181
6
was appointed Director of the Museum by the Board of Trade, under which the new Institution, as included in the Department of Science and Art, was placed. In autumn of the same year the Director received from the Crown the appointment of Professor of Technology in the University of Edinburgh; the special object of the new chair being the public teaching of the principles of Industrial Science, as illustrated by the existing and prospective contents of the Museum. At the same time a Resident Assistant, having personal charge of the Museum, was appointed; and the Analytical Laboratory rented by the Director was constituted the Laboratory of the Museum, and an Assistant Chemist attached to it. Active operations were commenced in October 1855, and have since continued without interruption. As at present arranged the officials attached to the Industrial Museum are,
Director - Professor George Wilson.
Assistant Chemist - Mr. Thomas Bloxam.
Resident Assistant - Mr. Alex. Galletly.
Porter - Thos. Tyrie.
In 1857 the Department of Science and Art was transferred from the Board of Trade to the Privy Council Committee on Education, under which accordingly the Industrial Museum is now placed. It is proper here also to state that the Natural History Museum in the University of Edinburgh, under the charge of Dr. Allman, the Professor of Natural History, who holds a Crown appointment as "Keeper of the Museum of Natural History," also ranks under the Department of Science and Art; the Professors of Natural History and of Technology having co-ordinate duties as Curators of the Museums under their respective charge. As far as circumstances permit the existing naturalistic and technical collections are managed as the constituent halves of the prospective new Museum, which will be organized in full when the promised buildings are erected. But as at present the Natural History and Industrial collections are in separate buildings, and under different officers, the statements which follow are limited to the Industrial Museum proper.
Professor Allman, Regius Keeper of the Natural History Museum, reports separately on it.
The Industrial Museum of Scotland is not intended to be a Museum of Scottish Industry alone, but a Museum of the Industry of the world in special relation to Scotland.
7
In its fullest acceptation it embodies, like the similar Museums in the country, a fourfold idea:
I. Exhibitional galleries, where the raw, workable, and accessory materials on which Industrial Art is exercised; the tools and machines employed to modify these; and the finished products resulting from their modification, including the various stages of progress between the original material and the perfect product, are systematically arranged.
II. A Laboratory and Workshop, where the qualities of industrial materials and products, and the effectiveness of industrial apparatus and machines are investigated.
III. A Library, where the special literature of Industrial Art may be consulted.
IV. Lectures on the contents of the galleries, the investigations of the Laboratory and Workshop, and the records of the Library, as illustrating the various departments of Technology or Industrial Science.
At present the greater part of the objects acquired by purchase and donation for the Museum are collected within the old Trades Maiden Hospital, whilst a number of the more bulky objects are stored in the Independent Chapel. In the former building a few of the objects are so arranged in glass cases as to admit of being examined, though only imperfectly, but the great majority of the specimens are simply stored away in safe receptacles; nor does the construction of the building allow any other procedure to be adopted, or permit steps to be taken for their free exhibition.
The public accordingly only profit by the acquisition of industrial objects to the extent that they are shown at the University Lectures on Technology; but as the lecture room is at a considerable distance from the temporary Museum, it is impossible to transfer safely bulky or fragile articles from the one building to the other.
In consequence of this state of matters, the accumulation, not the exhibition, of specimens and instruments is the end kept chiefly in view, and it may be stated generally, that the objects being collected are as follows:
Firstly, such finished products as wrought iron, steel, glass, porcelain, paper, leather, cotton, linen, wool,
488