Built for speed: Turninia was once the fastest vessel afloat
The biggest mystery about Newcastle upon Tyne’s Discovery Museum is why anyone would dream of cutting in half its beautiful star exhibit. Yet that’s what happened to Turbinia, the world’s first steam turbine-driven vessel. The Science Museum in London wanted to display it but couldn’t find room for all of it, so just put the rear section on show.
Fortunately, the other half of the boat was kept and, decades later, the two parts were reunited back home in Newcastle. Today, the sleek, streamlined craft fills much of the ground floor of Discovery. Young children scamper beneath Turbinia’s hull, unaware of the key role the vessel played in maritime history.
Sir Charles Parsons launched the boat on the Tyne in 1894 to demonstrate the potential of his steam turbine to propel ships. Turbinia’s three turbines, each driving three propellers, allowed it to speed across the waves faster than any other vessel then afloat. The invention was taken up by the Royal Navy, and went on to transform maritime transport around the globe.
You can climb to the gallery to gaze down on the boat and imagine its blade-like bow slicing through the water, or Parsons standing in the saloon on deck talking business with his guests.
A nearby exhibit demonstrates the inventor’s other main legacy – electricity generation. It’s a Parsons steam turbine generating set, built in 1899, that was used in power stations until the 1930s.
The electric light that this machine, and others like it, produced was made possible by the work of Joseph Swan. One of the first light bulbs that Swan demonstrated in public, at lectures in Newcastle in 1879, can also be seen on the ground floor. Besides bringing light into our lives, Swan created the first artificial thread. He called it artificial silk, and a sample is on show here too. The material was developed to become rayon.
Moving up to the first floor, the galleries there tell the story of Newcastle’s rich engineering heritage, built up around the exports of coal that made so many people’s fortunes. A model of Tyneside in the early twentieth century, stretching along much of one wall, shows the central role that the river played in the development of the region’s industry. Along the waterside stretch miles of docks, wharves, shipyards, railways, factories and houses.
The model was made in 1929 for an exhibition intended to bring in work for local firms during the Great Depression, but it’s been brought up to date with a computer screen that lets you zoom in on small areas. You can, for instance, make a virtual visit to Palmer’s Shipbuilding and Iron Company, whose closure, with the loss of many jobs, led to the Jarrow march of 1936.
Nearby, you can see a sample of the wide range of products that have been made on Tyneside, from bricks to bullets and from soap to shoes. There are models of boats, shipyards and ship engines.
And there’s the steam engine that used to help open and close the swing bridge over the Tyne.
Built like a battleship: That's the slogan Armstrong Whitworth used to promote this car
Five things to see:
1. Transatlantic liner: Model of the magnificent Mauretania, built on Tyneside.
2. Gleaming beauty: A 1911 car made by armaments company Armstrong Whitworth.
3. Up and away: The first aeroplane joystick, designed in 1909 by a local motor engineer.
4. Wall of ships: A sea of models of Tyne-going vessels.
5. Workers’ playtime: Stained-glass window from the old Blast Furnace Inn.
For more details, see: www.discoverymuseum.org.uk