July 15, 1909] 



NATURE 



85 



a niu^L-uin, and in ihrir f^iurth ruport ihi- Commissioners 

 state : — ' While it is a matter of congratulation that the 

 British Museum contains one of the finest and largest 

 collections in existence illustrative of biological science, it 

 is to be regretted that there is at present no national collec- 

 tion 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. We consider that the recent 

 progress in these sciences and the daily increasing demand 

 for knowledge concerning them make it desirable that the 

 national collections should be extended in this direction, 

 so as to meet a great scientific requirement which cannot 

 b9 provided for in any other way.' Since these words 

 were written a National Science Museum has been estab- 

 lished, and the collections in it have been steadily enriched 

 by many important acquisitions. These collections are at 

 present housed in the old buildings at South Kensington 

 known as the Southern Galleries and the Western Galleries. 

 They now include models and copies of historical and 

 modern philosophical apparatus of the greatest value to all 

 interested in the progress of British science, and a large 

 number of machines, instruments, and models of great 

 interest as illustrating the origin and development of our 

 most pregnant British inventions, together with such special 

 collections as the unique series of models illustrating the 

 history of shipbuilding. 



" la 1876 the Royal Commissioners of the Exhibition of 

 1851 offered to the Government of the day a sum of 

 100,000!., together with a site on the Commissioners' 

 ground, for the proper housing of this collection, under 

 the condition that the Government should undertake its 

 maintenance. In iS-S the Commissioners repeated their 

 offer, and in 1879 this was declined by the Government. 

 In 1888 the land to the south of Imperial Institute Road, 

 reaching to that conveyed to the Government in 1864 for 

 the erection of the Natural History Museum, and containing 

 45 acres, was sold to the Government for 70,000/. This 

 land has now been in part permanentlv allocated to the main 

 section of the new buildings of the iTtiperial College of 

 Science and Technology and to the building in course of erec- 

 tion for the Meteorological Office and a post office. The re- 

 mainder of the site is at present occupied partly by tem- 

 porarv buildings and partlv by the old buildings — the 

 " .Southern Galleries " — which now afford accommodatif^n 

 for the machinery and naval architecture collections of the 

 Science Museum. This portion of the site, adjoining as it 

 does on the north the Imperial College and on the south 

 the Natural History Museum, is well regarded as an ideal 

 position for the long projected Science Museum, which 

 would complete the magnificent group of museum buildings 

 already erected at South Kensington. 



" The cost of acquisitions for the current growth of such a 

 science museum, it may be noted, is far less than that of a 

 corresponding art museum. The value of art products in- 

 creases rapidly with age, whereas the scientific implements, 

 tnachinery, and apparatus, interesting from an historical 

 point of view, have rarely any great commercial value. 

 The art collections of the Victoria and .'\lbert Museum are 

 now in possession of splendid buildings. If the buildings 

 provided for the science collections were equallv worthy of 

 the interests which they should serve, the objects now in 

 the museum could be exhibited to much greater advantage. 

 Moreover, those lacunae which mark sections of recent 

 activity in discovery and invention would be more readily 

 filled than they can be while the obviously temporary 

 character of the accommodation suggests to those who hold 

 objects of interest in the historv and advance of science that 

 the authorities have but little appreciation for such things. 

 " Other countries, notably France and Germany, have 

 recognised the importance of preparing suitable buildings 

 for their National Science Museums. In Paris the Museum 

 of the Ecole des .'\rt5 et Metiers has a world-wide renown ; 

 and a National German Science Museum is now being 

 built in Munich at the cost of 300,000/. England, the 

 mother of so many great inventions that have proved to be 

 pioneers in industrial arts, stands alone in having made no 

 adequate provision for exhibiting and arranging in proper 



I order her unique collections. The undersigned venture to 



I urge upon you that the time has now arrived for action. 

 Land sufficient for the purpose is in the Government's 



I hands, and the Royal Commissioners of '31 if approached 



' NO. 2072, VOL. 81] 



by the Government with a definite building scheme would 

 doubtless give it due consideration. The need is great, 

 and the mass of British science workers will hail your 

 favourable decision with gratitude." 



in his rf.narKs, Nir rienry Koscoe said that what is 

 needed is a building adequate to the proper exhibition of 

 the present collection, ana one worthy ol British science. 

 The grant for science purposes is 1800L ; that for art 

 11,260;. The fact that with so small a grant the national 

 science collections have reached so important and in many 

 respects so unique a position has been partly due to the 

 fact that the cost of acquisitions for the current growth 

 of such a science museum is far less than that of the corre- 

 sponding growth of an art museum. Land sufficient for 

 the required purpose is in the hands of the Government, 

 and the Royal Commissioners of 185 1, so long ago as 1878, 

 offered to contribute 100,000/. towards a buildmg for the 

 Science Museum. Sir .\rchibald Geikie said that the council 

 of the Royal Society desired him to express its keen sense 

 of the importance of the collections and the need for better 

 housing for re-arrangement and expansion. Sir David Gill 

 said that, confining his remarks principally to the astro- 

 nomical collection, he was much impressed with its extreme 

 value, as it included apparatus of all periods, from the 

 earliest days down to the present time. Mr. Alexander 

 Sieinens, expressing the view of the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers, said that in the interest of students of engineer- 

 ing it is of the utmost importance that the collections 

 should be housed with plenty of space, and should be as 

 complete as possible. Sir Hugh Bell, as president of the 

 Iron and Steel Institute, said his national pride was hurt 

 when he went through the building at South Kensington 

 and saw the collections housed in a place erected about 

 fifty years ago as refreshment-rooms or something of that 

 sort. ' Paris, Munich, and Berlin arc very much in advance 

 of London in that matter. Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, director 

 of the National Physical Laboratory, said that the physical 

 collection at South Kensington is very inadequately housed 

 and quite fails to represent the growth of that science in 

 England. .Mr. W. M. Mordey, president of the Institution 

 of Electrical Engineers, said there is at present no adequate 

 representation _pt their work in this country. Sir William 

 Ramsay said it is practically impossible to gain any notion 

 of the progress of chemistry from a visit to the collection. 

 Sir George Darwin said that in going over the museum 

 he was struck by two or three things — first, the great 

 interest of the collection ; secondly, the overcrowding of it : 

 and, thirdly, the extreme deficiency of the buildings in 

 which it is housed. 



Mr. Runciman, in the course of his reply, said : — The 

 memorial which has been presented to the Board of Educa- 

 tion and to me on the subject of this museum is one of 

 the most weighty memorials that I think has ever been 

 received bv anv Minister. We not only provide, or intend 

 to provide, an exhibition for the exposition and demonstra- 

 tion of the principles of science, but we provide illustrations 

 of the applications of science and arts to industry, including 

 models and actual examples of outstanding inventions which 

 are of historical importance, and, as Sir Henry Roscoe has 

 said, are absolutely irreplaceable. We have the greatest 

 desire to maintain historical industrial processes, and we 

 have special collections, such as those in which I myself 

 am enormously interested — namely, naval architecture, 

 models of inachines, and astronomical instruments. The 

 whole of these are of priceless value. But I quite recognise 

 that they are in many respects incomplete; and I am also 

 impressed with the fact, as indeed everybody is who knows 

 the building in which that collection is housed, that the 

 housing has a great deal to do with the collection in the 

 buildings in their present state. I recognise that the 

 collection, even at the present day, is dreadfully over- 

 crowded. The best illustration of that lies in the fact that 

 in the cases now erected in the museum we have found 

 it necessary to provide for what may be called a basement 

 exhibition. When one passes through the exhibition one 

 sees a considerable number of persons kneeling down on 

 the floor in order to see what is in the basement of these 

 cases. Anyone who is responsible for the museum can 

 hardly avoid being ashamed of that condition of things. 

 It is true that some parts of the galleries were put up as 

 temnorary buildings. They were part of the exhibition, I 

 think, of 1S62, and it is remarkable that they have lasted 



