The Institution of Mechanical Engineers launches extensive online archive of historic engineering
http://archives.imeche.org/
The Institution’s free online Virtual Archive makes it possible for anyone, anywhere in the world to gain access to key engineering documents and artefacts. Curated from the Institution’s archives, the Virtual Archive showcases models, items, drawings, notebooks, photographs and documents about the history of engineering and the Institution.
3D interactive versions of artefacts are available, many of which have never been seen in public before. Themes cover automobiles, engines, industry, Institutional history and railways. You are already able to search and view hundreds of images and more will be added throughout the year.
Notable items include a notebook on Peugeot racing cars - with notes on Sunbeam and Rolls-Royce vehicles - by George Henry Roesch, who was later the chief engineer at Talbot. You can also access Frederick Lanchester’s treasure trove of drawings, as well as his own notebook, which shows the construction of early Lanchester Motor Company cars. Photographs of D Napier & Son’s iconic Lion engine and Boulton and Watt engine drawings are also available to search and view. You can access Charles Algernon Parsons’ steam turbine notebook, the circular letter which effectively founded the Institution and the story of the world’s first railway to rely exclusively on steam power - the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Photographs that reveal how the Bhore Ghat incline was constructed and show where workers lived. Artefacts include a model of the Golden Arrow land speed record winning car owned by its driver, Sir Henry Segrave, as well as unique carved railway tokens used by George Stephenson to travel the railway lines he helped to build.
Every object and item in the Virtual Archive has a story to tell. By bringing them together in this new way, users are able to create a history of mechanical engineering relevant to their own perspectives and interests.
Did you know the IMechE has thousands more historical documents in its archive? Items can be consulted (by appointment) at 1 Birdcage Walk, email [log in to unmask] Details can be found in our catalogue (http://archivecat.imeche.org/CalmView/).
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