Science Museum, London !

The Science Museum as an institution was founded about a century and a half have been. It has its origins in the Universal Exhibition of 1851, in Hyde Park in the huge glass building known as the Crystal Palace instead. The popularity of the exhibition will be guaranteed a large financial surplus, which hit the patronage over Prince Albert used a number of educational institutions in the country should be found nearby. The first of these was the South Kensington Museum, opened in 1857 on a plot of land is now part of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The South Kensington Museum, the first building was clad in an iron-framed structure of corrugated iron. Let his ugliness and factory-character soon it by its nickname, the 'Brompton Boilers must be known.' It was the public on Wednesday 24 Opened in June 1857 after an art opening by Queen Victoria on Saturday evening. It was primarily a museum of industrial and decorative arts, but also a number of different scientific collections as animal products, nutrition, education, machinery, and building materials. Within the building, an exhibition of machines by Bennet Woodcroft, Superintendent of the Patent Office was organized. And contemporary equipment, the Patent Office Museum also contain historical items such as an early Boulton and Watt beam engine and Symington marine steam engine from 1788. The locomotives "Puffing Billy" of 1814 and Stephenson 'Rocket' of 1829 were placed on display in 1862.

A collection of model ships and ship engines was established by the South Kensington Museum in 1864 and soon added. The general expansion in such a way that gradually in the 1860s, the science collections have been on the Exhibition Road building originally built for the Universal Exhibition of 1862 moves. These collections continued to grow, but by a series of sudden changes and additions as the consistent planning. A big step forward came in 1876 when an exhibition that was "special loan agreements collection of scientific instruments" held. It was a great opportunity. Appliances and equipment from many countries were displayed and given public lectures on the progress of science worldwide. At the end of many of the exhibits were kept at the basis of what are now scientific collections are of international importance.

In 1883 occurred a further shift in emphasis, if the contents of the Patent Office Museum was officially transferred to the South Kensington Museum. Founded around the same time, a scientific library, which has since been the needs of museum staff, students and the public served. From 1893 the history of science collections had their own director, but were still considered part of the South Kensington Museum managed. The accommodation was now totally inadequate and the scientific community argued strongly for new and appropriate building, which was a nationally significant in its own right Musum.