This pre-visit exhibition slideshow for Steam revolution provides an overview of the: - Physical layout and exhibition sections - Key objects and interactives students will see in the exhibition - Relevant online teaching and learning resources It thus provides students with greater context for their learning during their visit to the Powerhouse Museum.

1. Pre-visit exhibition walkthrough
The steam revolution

2. This exhibition walkthrough provides an overview of the:
• Physical layout and exhibition sections
• Key objects
• Audiovisuals and interactives
• Relevant online teaching and learning resources
Exhibition
entrance
The steam
revolution

3. Go on a journey to discover the development of steam
technology — from the scientific experiments of the
1600s to the steam turbines that power electricity
generators today.

4. Original engine room
The Steam Revolution gallery was the original engine room of the Ultimo Power
House, which generated power for Sydney’s electric trams. The engine room
was completed in 1899 and remained in use till 1963.

5. The steam revolution exhibition floor plan

6. Section 1:
Introduction
Section 2:
Steps towards
steam
Section 4:
Steam
goes bush
Section 3:
Turn on
the tap
Section 5:
Designed
for power
Section 6:
Steam on
the move
Section 7:
All work …
no play

7. Section 8:
Roll up!
Roll up!
Section 9:
Designed
for speed
Section 10:
The city
electric
Section 11:
The Earl
Spencer’s
cargo
Section 1:
Introduction
Section 7:
All work …
no play

8. See how traditional methods of work changed after the arrival of steam
power about 300 years ago. The video shows a sawmill engine working at a
relentless pace.
Section 1: Introduction

9. Section 2: Steps towards steam
1
This section covers the scientific discoveries about air pressure and the nature
of steam that led to the invention of the Boulton and Watt rotative steam engine
Interactive:
Feel the
weight of air
Scientific
discoveries
about air
pressure and
the nature of
steam
Video:
Boulton and
Watt – how
their engines
work (2 min)
Interactive:
Boulton and
Watt engine
model

10. Interactive: Feel the weight of air
Find out what makes the piston lift the weight.
Step 1: Turn the red handle to pump air out of
the cylinder below the piston. What happens to
the weight?
Step 2: Pull the yellow handle down. Can you
feel the air pushing down on the piston?
Step 3: Press the air valve lever on your right
to let air back in the cylinder. What happens?
Some early scientific discoveries:
1654: Otto von Guericke – What did he
demonstrate?
1690: Denis Papin – What did he
invent and what did he use to move a
piston inside a cylinder?
1698: Thomas Savory – What did he
invent?
1712: Thomas Newcomen – What was
his steam engine able to do?

11. Interactive:
Working model of
our Boulton and
Watt engine
Touch the button to bring the
model to life. This model
reveals the separate condenser
which improved the engine
efficiency at least threefold.
This is a scale model of the
engine upstairs.
Video:
Boulton and
Watt – how
their engines
work (2 min)Interactive: Put
steam to work
[This interactive is
to be replaced]

12. Section 3: Turning on the tap
Follow the development of Sydney’s water supply and look at the huge cylinder
from Botany Pumping Station. Compare it with the cylinder of the engine behind
you and imagine how big the Botany engine was.
These mechanical parts
ensured that steam
entered the cylinder
above and then below
the piston, over and over.
Cylinder with
timber
insulation

13. Stone water filter
Section of
wooden pipe that
formed part of
Busby’s Bore
Bucket Basin and ewer
Until the 1850s, few people in Sydney had taps in their houses. Most had to
pump water by hand from public pumps and wells and then carry it home,
walking up to half a kilometre each way.

14. Interactive:
Pump some water
Get an idea of the effort
involved in using a hand
pump
Audio:
‘Not a drop fit to drink’
Hear what people
thought about Sydney’s
water supply in the
1800s (3 min)

15. Section 4: Steam goes bush
This section is set around a Maudslay steam engine. Brought to Australia in
1837 along with two boilers, it drove a brewery and flour mill at Goulburn.
Maudslay steam engine
Wagon boiler
Boiler tools

16. The story of Henry Maudslay and his team of engineers is told here. They brought
new levels of accuracy and standardisation to manufacturing.

17. Section 5: Designed for power
Compare these high-pressure steam engines developed in the 1800s. They
could fit into confined spaces in factories or boats. Find each engine’s cylinder.
One (compound) engine has two cylinders to make better use of steam.
Table engine
Inverted
vertical
engine
Horizontal
engine
Video:
Simple and
compound
engines
[behind the
plinth]

18. Section 6: All work … no play
This section looks at the large steam engines that drove factory machinery all
around the world before World War II. The relentless pace of the machines
made work monotonous as well as noisy, dangerous and dirty.
Marshall
compound
steam
engine
Printing press
Interactive:
Corliss mill engine model
Weaving loom
Pulleys to transmit
energy from engine
to machinery

19. Horse-drawn fire engine
Portable steam engine
AV:
… making
steam move
(3 min)
AV:
Fire! Fire!
(4 min)
[behind the engine]
Section 7: Steam on the move
This section displays ‘portable engines’, which could be moved from place to
place to do their work. These high-pressure engines were compact and light
enough for horses to pull. Does this make them early hybrid vehicles?

20. Hard work before steam
Hand tools like these were used on farms in Australia and Britain before mechanisation.
Great skill and strength were needed to get results.
Model plough
Shearers with hand shears

21. Steam on the farm
Farm workers saw mechanisation as a mixed blessing. It made some jobs easier, but
people struggled to keep up with the relentless pace of machines. Many people had to
move to cities because there were fewer jobs on farms.

22. The first fire brigades
In the days before governments employed fire-fighters, fire brigades were owned by
insurance companies. These brigades would only put out fire in buildings insured by their
own company.

23. The Fire King
Merryweather, the maker of our horse-drawn steam fire pump, was so successful that he
was nicknamed the Fire King. The engine was made at Greenwich in England.

24. Section 8: Roll up! Roll up!
In this section you’ll find out about fairgrounds and their steam-powered
entertainments.
Tangye engine
that powers two
carousel horses
Interactive:
View a
fairground
Interactive:
Stereoscopic
photographs

25. Roll up! Roll up!
Travelling fairs brought a splash of gaiety and colour to people whose lives were spent in
industrial surroundings.

26. Section 9: Designed for speed
This engine ran at the high speed needed to turn an electricity generator. The
engine-generator set supplied electricity to machinery in the Uncle Toby’s Oats
factory at Lane Cove in Sydney.
Belliss and Morcom
two cylinder engine
Exciter to start
the generator
The switchboard that
controlled electricity
supply to the factory is
displayed to the right
Peebles
generator

27. Section 10: The city electric
This section looks at the spread of electricity and the turbines that generated it.
AV:
Metropolis
(2 min)
Interactive:
Light up
Sydney
Parsons turbines

28. Interactive: Light up SydneyCity lights
See how electricity produced by steam
turbines transformed the way people
worked and lived.
Spin the generator to light the Imperial Arcade
model. How many rooms can you light up?

29. Interactive:
Make power
by impulse
Interactive:
Make power
by reaction
Cream separator made by
turbine pioneer De Laval
Interactives explaining two
basic types of turbine

30. Fantasies and failures
Steam power inspired many inventors in
the 1800s. Here are two experimental
models made by Lawrence Hargrave.
End of the line
Turbines and petrol engines began to
take over in most fields after 1900.
Stirling class locomotive model
Triple expansion (compound) engine modelSteam turbineAircraft model engine

31. Parsons turbines
Parsons turbines worked because they had many small blades to spin a
shaft very fast. We have lifted up part of the turbine so you can see
them. Earlier turbine designers used a single blade, which in some
cases self-destructed at high speed.
Video:
A simple turbine –
how it works
[behind the plinth]

32. Interactive:
The electric rollercoaster -
See how ‘electricity
demand’ changes from
hour to hour and season to
season

33. Section 11: The Earl Spencer’s cargo
This display looks at the arrival of the first steam engine in Sydney in 1813 and
early use of steam in the colony. The main object is a large broken boiler.
Day Street boiler
The site where this boiler was found
was once John Struth’s engineering
works. The boiler might have exploded,
or it could have been taken there to be
broken up and melted down.

34. The Earl Spencer’s cargo
Medallion
Plaque

35. Online resources:-
1. Steam revolution exhibition
2. Steam revolution teachers exhibition notes
3. Beneath the Streets: the Tank stream by Erika Dicker in Object
of the week blog of the Powerhouse Museum
Relevant Museum programs:-
1. Boulton and Watt engine exhibition
2. Locomotive No 1 exhibition
3. Transport exhibition
4. Marvellous Machine Drawing Adventure, a self guided program
for yrs 3-5
5. Zapped! science show for yrs 3-6
Image credit: All images used are from the Powerhouse Museum
-: Powerhouse Museum Learning :-