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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Science Museum
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(London SW7) The national museum of science and technology, which began as part of the wide-ranging collections of the *Victoria and Albert Museum. It became independent as the Science Museum in 1909, and in 1928 moved into its present building (architect Richard Allison, 1869–1958) on the opposite side of Exhibition Road from the V&A. The exhibition halls contain many of the milestones of British technology – *Puffing Billy, for example, and a factory steam engine of 1788 by *Boulton and Watt – but there is also increasing emphasis on interactive displays, through which visitors can become involved in a scientific or technological process.
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Launch Pad, a pioneering children's gallery of this kind, was introduced in 1986, followed by Flight Lab in 1991; by the early 1990s there were more than 800 'hands-on' exhibits. The museum is the centre of the newly formed National Museum of Science and Industry, a grouping which includes the *National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford and the *National Railway Museum in York.
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