Oct 14 - Laundry & The Science Museum

Everything is an %$^& adventure, even the laundry.   After washing, it went into the dryer.  An hour later I checked - it was still sopping wet but very hot.  So,I started poking about the back of the dryer and found something interesting - there was no air duct like there is in every dryer I know about.  But there was a tiny water hose going to the drain.  So I guessed these dryers condense the water and pump it out.  I was almost correct - the water is collected in a pan that is emptied manually.  These are called ventless dryers (thanks Mr. Google)  

I split the laundry into 2 batches and loaded both dryers in the room.  Another hour the clothes were mostly dry.

With chores done and lunch eaten, I headed off to the Science Museum to learn more stuff.  The Science Museum is one of 3 in the same location.  The Victoria & Albert (visited already) and the Natural History Museum are the other 2.

The first room I visited had a display of stationary Steam Engines.

A working model of a double beam engine.  This represented the ultimate design of Watt and Boulton (his partner).

And this big monster that was restored and put on display.

From the website:
"This big mill steam engine comes from Burnley in Lancashire where it was used to power 1,700 looms in a cotton mill. Weavers in Lancashire’s factories made textiles that were sold around the world. The steam engine was used in the mill right up until 1970. "

I love steam engines, but I'll move on before I bore you.

Leaving floor 0 and going up to floor 1 (this is england, eh) is an exhibit called "Engineers and Technicians."  It's almost a job fair for students, displaying highlights of technical careers.

This cabinet showed modelsof possible 'house robots' and a prototype hand prothesis.

This showed various types of welds made by students studying that trade.  If you can read it, 3 of the 5 welds were made by a gal named Leia,

Show that to Carly, Pat

Early version of an MRI machine.

They are hard to see in the photo, but the objects on the right are helmets with copper tubing around them.  Their purpose was to reduce the noise of the MRI machine as patients went through the machine.

First electrocariogram (1887!)  Electrodes caused the pen to move over a photographic plate.  It struck me as practical because they used a toy train to slowly move the plate past the etching pen.

Another part of this exhibit dealt with the evolution of watches, and clocks, especially the marine chronometer.

Watch collection from 1894

Early marine chronometers, used to determne longitude.  

Onto some surveying instruments.  A 'quadrant' is used to measure the altitude of the sun and stars.  Cook used one similar to this.

Early sextant for use on board boats.

(I used a sextant for navigation wheb we sailed back from Hawaii in 1980).

 Last two photos.

A set of instruments commissioned by King George III.

I included the description below.

That's about two and a quarter of the four floors of the Science Museum.   I've done even less of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and haven't even started on the Natural History Museum.

So, I have a few more trips to go ...

Also, due to popular request (ie. a command from Laura) I have adjusted the Comment settings so that anybody can add a comment and not need a Google account to do so.