MEET: New UK Electrical and Electronic Museum

[Lucien Nunes]

Hi everyone, new member here but long time watcher of EEVBlog.
I'd like to tell you about the developments at MEET - the Museum of Electrical and Electronic Technology.

This is a project that has been on a back burner for some time, to create a very wide-ranging interactive exhibition of all things electrical and electronic. There's something for everyone, from test equipment to vacuum cleaners, tape recorders to diesel generators, mercury arc rectifiers to early microcomputers. We are currently looking at a specific building in the south-east of England to move our collection into. If it goes ahead, we should have an exhibition up and running this summer. There will be a huge amount of work and we'll need to do a lot of fundraising, as moving and setting up 100 tonnes of exhibits is never going to be a walk in the park.

The website is under construction but our facebook page is live and I'm posting various content there daily that gives a flavour of the exhibits you will find at MEET. There is also some info about how we are going to make it uniquely interesting to visit. If you're interested in vintage electronics and a facebook user, please come along and say hello! https://www.facebook.com/ElectricalMuseum/

There will be more info about how to get involved and contribute over the next few months. I look forward to MEETing you both online and in due course at the museum.

Lucien

[Gyro]

I can't wait to see the visitors' shop. 

[jonpaul]

Very fine,

How far from London?
Schedule to open the Museum?

Have you seen the Switzerland museum ENTER.CH, in Solothurn?

In USA, Silicon Valley Tech Museum or Computer History Museum?

Check cryptomuseum.com for vintage mechanical and electronic cipher machines.

Jon

[artag]

I enjoy museums, and the more weird and wonderful the collection, the better.

It's a pity about the location though - there is already the excellent https://this-museum-is-not-obsolete.com/ in the deep south-east (Ramsgate).
I guess that depends on what you call the southeast. Since you have storage in Bedfordshire perhaps you're north of London, which I'd find very convenient.
I wonder if the Shuttleworth Collection have space to spare ?

[Infraviolet]

Shuttleworth collection would also put one near Bletchley park and the national museum of computing.

[jonovid]

I enjoy museums, and the more weird and wonderful the collection, the better.

It's a pity about the location though - there is already the excellent https://this-museum-is-not-obsolete.com/ in the deep south-east (Ramsgate).
I guess that depends on what you call the southeast. Since you have storage in Bedfordshire perhaps you're north of London, which I'd find very convenient.
I wonder if the Shuttleworth Collection have space to spare ?

old church organ on MIDI awesome stuff

[artag]

Shuttleworth collection would also put one near Bletchley park and the national museum of computing.

And the centre for computing history in cambridge.

We're spoilt, aren't we ?

[mikeselectricstuff]

Good to hear things are still moving on this.
Some more info :

[mikeselectricstuff]

Shuttleworth collection would also put one near Bletchley park and the national museum of computing.

And the centre for computing history in cambridge.

We're spoilt, aren't we ?

Also the electricity hall at Amberley Museum
and the Museum of Power in Essex

[Lucien Nunes]

Thanks for the replies and interest. Re. the building location, in a sense we'd be happy almost anywhere. As usual though with real estate, there are some conflicting needs:

* Low cost per unit floor area
* Good access for visitors e.g. to public transport / parking
* Good condition / internal environment for exhibits
* Suitable structure and access for the heavy stuff (we have exhibits up to 6 tonnes each that need foundations)
* Easy to secure / maintain / heat

At this stage everything is funded out of our own pockets which means we can't have exactly what we want. If we can tick a few of those boxes, we'll probably be OK for phase one. It's likely that we would have to move some time in the future if it takes off as we hope. The particular building in question that we are looking at this month ticks most of the boxes, which is why it has our attention.

There's another factor that I didn't mention earlier but you will have discovered if you watched the video that Mike linked, which is that due to cancer I have a very limited life expectancy. I have been working on this project for some years and was expecting to spend more or less the next decade rolling it out, but I definitely don't have a decade left; even a couple of years is optimistic. So if I am to see the initial installation through, we can't really look at 'project' sites where a lot of groundwork is needed before we can start moving in.

One of the interesting things about the MEET concept is that it is a museum of technology for everyone, including people who don't know about technology. Computer enthusiasts will go to a computer museum, telephone enthusiasts will go to a telephone museum, bifurcated rivet enthusiasts will go to the bifurcated rivet museum, but we also want to capture and charm all those people who didn't think technology was for them, or wouldn't think of going to any museum. They will be delighted that they came, but we have to get them through the door first, so it is important to make MEET easily accessible so that it doesn't put that potential audience out of reach.

Now, moving on, and recognising that this forum's membership is focused on electronics, what would you like to see at MEET? Nothing is taboo here...

[Lucien Nunes]

I'm delighted to announce that some time in the next few days / weeks, BBC Breakfast will be airing a short piece about MEET (The Museum of Electrical and Electronic Technology.) I'm expecting it to include an interview in which I explain our original plan and the impact of my declining health on being able to achieve it, plus a couple of demonstrations of how the MEET concept generates exciting STEM learning potential from some of our vintage exhibits. If they give me advance warning of the TX date and time, I'll post it in this thread.

In the meantime, and in direct contrast to the very positive step of gaining national publicity, my physical abilities are diminishing to the point of finding it increasingly difficult to walk. As I put it in the interview, we are 'some weeks away' from having to pull the plug on MEET, as we have not found anyone to lead the project as a whole once I am gone. Sam Battle of the Not Obsolete Museum is very much in the loop and there is still scope for extensive collaboration with him and others, but as with all these options time is against us to devise a holistic solution.

Disbanding would be a huge blow that negates most of the last 15 years of my life but I have to accept that if it gets left too long I won't have the strength left to oversee dispersing, rehoming and scrapping the collection. The latter sounds dramatic, but in reality there are many objects in the collection that are not 'collectables' in the normal sense, and equally unattractive for other museums to take on if they are not in a position to use them as educational resources in the way that we would within MEET.

As I have said elsewhere, above and beyond the collection I am keen to preserve and promote the MEET concept. Dispersing telephones to a telephone museum, radios to a radio museum, computers to a computer museum etc. works contrary to MEET's principle of making all these things accessible and inviting to non-specialist and non-technical audiences, therefore that kind of 'Plan B' is very much a last resort.

Anyhow, in the present moment we are alive and kicking and could yet win through, so please do add to this thread with any ideas you might have for fun stuff to see and do at MEET! There is still scope for it to happen. Make mine a 2465B

[RJSV]

   A very interesting development.  Are you folks
 hiring ?
   Does a newer project like this, especially with site locating and heavy moving, does the initial project have a logistics division (or specialist)?

[RJSV]

My contribution could end up as a popular PIN BALL related mechanical computer installation.  Could be taken over / modified by a technical artist, if so desired, to make attractive and rapid calculating ball movements.  Lanes define the numbers.

   Might take a modest funding, initially, $50 to $100 K.
Just for the usual display cases, etc. for creating a working system, not just a couple of logic gates.
Transparent plastic panels, and the like.

Please see, for reference:
   US 20030172205-A1

(I believe you could generally use most of that abandoned patent application, now old...Rick B.)

[Lucien Nunes]

Update: MEET interview will be broadcast on BBC Breakfast next Tuesday May 2nd. We don't know what time, probably between 06:00 and 09:15. Stay tuned!

Are you folks hiring ?

At the moment it has all been driven by volunteer effort. We had a fundraiser last year to keep us going, when I became ill and was no longer able to sponsor the rent for the warehouses etc, but it might enable us also to hire a professional fundraiser and project manager if we are ultimately able to go ahead. As with many technical museums, it will be a long time before we get enough income to be able to afford paid staff.

does the initial project have a logistics division (or specialist)?

Yes, his name is Edward and he is an excellent man for the job. Whatever needs moving, once Edward is on the case it just floats along effortlessly, usually while I am making the coffee so I miss the action.

We like electromechanical computers and do actually have a pinball exhibit in the collection. It's a last-generation fully EM Williams Aztec game, with certain components remoted so that you can see them working. Additional indicators connected to the logic and camswitches etc show how the progress of the gameplay is controlled by the switchgear. I want to have the playfield completely sanded down and re-painted with a new electrically-themed game but have not gotten around to that yet.

[richard.cs]

@Lucien is this essentially a new name for the planned electrokinetica museum, or is the proposal here significantly different? I'm very sorry to hear about your health.

[Lucien Nunes]

Yes, just a new name; Same team and setup, and the same idea to make things deeply interactive.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Update: MEET interview will be broadcast on BBC Breakfast next Tuesday May 2nd. We don't know what time, probably between 06:00 and 09:15. Stay tuned!

It actually went out today ( Wed 3rd), will be on iplayer until tomorrow. Starts at 7:25

[MK14]

Update: MEET interview will be broadcast on BBC Breakfast next Tuesday May 2nd. We don't know what time, probably between 06:00 and 09:15. Stay tuned!

It actually went out today ( Wed 3rd), will be on iplayer until tomorrow. Starts at 7:25

Thanks, I watched it on iPlayer, it was good, interesting, and ultimately very sad.
Edit:
Removed iPlayer link, as it no longer works.
Here is apparently a Youtube copy: