Leeds Industrial Museum new exhibition

Yorkshire Post

John McGoldrick, Curator of Industrial History at the museum talks about the new exhibition, Engineery: Building Better Futures. this explores Civil engineering in Leeds and its founder John Smeeton.

Transcript

00:00 My name is John McGoldrick and I'm curator of industrial history at Leeds Industrial Museum.

00:04 Our next exhibition is called 'Engineering - Building Better Futures' and it's inspired by the

00:10 300th birthday of Leeds civil engineer John Smeaton.

00:13 Smeaton coined the phrase 'civil engineering' and made a huge amount of works including

00:19 canals, harbours and the famous Edison lighthouse.

00:23 The exhibition is also about modern engineering and how it touches on all our lives so that can include

00:29 healthcare, mechanical engineering and even art and drawing.

00:34 So the exhibition seeks to break down some of the barriers between engineering and art.

00:39 Someone like John Smeaton relied a lot on his artistic skills and he's depicted his designs and ideas

00:47 and beautiful drawings that were often hand coloured by his daughters as well.

00:52 Some of the highlights of the exhibition include a wonderful model of Crown Point Bridge that was made in 1851

00:58 for display in the great exhibition at Crystal Palace which then subsequently travelled on to the Paris exhibition.

01:05 It's completely made of card and it just shows the craft that was involved in that construction.

01:12 We've also got up to date engineering in the shape of a CPAP machine which was a breathing aid that was

01:18 developed during the pandemic in record time which was to help prevent people having to go into intensive care.

01:25 It's just an example of how engineering is everywhere and it touches all our lives.

01:28 So this particular object is an aluminium casting of an engine cylinder block that was made for Land Rover cars in Leeds.

01:36 Again, just that shows you the vast range of engineering works that were carried on in Leeds.

01:42 The exhibition opens on Friday 27 October. Come on down to Leeds Industrial Museum and have a look.

01:49 We've also got an amazing programme of events and activities happening during half term so check our website for further details.

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