| Turner, T (2004). Friends needed for the Kirkaldy Testing Museum, Bull Croydon Nat Hist Sci Soc, 122: 18. |
Friends needed for the Kirkaldy Testing MuseumI was invited to talk to the Industrial Studies section of your society on the topic of 'A history of development of the testing of materials'. The basis for such a talk was my lifetime career as a mechanical engineer specialising in Materials - particularly failures caused by fatigue or fracture - and my retirement hobby as a Friend of the Kirkaldy Testing Museum. That museum is at 99 Southwark Street, London, in the heart of the swinging South Bank area, 10 minutes from Waterloo and 2 minutes from the Tate Modern! Its main asset and indeed raison d'être, is the large testing machine designed by David Kirkaldy and built for him by Greenwood & Batley, Leeds, coming into service in 1865 at The Grove, Southwark. It was moved to the present purpose-built building in 1874 and is still in working condition. The Museum comprises the ground floor and basement only: the upper floors having been sold to a firm of consulting engineers as a means of keeping the machine in being. Other, small, testing machines have been acquired, so that the history of materials testing is covered from 1865 to the 1970s, when both the Kirkaldy works closed and 'push-button' machines started to appear. The museum is run by a very small group of enthusiastic Friends having a variety of skills, but most of advancing years. It really needs an infusion of new blood if its future is to be ensured for another one hundred year period. Visitors are welcome on the first Sunday of each month (from 10:00 to 16:00), on Open Days as announced from time to time, or at almost any time by prior appointment with Peter Skilton, 'phone 01322 332989, or Ted Turner, 'phone 01372 722989. Ron Eteson, the secretary of your Industrial Studies section, has a few flyers with some further information. May we look forward to welcoming some new Friends from the Croydon Natural History and Scientific Society? Ted Turner |
Last updated
September 19th 2004 |