To commemorate the International Museum Day, an exhibition titled ‘The Objects in the Archive‘ was inaugurated by Dr. Jayanta Sengupta, Secretary and Curator, Victoria Memorial Hall at Central Research and Training Laboratory (CRTL), the research wing of National Council of Science Museums (NCSM). The exhibition contains various unique scientific artefacts which played a very important role in the history. The artefacts include FOLDING TYPEWRITER, ELECTRIC TYPEWRITERS, SMITH PREMIER TYPEWRITER, SURVEYOR’S TRANSIT THEODOLITE, ROTARY DUPLICATING MACHINE, MUSICAL BOX, PARCEL BALANCE, GRAMOPHONE, LETTER BOX, MECHANICAL CALCULATOR, AUDIO VIEWER / PROJECTOR, 16MM MOVIE PROJECTOR, RADIO: SUPERHET, TELEPHONE MAGNETO, IONOSPHERIC RECORDER, HYPEX HORN LOUDSPEAKER, MICROCOMPUTER.
Speaking on the occasion Shri Shrikant Pathak, Director, CRTL said- ‘As the theme of International Museum Day 2018 is “Hyperconnected museums: New approaches, new publics” we are introducing an indigenously developed device which we have named RAWAN (Remotely Accessible WiFi based Audio Narrator) in this exhibition. This device has two parts-one access point which is installed beside the artefact and another is Receiver which the visitor has to carry. This device enables the visitors to listen to information about the artefact when he comes close to the artefact. It works on Wireless Fidelity (WiFi). The visitor can navigate from one artefact to another and listen to the information about the artefact. This is a low cost, low maintenance device and will be highly suitable for the museums especially small museums which can’t afford high-cost equipment‘.
CRTL being the research wing of NCSM has always been involved in developing and introducing state of the art galleries and display techniques in museums. This is another device which has been developed in its lab and will be highly useful in museums. The artefacts displayed here will make people nostalgic. Today’s generation will also be pleasantly surprised to see the initial forms of Calculators, Typewriter, Computer, Gramophone etc. People will definitely feel connected to their past. This is what makes the museums relevant to the society.
