Science Museum London
22 pics. The Natural History Museum⇐, Science Museum and fabulous Victoria & Albert Museum⇐ are all close together and very near South Kensington underground rail station. All are free to enter, although a small donation is usual, and have picnic areas (a wise choice).
It is advisable to download/save/print the museum map⇒. Their website is here⇒ and of special interest are the beautiful antique timepieces⇐ and the model steam engines⇐.
Newcomen type Atmospheric Engine
During the early 1700’s there was a developing energy crisis. Coal was needed to fuel industry, especially the smelting casting and forging of iron. Surface coal was becoming rare and deep mines were subject to flooding. Pumping out by hand or animal power was inadequate so Newcomen invented the Atmospheric Engine around 1712 and they continued as the only kind of steam engine until 1802.
The Atmospheric Engine filled a cylinder with steam at normal pressure which then condensed and reduced to less than atmospheric pressure. The external atmospheric pressure then pushed the piston into the cylinder, drawing the beam down and lifting the water pump at the other end. The age of the industrial revolution advanced along with our dependence on fossil fuels.
The one above was built in 1791 and continued in use for 127 years.
Bell Crank Engine by Boulton and Watt
Later, a more powerful type of pressurized steam engine, which pushes a piston along a cylinder, was developed by James Watt in 1802. This one powered a workshop and later an electrical generator.
Puffing Billy
The earliest practical steam locomotive was designed by Richard Trevithick in 1804 and used for the transport of coal. The Puffing Billy, above, was built by William Hedley.
Stephenson’s Rocket
George Stephenson built the Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington Railway which was the first public steam railway in the world. It was his son, Robert Stephenson, who built the famous and more successful Rocket in 1829.
Grand Junction Railway Locomotive Columbine
Then innovation took off in leaps and bounds.
Traction Engine
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Pumping Engine
Steam driven pumping became another essential for the advancement of human civilization by the provision of clean water and removal of waste. Both were essential for the limitation of disease. You might like a look at the beautifully ornate Crossness Pumping Station ⇐ and the awesome machines at the London (Kew) Water and Steam Museum ⇐.
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Bessemer Converter
These developments were aided by the invention of the Bessemer Converter in 1856. Molten iron, refined from iron ore in a Blast Furnace, is poured into the vessel and then air followed by oxygen is forced through the molten metal. This was the first method of removing impurities on a large economic scale to produce steel.
The great gout of fire that spouts from the converter is awesome and can be seen on video by clicking on Bessemer Steel Making at Workington Cumbria⇒.
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Babbage’s Difference Engine No 2
Meanwhile there had been a need to produce accurate mathematical tables for engineers, astronomers, navigators etc. After around 25 years of trying, Charles Babbage created the Difference Engine No 2. Whilst it can only add and subtract, it can be programmed do so a number of times, hence it can multiply and divide. Modern computers use the same method.
Ribbon Loom by James Heywood using the Jacquard Principle
This clever little device can automatically weave a complex design using a series of punched cards for instruction. That is, a programmable process. Punched cards were used by early computers.
And then :-.
Well alright its early days yet.
Amy Johnson’s Airplane Jason
Amy Johnson was the first person to fly solo from Britain to Australia, although in several legs. If you click on twice to expand, you might notice an AA (Automobile Association) sticker just beneath “Jason”. Now that’s what I call optimism.
And then:-
The Spitfire
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Lockheed Electra
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Normal service will be resumed when Grommet gets back from the chip shop. 🙂
Harrier Jump Jet
And then :-
Space Rockets
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Space Satellite
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Space Capsule
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Moon Lander
And then:-
This suspended globe in the Science Museum turns and changes to show the weather patterns and day and night. At times it shows the vast number of lights we are burning.
The Clock of the Long Now
Please click on twice to expand the small print.
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Fossil fuels have been the foundation of our modern world and all of its benefits. Knowing no better, we have used a crude and poisonous medicine, we now have to evolve to stop the increasingly damaging side-effects. Considering all that mankind has done, surely we can manage this too.
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The National Portrait Gallery, London
The National Portrait Gallery is, to me, the best of the London Galleries. Here you can see some excellent portraiture of those who influenced the world we live in. There are many more paintings, here I have shown mostly the more contemporary.
The Portrait gallery is right behind The National Gallery, very close to Trafalgar Square and St Martin in the Field and not far from St James Park and Westminster. The nearest underground rail station is Charing Cross.
The brief factual comments are mostly extracts from Wikipedia and more information is available by clicking on the pink links.
David Lloyd George, laid the foundation for the modern welfare state, served as Prime Minister during WWI and was the last Liberal Party Prime Minister.
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Amy Johnson, was a pioneering English aviator and was the first female pilot to fly alone from Britain to Australia.
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Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the British Suffragette movement.
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Sir Winston Churchill, needs no introduction.
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Dame Anna Neagle, a very popular British stage and screen actress.
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Beatrix Potter, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist best known for her children’s books featuring animals such as those in The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
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Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote Treasure Island, Kidnapped and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
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Dame Margot Fonteyn, widely regarded as one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of all time.
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Dame Monica Mason, a former ballet dancer and artistic director of the Royal Ballet in London from 2002 to 2012.
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Dorothy L. Sayers, a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator and Christian humanist.
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Dylan Thomas, a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems “Do not go gentle into that good night”, “And death shall have no dominion” and the “Play for Voices”, Under Milk Wood. He also encouraged a reputation as a “roistering, drunken and doomed poet”.
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Edward William Lane, a British Orientalist, translator and lexicographer. He is known for his translation of One Thousand and One Nights, which he censored, with the usual 19th-century view on “Victorian morality”.
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Sir Henry Irving, a Victorian actor/manager and the first actor to be awarded a knighthood.
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Henry James, an American writer who spent most of his writing career in Britain.
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James Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century. Joyce is best known for Ulysses (1922).
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Laurie Lee, an English poet, novelist and screenwriter. His most famous work was an autobiographical trilogy which consisted of Cider with Rosie (1959), As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969) and A Moment of War (1991).
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Elizabeth I More of her paintings/history can be found in the post Hatfield House and Elizabeth I.
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Lady Hamilton and Admiral Lord Nelson. A scandalous affair. Just goes to show that if one is a hero, one can get away with anything.
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The Trial of Queen Caroline. In fact a parliamentary debate designed to grant King George IV a divorce.
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Reformed House of Commons. Following the Representation of the People Act 1832 .
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Sir Earnest Shackleton. Amongst his many exploits Shackleton safely brought back his entire expedition after their ship was crushed by Antarctic ice. It took three years.
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Sir Tim Berners-Lee, an English computer scientist, best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web.
I think he probably did more to change the world than anybody else.
Freed From Time 