London Science Museum

(National Museum of Science and Industry), one of the largest and oldest museums of the technology of Great Britain. It had its origin in the Great Exhibition of 1851 and was opened on June 24, 1857, in Kensington. The museum collects and displays materials and objects showing the development and present state of science and technology. Its 53 collections contain approximately 40,000 objects.

The museum has divisions of physics, chemistry (including metallurgy), astronomy and geophysics, sea and land transport, electricity (electrical engineering and communications), aeronautics, sailing vessels, agriculture, and construction. Collections are arranged in chronological order and cover an area of 30,000 sq m. Most of the objects are actual working instruments, equipment, and machines (in the aeronautics section, for example, 20 aircraft are on display) or exact models. Among its unique historical displays are J. Watt’s workshop, brought to the museum in its entirety, and G. Stephenson’s locomotive. The museum has a library, lecture and film halls, workshops, a photography studio, and division laboratories. It conducts scientific work and issues 12 scientific publications annually.