RE:MAKE - Maker Workshops in derby

Members of this forum may be interested in the hypothetical tale of

"Albert, a shed-dweller, who is a retired engineer is interested in using large tools and machines. He is keen to learn new skills within developing technologies as well as pass on more traditional skills to like-minded makers."

Se the RE:MAKE website for more...

Neil

Looks an interesting re-development, Neil

But I suspect that the hypothetical Albert might be off-put by the Artyness of it all.

[hope I'm wrong]

MichaelG.

I do wonder what the actual audience is. My wife sent me the link but I don't know if she was suggesting it for me or my daughter!

Neil

Redevelopment ??????????

What happened to all the Rolls engines that were there ?

Looks like this museum is going the way as all the rest, wide open spaces with sod all in them.

John,

Having now realised where this place is; and remembered what it used to be just a few years ago ... I retract the phrase "interesting re-development"

Please feel free to insert your own expletives ... I am lost for words.

MichaelG.

Add to the fact that it's been closed for at least 4 years so what have they been playing about at ?

My accountant is just round the corner and during a swift 1/2 hour break whilst they fitted new string to the rack I thought I'd pop in only to find it all closes up and looking deserted.

Did the Science Museum two years ago and very, very disappointed. Went to see Babbages engine, you know the one that all the public money went on ?

Found a small model of part of it but not the main engine, walked all over including the nearly empty 5th floor that had 4 computers showing new technology [ thought it was a museum ? ] but no Babbage engine.

Went to the reception desk to ask, some delightful 20 year old rattled a few keys on the keyboard and informed me that they had the model I had seen and on floor 3 they had Babbages brain stored in a jar, [ Science museum ? Natural History Museum is next door ? ]

My reply was "Perhaps you can share it out ? "

I just looked at the site and there is 1 minute and 30 seconds of my life I will never, ever get back. What a load of utter drivel.

There is a photograph of a lot of earnest looking types shifting a nice looking Excel lathe with a pallet truck. What are they doing with it? Probably moving it outside to clear "the space" to allow more pointless navel gazing.

John, I hear and sympathise with your views regarding the Science Museum. In the early '90s I was living about an hour north west of London and used to spend many a happy Saturday wandering around the place. I revisited a couple of years ago and I was deeply dismayed to find it much changed and greatly for the worse. I remember the Babbage Difference Engine, it was being worked on in the times when I used to visit. As you say, no sign of it now. Astonishing.

The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, chambers st

Just had a squillion pound redevelopment and has a load of new space with new exhibits

...and all the wonderful model engineering stuff has disappeared...

They had loads of it, most of it worked by pressing a button on the side of the case and for a wee boy it was the ultimate amazing toyshop.

Would probably take a Freedom of Information Act request to find out where it's all disappeared to

Not to sure that I want to be "involed"

arty drivel.

Sad isn't it

cheers

Bill

Hi Ady,

Yes, I remember also the National Museum of Scotland. They had some particularly fine models of steam cranes in there as I recall. Where has all that stuff gone to? I think also the People's palace in Glasgow had some excellent model steam engines...not been lately but I suspect they are all gone too.

The website for the arty outfit running the Silk Mills describe themselves as remaking the place for the 21st Century "Through reawakening the spirit of the Enlightenment" or some such nonsense. the place wasn't built for or in the spirit of enlightenment, it was built to make as much money as possible from what was then new technology by a man who was most likely bumped off for stealing ideas from his competitors. It was a place of hard cash and hard knocks, the latter, not the former, for the workforce.

There is a picture of one of the re:make staff with dirty hands, holding their hands up to the camera (no doubt on a phone, to then be tweeted and put on facebook or whatever other nonsensical folly) to show, with what almost amounts to incredulity, that they have been doing some work and, oh the amazement, have got their hands dirty. Well, the news is that generations of skilled, educated craftsmen and engineers did that everyday for decades. It made us into the world's leading industrial power.

Eloi is the word that springs to mind when I look at this re:make site. Eloi. HG Wells may have been right.

These museums are mising a trick.
Adapt to survive.

They need to re-make their model exhibits with the engines shown on a carpeted workshop floor not slipery tiles with appropriate guards and miniature HSE notices all over the machine. The case needs to be remade with plastic replacing the mahogany and to operate it there should be a QR code displayed. This can be scanned by the chiildren with their phone taking them to the machine's facebook page where they can 'like' the exhibit to make it send them a video of it running. Then they can subscribe to the twitter feed to be informed when any other 'friends' of the machine make it run.

I must agree it seems terrible if a museum can't look to the future without losing the past.

That said, 1900's 'model engineers' were today's 'makers' - we just need to make sure they realise that engineering has a heritage as well as a future. Also, I'm really keen to see what happens with Steve Eaton's wheel pattern...

The science museum was an extraordinary mixture of joyous surprise at seeing things I'd only ever read of in the 'metal' and deep disappointment. Watt's workshop was the worst - carefully displayed behind thick curved plexiglass in order to make it migrane-inducing for anyone with eyes over 45 years old!

Neil

That is an interesting thought Bazyle. The biggest worry I have about these types of places is that those that run them are just not capable of seeing the intrinsic value of such artefacts. They look at a beautifully crafted model, or even a full size piece of engineering, and all they see is a dusty old collection of bits and pieces. As most of them are art graduates they also do not have the understanding of the physical principles underlying these machines and models and cannot see their relevance in demonstrating these principles to the young. I also believe that they fail to see the place that the machines these models depict have in our industrial heritage.

A lad on a bike forum I visit works at the Science Museum and said

Apparently there used to be 25-30 engineers in the place. It's down to one full time and one part time now Out of all of the machines in the workshop there are probably only 4 or 5 that get regular use (not including the bandsaws and normal pillar drills) Seems such a waste.

He posted some pictures of the workshop **LINK**