an attractive way of learning more
about school subjects. When the Cité is
completed a new film theatre inside the
building itself will take over the activities
of the cine-club.

The Géode is a multimedia auditorium

equipped with an Imax/Omnimax pro-
jection system, a laser system and a so-
phisticated sound reproduction system,
all managed by computer, Projection is
on a hemispherical screen with a surface
of 1,000 mz and a diameter of 36 metres.
The auditorium can hold 350 people. It
consists of a basic tree-like structure in
reinforced concrete covered by a spherical
envelope consisting of a second, geodesic 78
structure, made up of 6,433 triangles in The media library provides direct access to
highly polished, mirror-like stainless scientific and technological information
using the different media and formats now
steel. available.
This sphere, standing in a stretch of
water, is an important architectural 79
feature of the site, in contrast with the The remote data processing facilities of the
linear structure of the building contain- French telephone network are particularly
ing the Cité. Managed by a semi-public well-developed. In the very near future each
user will have a Minitel terminal in his
company, it disseminates audio-visual home. The Cité has installed a host centre
programmes made in France or co- (Sévil) which provides information, games,
produced with other museums or centres educational programmes, etc., to users
forming part of the international Om- anywhere in France.
nimax network. It can be specially hired
for professional events or promotional ac-
tivities (Fig. 80).

IntemationaZ reZations
Since the start of the project the members
of the museum task force have built up
132 Jean-Paul Natali and Johanne h n d v

80
This diagram of the Géode shows how the
geodesic dome interlocks with the internal
structure and also illustrates the one-way
circulation system which directs the flow of
visitors.

contacts with their foreign counterparts, The combined work of all these dif-
mainly in scientific and technological ferent groups, the numerous evaluation
museums. Frequent exchanges of visits studies carried out on prototype opera-
have produced valuable information on tions and, generally speaking, the vast
similar work elsewhere and the ex- amount of research that went into the
perience gained in planning and con- project, have now become part of the
structing establishments of this kind. In historical background for study by the
this connection, La Villette has already historians and museologists who will in-
participated in several major interna- vestigate this process of creation. The
tional events (New Orleans, Tsukuba, conclusions they reach on the process by
Washington, etc.). which the Cité des Sciences et de l’In-
After its completion, the Cité hopes to dustrie came into being will certainlypro-
establish closer links with a number of in- vide valuable information on how to
stitutions having similar objectives, in create a museum on this scale and on the
order to develop greater co-operation on options which, at the end of the twen-
specific projects. An international rela- tieth century, govern the dissemination
tions service is available to foreign visitors of scientific, technological and industrial
who seek information on current projects culture. U
and activities and on the possibilities for
organizing exchanges and co-operative
ventures with the Cité.
The opening of the Cité des Sciences et
de l’Industrie marks, first and foremost,
at the national level, the beginning of a
major cultural drive in the fields of
science, technology and industrial
development. It also marks the end of an
intense planning and construction stage,
during which hundreds of people were
actively engaged in work on the project in
various capacities.
Much more could be said on the dif-
ferent stages involved, and in particular
on the active participation of the scien-
tific community, the continuing interest
shown by a large number of industrial
companies, and the substantial involve-
ment of various groups of architects and
designers all making a major contribu-
tion to the planning and establishment of
the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie.

The Maisop2 des Sciences et des Echniiques, Montreal
Jean-Claude Guédon
Professor at the University of Montreal. Member of
the Governing Body of the Society of the Maison des
Sciences et des Techniques, Montreal.
I and technologicalheritage, this museum
Formed from private or princely collec-
tions, or from the collectionsof physics or
science laboratories, natural history
museums were used mainly in the draw-
ing up of inventories and of course in
research.’ They were first and foremost
science centres modelled, until about
1840, on the ‘King’s Garden’ in Paris,
later the Natural History MuseumJhis
model rapidly spread throughout
Europe, and in the second half of the
nineteenth century, natural history
museums sprang up all over the world.
The development of industrial com-
petition among the European countries
was attended by the development of a
second type of museum of science and
technology, the first major example of
which was seen in London in the wake of
the great international exhibition of
1851. The object of this type of museum
was to offer as it were a catalogue of
technical and industrial advances in a
given country or period, displaying at the
same time an interest in science whenever
it appeared to be crucial to recent
technical developments.
Electricity and chemistry were given
pride of place, especially after the world
exhibition of 1889 in Paris, and the
Deutsches Museum, which opened at the
beginning of the twentieth century in
Munich, incorporated these new dimen-
sions of science museology, together with
a more pronounced educational orienta-
tion than had previously obtained in
similar institutions. This went hand in
hand with the introduction for the first
time of exhibition pieces that were
visitor-operated. This first attempt to
achieve the active involvement of the in-
dividual passing through the exhibition
rooms signalled the beginning of a new
trend that was henceforth to be noted in
most of the museums created in the twen-
tieth century.
Influenced by the Deutsches Museum,
the Chicago Museum of Science and In-
dustry turned away from this first exam-
ple as a result of serious financial dif-
ficulties. Largely forsaking the role of
conservation and display of the scientific
began in the 1940s to establish very close
links with private industrial enterprises
and to develop a style of presentation in
which a ‘games’ approach and a sense of
the spectacular increasingly eclipsed
educational and historical concerns. The
Chicago museum thus paved the way for
a new trend which gained ground from
the 1950s onwards and was reflected in a
large number of institutions, the most
outstanding of which are probably the
Ontario Science Centre in Toronto, Ca-
nada, and the Exploratorium in San
Francisco.
Designed for the centenary of the
Canadian Confederation in 1967, the
Ontario Science Centre ran into a
number of difficulties and did not open
its doors until 1969. At that time, it
represented the last word in the design
and indeed the conceptualization of
‘science centres’, firmly opting for the
view that an institution of this kind is
much more a medium of mass com-
munication than a traditional collector’s
personal collection. The Ontario Science
Centre accordingly concentrated on
designing effective ways of transmitting
scientific, technological and, sometimes,
industrial information, these presenta-
tions being regarded as complementary
to, but basically different from, the kind
used in schools. Since then, the Ontario
Science Centre has built up an interna-
tional reputation based on its ability to
stage various aspects of scientific and
technological knowledge.
The Exploratorium, the brainchild of
the physicist Oppenheimer, brother of
the inventor of the atom bomb, comes
more closely to grips with the phenome-
non of communication in that it is keyed
to the human sensory apparatus. Based
on the idea that science is the concep-
tualization of the individual’s sensory
impressions, the Exploratorium has
devised a mode of presentation which
makes the individual the ‘centre of
perception’, the focal point of all kinds of
experiences and experiments. Thus,
while he undergoes a sensory experience
he is also mastering the natural
phenomenon that occurs and that can be
133
reproduced ad iej%it.um so that he can
analyse and measure it. This recourse to
sensory experience encourages a happy
combination of scientific and aesthetic
phenomena, thereby endowing the in-
stitution with a considerable artistic
dimension.
It would not be wrong to say that, since
the 1970s, these two institutions have
been essential standards of reference for
any person or group seeking to plan a
museum of science and technology along
the general lines of a ‘science centre.2
The ‘science centre’ movement thus
seems to form a very vigorous trend in the
historical development of science
museums, but, just as clearly, these cen-
tres still have major deficiencies that need
to be identified so that they can be made
good, if that is not too ambitious an aim.
For example, the approach to the
representation of science and technology
currently favoured in the very great
majority of exhibitions in the most
celebrated museums focuses exclusive
ly on scientific and technological
knowledge. The object, in most cases, is
to offer insights into the content of
science and technology, to the exclusion
of practically every other aspect of these
fields, which are treated as fields of
theoretical or, in some rare instances,
practical knowledge.
Science and technology indubitably
generate knowledge, and it is certainly
one of the major objectives of any
museum of science and technology to
represent that knowledge. However, and
this is becoming increasingly clear from
the large and growing number of studies,
science and technology are also human
activities and, as such, they are linked
with the rest of society. In other words,
what is currently lacking in the
museological representation of science
and technology is their social dimension
and their complicated network of rela-
tionships with a wide range of aspects of
community life in every society.
There are many possible explanations
for this ‘blind spot’. Let us confine
ourselves to three of the most important.
Firstly, the institutional status of science
museums and their funding sources may
 134
discourage this type of approach. If a
museum is heavily dependent on the sup-
port of private industry, it is difficult for
it to call into question certain aspects of
industrial activity which are based on pro-
fit. This is why all too many exhibitions
paint a complacent and largely Utopian
picture of science and technology. Public
financing, however, does not guarantee
any more room for manoeuvre, in that a
government subject to political pressures
from many sides may well not want to see
an institution that enjoys its support offer
information of which some aspects may
have unfavourable repercussions for that
government.3 In such cases, there is a
great temptation for science museum
authorities to take refuge in the myth of
scientific neutrality.*
The second reason for this almost total
exclusion of the social dimension of
science and technology from science
museums is that it is very difficult to in-
corporate that dimension effectively in an
exhibition. This difficulty is compound-
ed by the fact that there is a growing
trend in museum work to reject words
and to rely solely on visual impressions
and interactive modes. The social dimen-
sion of science seems to be so closely link-
ed to verbal analysis, arising as it does
largely in academic circles, that there
seems to be no known way of represent-
ing it without using words.
The third difficulty in including the
social dimension in science museums is
bound up with the training of specialists
in this field. Let us say, very briefly, that
scientists and, to a lesser extent, en-
li
gineers are not always very responsive to
this dimension of science and tech-
nology, in so far as it may tend to call into
question their own credentials, which are
based on their technical competence and
objectivity. Museologists, for their part,
are too busy mastering the content of
science and technology to do much more
than popularize the more or less recent
findings of current scientific and
technological research in the world or in
their respective countries. In any case,
analyses of the social history of science
and technology and the sociology of
science and science policy remain largely
confined to a few academic circles. In
addition, the ‘internalist’ history of
science,5 through its refusal to consider
the social aspects of science as offering
any more than purely anecdotal interest,
has helped to widen the gap between the
representation of science and technology
in terms of products and in terms of ac-
tivities, a distinction that tends to en-
courage the exclusion of the latter
category of analysis.
II
Taking as our starting-point the es-
tablished fact that ‘science centres’ are
first and foremost instruments of com-
munication, we may perhaps reflect upon
the basic significance of one of the most
frequently cited objectives of such in-
stitutions, namely, the promotion of
scientific and technological culture. Here
again, however, historical experience can
be an obstacle to the emergence of new
ideas in this field. For scientific and
technological culture is often seen as the
product of two complementary and in-
dependent activities -education and
popularization. However, in both cases,
all that is transmitted of science and
technology is the content of knowledge.
This is curious in so far as when the term
‘culture’ is applied to such fields as
literature or music, for instance, it refers
more often to a relationship than to a
content. When someoneis said to possess
a musical background, this may indeed
mean that he knows a great deal about
music, its formal structure, its history,
and so on; but it does not rule out
another, equally important meaning in
this context, which is the ability to ap-
preciate, perhaps only intuitively, a work
of music. The same applies to literature
and art. And even knowledge of science,
technology or music implies simply a cer-
tain type of relationship to the chosen
field -a cognitive relationship, to be
precise.
If we consider a given society, it is easy
to see that the relationship of its members
to science and technology ranges all the
way from the fullest possible mastery of
them, through knowledge, to the most
complete alienation. Seen from this an-
gle, a society’s scientific and techno-
logical culture is a compendium of all the
various forms of relationship to these
fields, which are of such importance for
our life as a community and as in-
dividuals both today and in the future.
To promote a people’s scientific and
technological culture is to create means of
modifying these relationships -such as
schools, the mass media and, more par-
ticularly, museums of science and
technology. The kind of modification
desired must be decided on by each socie-
t y in accordance with its own decision-
making procedures. In other words, it is
basically a political issue. But political
lean-Claude Guédon
though it is, it must not be dealt with in
too summary a manner, relying simply on
habit, custom or imitation.6 To import
foreign representations of science, no
matter how highly acclaimed, is to con-
demn onseself to approach science and
technology via conceptions that can be of
only very limited relevance in one’s own
society and that, in the current state of
museological thinking, may not even
make their objectives and the issues at
stake sufficiently clear.’
III
We shall now turn our attention to the
Maison des Sciences et des Techniques
project in Montreal8 and situate it in the
very particular social context of Quebec.
The distinguishing feature of Quebec,
a province of Canada, is the fact that
some 80 per cent of its 6 million popula-
tion speak French. Its survival as a
separate cultural entity is almost
miraculous, and its specificity as a nation
is extremely marked. But a high price has
been paid: cultural isolation, economic
subordination and an inability to deter-
mine their own fate have been and, to a
large extent, still are the lot of French-
speaking Canadians.
This situation has had very clear reper-
cussions on science. The scientific activity
of Quebec was for a long time almost
non-existent. It was only in the inter-war
years that an embryonic scientific com-
munity began to develop and to work. It
was only after the Second World War
and, in particular, in the wake of that
radical transformation of society known
as the ‘quietrevolution’ in the 1960sthat
research really took off. For all that,
however, the scientific acitivity of Que-
bec is still not on a level with that of the
English-speaking regions or provinces of
Canada. In terms of the value of research
grants and the number of doctorate-
holders in scientific and technological
fields, Quebec still lags seriously behind.
The position of Quebec is thus rather
anomalous. As far as individual incomes
are concerned, it is a rich society, but its
economy is still largely dependent on the
tapping of its natural resources, which is
mainly in the hands of companies run by
foreigners, particularly citizens of the
United States. In other words, Quebec is
in a situation which while similar to that
of the so-called developed countries is in
some respects comparable with that of
the countries of the Third World. This
situation, which raises many problems,
 The Maison des Sciences e t des Techniques, Mopztred
offers an amazingly fertile cultural ter-
rain, in respect of the subject that con-
cerns us here.
The Maison des Sciences et des Techni-
ques project thus evolved in the general
context briefly outlined above. Of
course, it reflected the realization that
Quebec’smuseum network in the field of
science and technology was inadequate.
But if the project was seen as important it
was because a number of politicians felt it
as extremely important to transform the
Québecois’ relationship to science and
technology.
Once the government had ‘set the ball
rolling’ minds were bent to the task of
defining the general approach to be
adopted by the Maison des Sciences et des
Techniques.9 And, symptomatically,one
of the first decisions of the Governing
Body of the Society10 was to set up a com-
mittee known as the ‘Committee on Con-
tent’ to define this approach. Established
in December 1984, The committee sub-
mitted its report to the Governing Body
in June 1985.
What can one say about the general ap-
proach of the Maison des Sciences et des
Techniques? First, that it aims to be
coherent. To return to the point made at
the beginning of this article, the goal is
not to mount spectacular exhibitions
which are completely self-contained, but
rather to create a museological ‘oeuvre’
which incorporates the social dimension
of science and technology in Quebec and,
where possible, draws universally valid
conclusions. The object of the undertak-
s
ing is to promote scientific and tech-
nological culture, l1 understood here as
the full range of individual relationships
and attitudes to science and technology.
The desire to modify the Québecois’
relationship to science and technology
also involves a concern for all the
phenomena that are designated by such
terms as alienation, hostility, fear and
domination, and that are partly the result
of the history of Quebec. A centre must
therefore be set up to welcome everyone
and particularly to those who, ordinarily,
would not venture to cross its threshold or
would have little inclination to do so.
The Maison des Sciences et des Techni-
ques therefore intends to take the in-
dividual as its starting-point, whatever
his or her level of education or, more
specifìcally, his or her attitude to science
and technology. The idea is to enable
I
everyone to find their own way into
science and technology, and at their own
, pace. It will therefore be necessary to
design extremely flexible, interactive ex-
hibitions which involve as little direction
from above as possible. The objective is
not to create the equivalent of a learned
discourse purporting to reveal ‘the truth’
but, on the contrary, to show that science
and technology constitute a relatively
open-ended system, dominated by con-
troversy and refutation, that today’s
truth is probably tomorrow’s error, and
that the definition and selection of
research fields depend not only on purely
logical considerations but also on tactical
ones designed to promote a variety of
career prospects which in turn are under
pressure from institutional, economic
and political forces. In a word, the
Maison will seek to dispel a fear of science
which is closely linked to the image of
power and authority that it all too often
projects on the world outside. It will
demonstrate that findings checked
against the criteria of logic, experimenta-
tion and reason may give rise to social
processes that are far less clear-cut. It will
also seek to foster a clear-headed ap-
proach to science and technology so as to
enable visitors better to appreciate scien-
tific achievements while at the same time
maintaining a critical approach to their
application in society.
The members of the Maison des
Sciences et des Techniques soon turned
their attention to social groups that had
been disadvantaged, dominated and
marginalized. As a public institution, the
Maison must not only be open to
everyone, but must go beyond itself, go-
ing out to the people, perhaps even in
their homes, always making allowances
for the variety of viewpoints represented
by different individuals. The Maison des
Sciences and des Techniques seeks to
create channels of communication be-
tween groups that do not normally have
much to say to one another, and in so do-
ing affect society’s self-perception and
self-possession.12.
Discussions of this nature have led to
the adoption of a term that has now
become part of the common parlance of
the members of the society -the term
polyphony. Taken of course from music,
and descriptive also of the style of writing
of certain contemporary novelists, this
term indicates a refusal to adopt a single,
uniform representation of science and
technology which would allow science
and technology, viewed in only one light,
to be approached in only one way. For
important though it is to increase
everyone’s knowledge of science and
technology, there is also a need to make
the centres of power that structure these
135
fields of activity better known. For in-
stance, the scientific and technological
choices made in our societies are seldom
debated. Who makes the decisions? On
whose behalf? How? Is not this decision-
making power part of what is more com-
monly known as the ‘social control of
science and technology’? And is this
social control compatible with the projec-
tion of a single, uniform image of science
and technology? At the Maison des
Sciences et des Techniques, the answer
given to this last question tends very
much to be in the negative.
Furthermore, the intrinsic complexity
of the social dimensions of science and
technology and the complex web of rela-
tionships between these two fields and
numerous aspects of social life have led
the ‘Committee on Content‘ to favour a
systems approach to these fields, i.e. an
approach according all the necessary at-
tention to feedback effects on the
development of science and technology,
rather than an approach based on the
simpler and more mechanical principle of
cause and effect. ’
All this will of course be reflected in
the design of exhibitions. However, to
devise ways of representing science and
technology enabling visitors as it were to
interact with the various events organized
by the Maison is a considerable challenge.
Any achievements in this area will be so
many important contributions to
museography .
Curiously enough, there are local
precedents that will certainly be explored
in greater detail in the future. At Expo
I
‘67, close by the future site of the Maison
des Scienceset des Techniques, the Czech
pavilion showed a film whose story-line
varied from one showing to another ac-
cording to the way viewers voted. At a
decisive moment in the story, they were
required collectively to decide what they
wanted to see happen. This experience
showed that it was possible not to be tied
to hard-and-fast representations of reality
by simulating, albeit in a rather over-
simplified way, the decision-makingpro-
cesses at work in our society. Much nearer
home, the use of videodisc connected to
a microcomputer makes it possible to ex-
plore the consequences of decision-
making by the viewer.‘, It is this type of
flexible interaction that will need to be
developed in order to achieve a
polyphonic, systems-based representa-
tion of science and technology.
136
IV
What is the present situation with regard
to the project for the Maison des Sciences
et des Techniques in Montreal?It can be
said to be getting down to business and
entering the phase of tangible progress.
After some seven or eight months of ad-
ministrative organization and fairly wide-
ranging discussions, a team is beginning
to form around its Director, Jean-Claude
Lahaye. This team will be responsible for
developing and, more important, giving
practical expression to the theoretical
principles underlying this institution,
and it will do so in a series of exhibitions
which, in the coming years, will put the
solutions adopted to the test, before the
building that is to house the museum has
been completed. Besides providing
valuable experience in the design of ex-
hibitions, this will make it possible better
to appraise the possible architectural im-
plications of the solutions adopted. In
fact the architectural work will go ahead
in parallel with the first exhibitions so
that the Maison des Sciences et des
Techniqueswill be able to open its doors
in about 1990. Situated on the island of
Saint Helena, it will thus tie up with Expo
67, which was in a way the (temporary)
first museum of science and technology
in Montreal.
[ Translatedfrom French]
Jean-Claude Guédon
-
1. See Camille Limoges, ‘The Development of the hfinistry of Science and Technology of
the Natural History Museum of Paris. 1800-1914’ Quebec (Montreal, December 1983).
The Organization of Science and Technojogy, in 10. The Society of the Maison des Sciences et
France 1800-1914, published under the direction des Techniques was founded by Law 62 adopted
of Robert Fox and George Weisz (Editions of the in May 1984. It provides for the establishment of
Maison de l’Homme Paris, and Cambridge a Governing Body of no more than twelve
University Press, Cambridge 1980), pp. 211-40. members, appointed in the autumn of 1984. It is
2. Many will of course object to what may chaired by Roland Doré, Director of the Montreal
seem a somewhat peremptory choice, and a Polytechnic.
number of institutions might indeed claim also 11. Article 17 of Law 62 establishing the
to belong to the category of institutions singled Society of the Maison des Sciences et des
out here. One example that could be cited is the Techniques stipulates that the purpose of the
Evoluon, the museum founded by Philips in Society is ‘to provide for ... the establishment of
Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and it is possible the Maison des Sciences et des Techniques whose
that, in the future, the Cité des Sciences et function shall be to promote scientific and
l’Industrie in the Parc de La Villette. Paris, will technological culture and to develop awareness of
be equally outstanding. However, the purpose of science and technology and of their economic,
this choice is not to award marks, but rather to social, cultural and environmental implications’.
define as clearly as possible the main influences 12. It is for this reason that the Maison des
on the design of the new science and technology Sciences et des Techniques is very attuned to the
museums. economuseum movement, one of whose aims is
3 . During their visits to science museums, the to enable each region to have a clearer image of
members of the Governing Body of the Société itself.
de la Maison des Sciences et des Techniques 13. The Boston Science Museum has been
found very clear evidence of this type of situation particularly active in exploring these new
on at least one occasion. communication media which, among other
4. This should not come as a surprise, for it things, soon make the participant feel that, in
was the argument used by the promoters of the contra-distinction to a game or a standard
Royal Society of London at the time of its scientific answer, there are no right answers in
foundation, immediately after the Cromwellian the absolute and that, in reality, fields of
period, i.e. just after the English revolution. knowledge do not function in isolation from one
5. The ‘internalist’ history of science subscribes another.
to the view that a history of science can be
written without any reference to the social
context, as though science were almost entirely
independent of society, obeying its own logic and
driven largely by its own internal dynamics. Long
dominant in the discipline of the history of
science, which moreover it was instrumental in
having accepted as a discipline, the ‘internalist’
history of science also owes much to the
contributions of a few outstanding figures,
among whom Alexandre Koyré is by no means
the least distinguished.
6. It is very important to bear this in mind in
the implantation of new science museums in li
various societies, particularly in the Third World.
A peripheral, dependent, poor and dominated
society’s type of relationship to science and
technology raises quite specific questions that
cannot be handled by Exploratoriums or Ontario
Science Centres. The transfer of institutional
models in the sphere of science museology -
which is commonly effected by study missions
sent from Third World countries to industrialized
countries or on the invitation of experts from
-
those countries should be preceded by serious
and detailed analysis of local conditions for
scientific and technological activities which makes
the significance of what is being transferred quite
clear.
7. A large proportion of the literature on
science museology may be described roughly as
technical. It generally seeks to achieve popularity,
which is often measured in terms of the number
of visitors and the duration of their visit; it is
m e r for consideration also to be given to the
question of the retention of information. At best,
this literature is based on a serious psychological
study of visitors and the duration of their visit; it
is rarer for consideration also to be given to the
question of the retention of information. The
possibility of a modification of the relationship
which may be brought about by the experience,
over and above purely cognitive considerations, is
scarcely touched upon in these studies.
8. The name ‘Maison des Sciences et des
Techniques’ is the one used in the preparatory
work for the adoption of the law establishing the
society, voted in mid-1984 by the Quebec
National Assembly. The name may or may not
remain unchanged.
9. Maison des Sciences et Techniques, report of
the working group of the Montreal Commission
for Initiative and Economic Development
(CIDEM) and the working group appointed by
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ISSN 0027-3996