Museum of Science and Industry

"What’s striking about MOSI, what distinguishes it from every other museum in the Group is this: not only does it have an amazing collection, but a historic site that is our most precious legacy – the oldest surviving passenger railway station in the world and characteristic warehousing from 1830, the era that made Manchester the 'warehouse of the western world'.

"The architecture itself tells the story of the world’s first truly modern city and the great innovators who revolutionised manufacture, industry and trade.

"The Power Hall came back into full glory last year, and 21 pioneering engines came humming into action. To stand in their midst and smell the engine oil gives a buzz I bet the great Boulton and Watt would have envied. Those engines are powered up almost every day while even more machines in the Textiles Gallery are set running twice a day. The thrill of all that tangible power is a credit to the staff who maintain and interpret them. There are hands-on exhibits, you can watch yarn being spun – there’s an epic story to be told about Manchester and MOSI is geared up to tell it best.

"Manchester’s scientific genius reaches from Dalton and Rutherford to the creators of electron microscopes at Trafford Park and the first stored-program computer at the University of Manchester. Science underpins the region’s whole strategic plan, which has undoubtedly been bolstered by the 'Brian Cox effect', not to mention the Geim/Novoselov Nobel Prize effect. Great minds are still shaping Manchester’s future, along with very many significant business interests who have provided MOSI with generous funding in the past. We hope more will come on board to help us keep our 839,000 visitors a year coming back for more. This requires contemporary science exhibitions that connect people to where they live.

"MOSI’s greatest programming strength is also our best kept secret: curation of the Manchester Science Festival, which brings together 50 partner organisations and local universities. The team is so entrepreneurial they doubled previous visitor numbers to 115,000 last October, not just increasing family visits substantially but taking events into communities across Greater Manchester. There’s a can do energy here I hope we can build on."

Recent acquisitions at the Museum of Science and Industry

• Royale, Royale 250R and the Royale Digital projectors for dissolving slide shows, with associated slides, from CBAV, Leyland, 1981-2005
• Personal papers relating to Daresbury Synchrotron Radiation Source Laboratory, Ian Munro (the first Director of the Daresbury SRS Laboratory), 1977-2000
• Personal papers relating to the Turbine Generating Department at AEI, Trafford Park. Professor A W Crook, 1960s-70s
• Substation transformer, made by Ferranti Ltd in Oldham and installed in the Manchester Corporation Electricity Department substation at Debdale Park in 1939, where it remained in operation until 2011
• Ornamental turning lathe, Richard Roberts, Manchester, c.1820. Acquisition supported using public funding by Arts Council England
• Silver salver presented to Percy Newton in recognition of 50 years' service at the Beyer, Peacock locomotive works, Gorton, 1959
• Business records relating to textile trade with Armenia, Egypt, India, Russia, China, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Uruguay and Australia. Olivo & Bakirgian, Manchester, 1891-1985
• Brass plaque commemorating the centenary of the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. John Whitehead, Manchester, 1930
• Set of quarter-scale nuclear reactor aluminium fuel bricks made specially for laboratory tests, from AMEC, Birchwood (near Warrington), 2012
• Company records of John Noble Ltd, textile merchants, 1893-1910, documenting an early mail-order venture that began in 1895