MEDIEVAL MACHINES

Most people see the medieval period as an era of unsophisticated squalor, but it was in reality a period of great creativity and development. During the period many of the basic technologies which underpinned the renaissance and later the industrial revolution were first developed, while at the same time innovations from Roman times were rediscovered and refined. Some of them are so fundamental today that we hardly realise they were once major technological advances.

By giving people a hands-on opportunity to explore these technologies first-hand the exhibition is intended to give people an insight into the roots of modern technology and allow them to better appreciate the inventiveness of our ancestors. It will also help them gain a better understanding of history by letting people explore medieval innovations and get an idea of how these would have affected peoples lives in the period and after. This means the exhibition need not limit its audience to people visiting science centres and similar institutions, it will make an equally valid contribution to history-based museums, historic buildings and visitor attractions.

The Exhibition

Medieval Machines consists of 15 stand-alone hands-on exhibits relating to medieval innovations. They all allow people to explore the operation of these innovations in an enquiring and creative way. The exhibition comes with graphic panels and an audio system playing appropriate music.

What do I need to hire Medieval Machines?

• A gallery with approximately 100 sq metres of open floorspace (no less than 75 sq metres)
• Four plug sockets
• The exhibition must be supervised at all times when in use, preferably by staff accustomed to working in an interactive environment.

Costs
Hire cost £410 + VAT per week
Delivery and installation - depends on distance
Hirers are expected to do routine maintenance on exhibits.

Science Projects is willing to consider exhibition exchange arrangements with other museums and science centres in lieu of all or part of the hire cost.

What is in Medieval Machines?

The exhibition consists of the following exhibits:

Trip Hammer
Users turn a wheel to rotate a drum with cams mounted on it. These push down the end of a beam then release it, raising and lowering a hammer which pounds on a small anvil. This is based on similar hammers which were used from the 10th century onwards for pounding cloth, crushing ores and forging iron. They allowed a far greater force to be exerted with greater regularity and controllability than a person wielding a sledgehammer.

Water Wheel
Users control the flow of water from a "Millpond" onto an undershot waterwheel by means of a sluicegate. This is based on one of the forms of wheel that spread through Europe in the medieval period, often controlled in similar ways, and used to power trip hammers, flour mills, paper mills and many other activities.

Windmill
Users can move a fan to change wind direction and rotate a post mill to optimise its position in relation to the wind. Mills of this kind began to appear in Europe from the 1100s onwards. Initially stationary, post mills and later tower mills came into use, allowing the mill to be rotated to remain favourably positioned in the wind. They were important for grinding corn and for draining marshy land for agriculture.

Siege Engine
Users can build a castle wall out of wooden blocks, then attack it with a small siege engine firing "rocks" to see if they can demolish it. They can try various strategies for building walls to see if they can construct something which will withstand the attack. This is based on the trebuchet siege engine, which used a massive counterweight to launch rocks at the walls of castles and cities throughout the period.

The Knight
Children can sit on a rocking horse and try and hold a lance with and without using the stirrups while rocking. It is far harder to hold a lance without the stirrups to brace you than it is with them. The introduction of stirrups to Europe in the late Dark Ages meant that the development of the archetypal medieval knight with armour and lance became possible and also starting a medieval arms race as ways to defend oneself against knights produced the longbow and gun.

Stained Glass
This is an illuminated jigsaw allowing users to construct a replica of a window in York Minster. It shows the fifth day of creation when God created the birds and fishes. It highlights the 12th century technique of making stained glass windows which took advantage of the large areas of window the new Gothic architecture allowed.

Arch
This is a tabletop model of an arch which can be built up from wooden blocks. Early in the medieval period, round arches like these were the mainstay of Romanesque architecture, which was eventually superseded by Gothic in the 12th century.

Flying Buttress
This is a flexible arch which users can try and collapse by pushing down on the top. They can then put a flying buttress against it and see how much stronger this makes the arch. These were one of the key elements of Gothic architecture from the 12th century onwards, allowing side thrust of arches to be supported more effectively than previously. This meant churches could have thinner walls and larger windows.

Wooden Bridge
Users have to try and bridge the river using logs which are in themselves too short to cross the gap. To do this successfully the logs must be laid across one another in order to make a cantilever structure which will span the bridge and let the ship sail beneath. Today we think of medieval structures as being primarily stone, but this is only because the far more numerous wooden structures of the time have not survived. Bridges like this were commonly used throughout Europe to cross small rivers and gorges.

The Compass
A compass mounted on a model medieval ship is used to navigate it from London to Norway and to find the directions to Amsterdam and Hamburg. First used in Europe in the 11th century, the compass swiftly evolved from a needle on a straw floating on a bowl of water to the familiar compass rose. This allowed better navigation freeing sailors from the reliance on using stars and coastlines to navigate by and opening the way to the great voyages of discovery.

The Loom
Users can weave wool on this small loom in exactly the same way as medieval weavers. While weaving is thousands of years old, the medieval period saw the introduction of a treadle to move the heddle which freed both hands for passing the shuttle, leaving to faster weaving and the possibility of multiple heddles and more complex patterns.

Printing Press
Users can make simple words with letters provided, place them in racks, ink them and then print them using a simple press. The European invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in the 15th century freed books from church control and created the flow of information and knowledge which led to the Renaissance and the end of the medieval period.

Clock
Users can assemble the cogs and hands of a simple skeleton clock and set it going. Simple clocks like this were developed in the medieval period and developed rapidly, leading to the first spring-driven watches at the end of the era.

Tiling
A table with three squares on for creating medieval tiling patterns using triangular tiles. Patterned tile floors were developed from Roman mosaics and were prominent features of many of the great Gothic cathedrals.

Inventions and Borrowings
This is a table with models or examples of some of the key inventions of the period not shown elsewhere on it. These are spectacles, first made in Venice in the late 1200s, a silvered mirror, also from Venice, but a century later, the hourglass, one of the first reliable timing methods, the wheelbarrow, allowing one person to move the load of two, chain mail, brought to Europe by the Moorish invasions and the cannon, which changed the face of Europe from 1300 onward.

For further information

Use our enquiry form or contact:

Sheila Snowden
Tel 020 8741 2305/6
E-mail sheila@science-projects.org