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Collections

Our collection documents 250 years of discoveries and innovations that began in Manchester and went on to influence the world. In this section of the blog, we want to shine a light upon the achievements and experiences of the people behind those stories.

By Bethany Turner-Pemberton

Extreme textiles

This year, Manchester Science Festival is exploring the theme of extremes. Amongst the range of events and experiences on offer, visitors will be able to see one of the museum’s newest acquisitions, a jacket enhanced with Manchester wonder material graphene, the world’s strongest, thinnest, lightest and most conductive material.

We love a cup of tea here at the Science and Industry Museum, so we’re really excited at the latest acquisition to our collection: a pyramid teabag making machine from the PG Tips factory in Trafford Park, complete with one of the last boxes of PG Tips pyramid teabags ever made.

Associate Curator Tom Lean shares some festive reflections on a milestone year for an iconic object.

What connects a lab coat, a loom and the ancestor of modern computers to sci-fi classic, The Matrix? We dive down the rabbit hole to highlight the world-changing collections at the Science and Industry Museum that were part of the creative inspiration for our new neighbour Factory International’s opening show, Free Your Mind.

To mark the 75th anniversary of the Small-Scale Experimental Machine, better known as ‘Baby’, we spoke to volunteers Eric Wright and Kira Lee about their time working with an iconic piece of computing history.

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