July 20, 191 1] 



NATURE 



79 



NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF THE 



SCIENCE MUSEUM. 1 



II. 



I N the former notes I referred to the early history 

 •*■ ol the Patent Museum. 



By 1874, in consequence of the acts of the Com- 

 biissioners of the 1831 Exhibition, land for the proper 

 display, on the one hand, of objects chiefly illustrating 

 art and its application to industry, and, on the other, 

 of objects illustrating- natural history, had been pro- 

 vided, and buildings for these purposes, as well as a 

 School of Science, had been commenced. But for the 

 Patent or Science Museum, no building had been 

 erected on the five acres assigned to it by Lord 

 Palmerston on the land bought in 1863. 



In this year the question of museums was con- 

 sidered by the Duke of Devonshire's Commission, and 

 the collections at South Kensington were inquired 

 into. The question of the Patent Museum was 

 Kecially considered, and it was pointed out that 

 objects illustrating patents should find their true place 

 among those dealing with the advance and applica- 

 tions of the physical and mechanical sciences. 



As a result of this inquiry, the Duke of Devon- 

 shire's Commissioners recommended to the Govern- 

 ment the establishment of what they were the first to 

 call a Science Museum, in which was to be included 

 not only patented objects, but those necessary to illus- 

 tiate the advances of both pure and applied science. 

 I give the following extract from their fourth 

 Report : — 



" 81. While it is a matter of congratulation that 

 the British Museum contains one of the finest and 

 Ergesl collections in existence illustrative of Bio- 

 logical Science, it is to be regretted that there is at 

 present no National Collection of the Instruments 

 used in the investigation of Mechanical, Chemical or 

 Physical Laws, although such collections are of great 

 importance to persons interested in the Experimental 

 Sciences." 



" 82. We consider that the recent progress in these 

 Sciences and the daily increasing demand for know- 

 ledge concerning them make it desirable that the 

 National Collections should be extended in this direc- 

 tion, so as to meet a great scientific requirement 

 which cannot be provided for in any other way." 



" 83. The defect in our collections to which we 

 have referred is indeed already keenly felt bv teachers 

 of Science. If a teacher of any branch of Experi- 

 mental Science wishes to inspect any physical instru- 

 ment not in his possession, as a teacher of Literature 

 would a book, or a teacher of Biologv would a speci- 

 men, there is no place in the countrv where he can 

 do it." 



"93. We accordingly ncommend the formation of 

 a Collection of Physical and Mechanical Instruments; 

 and we submit for consideration whether it may not 

 be expedient that this Collection, the Collection of 

 the Patent Museum, and that of the Scientific and 

 Educational Department of the South Kensington 

 Museum, should be united and placed under the 

 authority of a Minister of State." 

 I Here then we find the definition of a " Science 

 Museum " as resulting from all the inquiries made 

 by the Duke of Devonshire's Commission. Their 

 Eatement regarding its organisation under a Minister 

 of Stat.' was evidently inserted, because in another 

 Report they pointed out the importance of the whole 

 National Museum system being under a Minister of 

 Staje, instead of being in two water-tight compart- 

 ments, one of them controlled by a body of Trustees 

 without Government responsibility. 



This is too large a question to be entered upon in 



1 Continued from p. 16. 



NO. 2177, VOL. 87] 



these notes, but it may be pointed out that if this 

 recommendation had been acted upon the recent dis- 

 cussions would never have arisen. 



A step was at once taken by the Government to 

 facilitate the carrying out of these recommendations, 

 and a loan collection of scientific apparatus was 

 brought together in 1876, as an object-lesson of what 

 such a Science Museum might be in relation to the 

 •' Patent Museum," arranged for by Lord Palmerston 

 in 1803, which would form part of the new museum. 

 Still no steps were taken to commence the building. 



The building of the new Natural Historv Museum, 

 however, was proceeding; it was finished in 1880. It 

 has been shown that the land allotted for natural 

 history purposes by Lord Palmerston was five acres. 

 The completed museum building covered nearly four 

 acres, and was erected in the Centre of a space of 

 about eleven and a half acres, fenced off from the 

 remainder of the sixteen and a half acres purchased 

 in 1863, in such a manner as to make it difficult to 

 apply the eight acres not built over to any other ser- 

 vice, or even to expand largely the museum itself 

 without injury to its architectural features. As to 

 how this state of things, so different from that to be 

 gathered from Lord Palmerston 's speech, came about 

 I have no information. 



The recommendations of the Duke of Devonshire's 

 Commission touching a Science Museum had much 

 influence in leading the Commissioners of the 1851 

 Exhibition to adopt proposals for the future appro- 

 priation of their estate. 



Even while the loan collection of scientific 

 apparatus in 1876 was indicating the national import- 

 ance of such a museum as the Duke of Devonshire's 

 Commission had suggested, the 1851 Commissioners 

 began their proposals to bring it into being by offer- 

 ing to endow a Science Museum with money and land. 



I quote from the sixth Report (p. 41) the action 

 taken in 1876 : — 



" Influenced by these considerations, and by the 

 regrets expressed by the Royal Commission on Scien- 

 tific Instruction, in their Report already quoted, we 

 concluded that there could be no more appropriate 

 employment of a portion of our resources than to 

 expend them on a building on our own Estate, for 

 the advancement of scientific study and research, and, 

 in connection with the South Kensington Museum, to 

 receive the important contributions of instruments 

 which we understood would be made to the nation at 

 the clo e of the Loan Exhibition already alluded to. 



" We, therefore, proposed to Her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment that ioo,ooo£. of the amount we might realise, 

 or might be enabled to raise on ground-rents, should 

 be devoted to the furtherance of the recommendations 

 of the Royal Commission on Scientific Instruction bv 

 erecting, on a site opposite the Government Science 

 Schools, a building suitable for a Museum of Scien- 

 tific Instruments, or for a Library of Scientific 

 Works, and for laboratories of scientific research and 

 instruction. And we made this offer on condition 

 that the Government would undertake to maintain 

 the building, when erected, in the manner proposed. 

 The site referred to is partly our property and partly 

 the property of the Government, and we suggested 

 that, in exchange for a conveyance of the part belong- 

 ing to us, the Government should return to us two 

 small portions of the site of the Exhibition of 1862, 

 which project into our main square." 



The proposal then was very similar to the present 

 one, utilising the land to the north of the Natural 

 History Museum building. 



Events, however, indicated that the Commission's 

 land to the north of the plot first proposed would 

 be a more convenient site for the Science Museum, 

 and a second letter was addressed to the Govern- 



