Stories from the stores

Let’s blog about conservation!

September 30th, 2010 | by | conservation

Sep
30

In previous blog posts you’ve had a taster of how we manage conservation at the Museum, but there’s much more to come…

But before we get carried away with our fantastic objects and treatments, let’s answer that fundamental question: what is conservation?

Cleaning of Hastings & St Leonards Gas Co seal (ScM, London, 2008)

The National Trust sums up conservation nicely as ‘the careful management of change’.

The objects in our collection are often acquired for their historical significance. They tell us a story, and we aim to maintain the condition of the objects so that their story will never be lost.

That is why we don’t ‘restore’ things to look brand new. The marks on that piece of wood can tell us how it was manufactured, and wear on that prosthetic limb can tell us how it was used.

I feel archaeologists are often mistaken for conservators, and I am fully prepared to don my brown Stetson fedora and be Indiana Jones… but really Indy, you shouldn’t just grab that sacred relic with your un-gloved hand and shove it in your back pocket!

I recently found an alternative role-model when I discovered that Agatha Christie, one of my all time heroes, was a makeshift conservator.

Working with her second husband Max Mallowan out on archaeological digs she was involved in ‘removing dirt from the relics (she used facial cleanser)’.

I digress - let’s get back to the point. We in the conservation department hope that by caring for the objects, ‘their special qualities are protected, enhanced, enjoyed and understood by present and future generations’.

So stay tuned for conservation blogs on all sorts of exciting projects taking place behind the scenes! Catch you later…

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Location, Location, Location

September 29th, 2010 | by | conservation, james watt

Sep
29

Can you imagine taking a jigsaw of over 6000 pieces apart just to move it to another location and put it back together?

That’s just the task we’ve been set for one of the Science Museum’s most complex exhibits - James Watt’s Workshop, which is due to open in spring 2011.

We acquired his complete workshop in 1924. It includes the doors, window, furniture, stove - pretty much everything but the kitchen sink.

General view of Watt's Workshop, in original Heathfield location.

It was painstakingly moved in the 1920’s from its Birmingham location to London, and a room was built to exact specifications to recreate the look and atmosphere of the original space.

Watt's Workshop before it's moved into a new location and open to public.

Now the challenge is to take it from that room to a public gallery.

As conservation staff it’s not only important to conserve objects from deterioration but to also help conserve the interpretation.

This can include cleaning and repairing an item so it appears as it would when in use, but also - most importantly - to make sure that an item is not altered in such a way that it is no longer possible to identify what it was or how it was used.

The workshop is pushing this principle to the extreme as we want to retain how Watt worked in the room, giving us some insight into his thought processes and working practices.

We can achieve this by carefully locating, recording and photographing every item in the workshop prior to moving it to the new gallery. Not all of the objects we record would normally be seen as museum-worthy – scraps of paper and bits of discarded thread and sawdust - but they all add to the overall interpretation of the room.

And, who knows, that scrap of paper may have held the doodle of his latest invention…

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Mundane remains?

September 23rd, 2010 | by | exploration, medicine, quirky

Sep
23

Reading Trilce’s recent post, I was reminded of objects from Sir John Franklin’s Arctic expedition within our vast medical collections. Simple items and anonymous fragments, easily overlooked on their storeroom shelves. But they are reminders of one of the most obvious, yet magical things about museum collections – even the most mundane looking objects can be transformed through association.

Razor from Franklin Expedition

Razor from the Franklin Expedition (Science Museum)

This razor belonged to a member of Franklin’s team. Physically, it’s virtually indistinguishable from others in our collections. But by association, this simple and very personal object becomes infused with some of the enigma and poignancy of the doomed expedition. This got me thinking about other examples.

Marwood's penknife

Combined penknife and corkscrew, c.1875 (Science Museum / Science and Society)

Resembling a basic Swiss Army Knife, this other handy little tool was catalogued as a “relic of W Marwood”. Who was he? A country gent? A local doctor perhaps? No, “W Marwood” is William Marwood, shoe-maker… and executioner. The inventor of the ‘long drop’ technique of hanging, he oversaw 176 deaths in a nine year career. Presented with this information, a rather prosaic object somehow gains in power and presence.

But there are also humdrum objects that flirt with the possibility of such added cachet. Victims of historical uncertainty.

Cotton lint dressing

Cotton dressing, 19th century (Science Museum / Science and Society)

This cotton dressing was “possibly” owned by Joseph Lister. But possibly not. Was it the property of one of the leading figures of modern medicine or is it just a piece of cloth of unknown origin? We’re never likely to know for sure.

Not that everyday objects need associations with the famous – or infamous – to make them stand out from the crowd. An interesting back story can help. For example, things don’t get much more mundane than a humble button, but occasionally one can have such an exciting adventure that it too is saved for posterity…

Button with label

A very special button..... (Science Museum)

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“The Whole World is Full of these Flying Balls”

September 21st, 2010 | by | aviation, engineering, james watt

Sep
21

From November 1782, James Watt and his friends were excited by the Montgolfier brothers’ experiments with hot air balloons.

Watt wrote to Dr Joseph Black in 1783 that “The Whole World is Full of these Flying Balls at present”.

In August 1783 the Frenchman J A C Charles and two brothers called Robert substituted hydrogen, or“inflammable air”, for hot air. Alarmed locals pitchforked their balloon where it landed.

Pitchforking the alien © Science Museum / Science & Society

In December Charles and one Robert brother set off on their first manned flight, using hydrogen made by passing steam over hot iron.

Launch site of hydrogen balloon December 1783 Science Museum / Science & Society

They went up

The balloon rising Dec 1783 Science Museum / Science & Society

And up

The balloon rose further Science Museum / Science & Society

And up even more.

The balloon rose even further Science Museum / Science & Society

Before touching ground again on the property of an interested landowner who was intrigued by his sudden visitors arriving in such a novel manner.

First touch down Science Museum / Science & Society

Robert  hopped out to explain what they were up to, whereupon the balloon took off again with Charles still aboard. This time he was taken so high he had an almost religious experience (probably along the lines of “I swear if I get down from up here in one piece, I’ll never do it again”).  

The balloon and its pilot were loaded on to a wagon and returned to Paris, closing a dramatic chapter in the early history of aeronautics.

Triumphant return to Paris © Science Museum / Science & Society

Watt’s partner Matthew Boulton experimented with thin copper, along the way managing to make one of his test balloons explode in mid air. 

It wasn’t really their thing, and Watt wrote to another friend in October 1794

“Mr Boulton did idle a great deal of his time in playing with some small balloons some time ago but I hope he is now cured of the balloonomania” .

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A Regal Recording?

September 20th, 2010 | by | communication, music, sound

Sep
20

This week I learnt about a mystery object in the museum’s collections – the mystery is not what the object is, but what the object contains.

Wax cylinder recording for use with a graphophone, c. 1888. Science Museum inventory number 1929-607 (Science Museum / Science & Society)

What you can see is a wax coated cardboard tube, similar in size to a loo roll, with three bands in the surface of the wax. The tube was used with a graphophone, a device invented in the 1880s which recorded sound in a similar way to a vinyl record.

Reproduction graphophone made in 1987 by Mike Field (Science Museum / Science & Society)

The Museum acquired the cylinder in 1929, but without any way of playing it. The donor, a descendant of Samuel Morse, suggested that the cylinder had been used with a graphophone that was demonstrated to Queen Victoria in 1878, although he gave no clues as to what was recorded on the cylinder.

Research half a century later by technical writer Paul Tritton uncovered a letter that the Queen’s Private Secretary had written home to his wife in August 1888 about a machine that could reproduce sounds as often as you liked,

” Edwards whistled and I laughed – my ‘coachman’s laugh.’ “

He also wrote that

“H. M. [Her Majesty] spoke into it – but we told Mr Morse he must not go round the country reproducing the Queen’s words.”

These revelations spurred the museum to try and play the cylinder – with no idea what might be on it. With the help of the National Sound Archive, now the British Library Sound Archive, the cylinder was played for the first time in decades.

The three marked bands you can see on the cylinder are three separate recordings. The first recording was a man speaking and then whistling.

Whistled tune recorded on the graphophone, can you help us identify it?

One of the other recordings is unfortunately so damaged that it is impossible to make out any words. However, the second recording is about 20 seconds long, and although poor quality a few snatches can be heard of a well spoken lady saying, “Greetings… the answer must be… I have never forgotten.” Could this be the voice of Queen Victoria? With only circumstantial evidence to guide us we can’t say for sure, and perhaps we will never know.

Listen here and make your own mind up.

To find out more listen to Punt, P. I. on BBC Radio 4, 2nd October at 10.30am for an interview by Steve Punt with John Liffen, Curator of Communication.

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