Models in museums of science and technology [antikvár]

by Otto Petrik The speed of technical development raises increasingly complex problems for techni- cal museums and in particular for transport museums. The weight and bulk of modern technical equipment and the numerous transport, storage and handling prob- lems due to its weight and bulk are a serious hindrance to the work of building up collections of original objects. With regard to our subject, a transport museum can hardly be expected to house, for example, a specimen of each distinctive type of steam locomotive, and this is also true of motor vehicles, aircraft, ships and other means of transport. Its principal aim will be, therefore, to collect components and major parts of original objects, as well as documentary material, the number of original vehicles being strictly limited. This means that greater interest is taken in technical models. Indeed, the museologist often prefers a technical model to the original itself; a model which shows how complicated apparatus work is better for the purpose of imparting knowledge. This being so, models are much more important in technical collections than in museums concerned with the human sciences, and we shall therefore naturally deal in greater detail with technical models. Since very little investigation has been done in this subject as yet, it will be worth while to define its basic principles, in so far as this is necessary in order to solve practical problems. We shall start by considering the classification of technical models, for a systematic study may help considerably to clarify certain fundamental concepts. We shall then analyse the accepted terminology, before tackling the main problems raised by the models displayed in technical museums. Classification of models All classifications are based on certain characteristics of the objects to be classified, but these characteristics must be selected in the light of a given criterion. A distinc- tion may be drawn between intrinsic and secondary characteristics; the former are usually internal properties of the object and pertain to its function, while the latter are generally external and pertain to its form. The term "natural" is applied to a classification based on internal characteristics (see Appendix). The opposite term ("artificial") is applied to the classification if secondary characteristics are considered—characteristics such as construction method, alphabetical order, dimensions, cost, geographical distribution, etc. It may be noted that, for practical reasons, the second kind of classification is often adopted (for example, in the preparation of glossaries, inventories, etc.), but this is not relevant to the subject of this article. The "natural" classification too may be based on various criteria. The two natural classifications most commonly used in the writings of specialists in our field are based in one case on the nature of the model and in the other case on the mode of representation: Models may be classified, according to their nature, into two main categories (see Diagram i of the Appendix)—conceptual models and material models. The for- mer are also called abstract, theoretical, and often mathematical models; they repre- sent a physical phenomenon (or even a theory) in an abstract way. Examples are the Ptolemaic system, which is a conception of the structure of the universe offering an explanation of the phenomena observed, as a model does, and the planetary representation of the atom which was established by Niels Bohr on the same bases and is known by his name. A tangible model is termed "material", as opposed to a conceptual model. For instance, if Bohr's model is represented by balls fixed onto a wire frame it becomes a