The Chiba Museum of Science and Technology

Since the early 1980s, Japanese regional governments have built more than thirty new science and technology museums. The emphasis has been on science education, in the manner of the Exploratorium in San Francisco, and several have been quite successful in pursuing that goal. Unique among these museums is the Chiba Museum of Science and Industry, which opened in 1994, and which in addition to its science center activities devotes substantial floor space to historical exhibits. In this review I shall describe these exhibits briefly, with attention to some of the special problems that Japanese museums face. I shall single out those exhibits that I feel are particularly effective, and offer comments where I think there could be improvement. ¹

Chiba prefecture is best known to foreigners as the home of Narita Airport. In spite of its proximity to Tokyo, it has traditionally had a rural economy. But in the 1950s the regional government began to reclaim land along the shoreline for industrial use and to encourage the establishment of modern industries. In the 1970s development was rapid, and today the prefecture ranks sixth nationally (out of fifty) in per capita income.

These circumstances present a special challenge to the museum. It would like to provide a sense of the history of technology from the late nineteenth century to the twentieth, yet the history at hand is barely half a century old. To accomplish this it has relied on reproductions of early generators and a Siemens electric locomotive (built with the kind assistance of the Science Museum in London, the Deutsches Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution) and on photographs.

In its treatment of Chiba industries the museum concentrates on three areas: electric power, petroleum, and steel, all modern industries that imply scientific knowledge and substantial capital. The exhibit area devoted to the electric power industry contains a large 1950s turbine rotor from the Chiba thermal power station No. 3 generator and a low-pressure turbine for a 175 kW generator, which is displayed at the entrance on the first floor because of its size (fig. 1). In addition, there is an exhibit of various windmills and a model of an 1897 Siemens electric car. As an introduction to the history of electricity, exhibit text describes the principles and historic significance of static electricity generated by friction and lightning, the voltaic cell, the Pixii generator, the first power station in New York, and the presence of two different power supply frequencies (50 Hz and 60 Hz) in Japan.

Figure 1.

Low-pressure turbine from the Chiba Thermal Power Station. (Photo courtesy of the Chiba Museum of Science and Industry.)

For the petroleum industry, exhibits cover the discovery of petroleum, mass production and mass utilization of petroleum, and the first distillation tower in Chiba prefecture, as well as the ancient utilization of petroleum, Drake cable drilling, Aranbic distillation, continuous distillation, and modern oil refineries and petrochemical plants. These last are exhibited using small models. Iron and steel industry exhibits illustrate processes from the earliest times up to the introduction of the Bessemer converter in the nineteenth century. In addition, there is a 1/10 scale model of the No. 1 blast furnace at the Kawasaki Steel Corporation steel works. This was the first blast furnace installed in Chiba prefecture and had a capacity of 900 tons per day. Exhibit panels explain relics of ancient iron making, Bessemer converters, the Thomas basic converter, and western-style iron making in old Japan. ²

Another section of the museum is devoted to an “Invitation to Advanced Technology.” Within are four exhibition areas, titled “Techniques Supporting Advanced Technology: Realizing an Extreme Environment,” “Electronics: Progress of Electronic Technology,” “Advanced Materials: The Spread of Advanced Materials,” and “Biotechnology: The Growth of Biotechnology.” These exhibits are largely technical in nature, without significant historical content.

On the first floor of the museum visitors come upon the “Area Open for Creativity,” where principles of scientific devices are demonstrated through hands-on exhibits. The exhibit techniques employed are diverse, with some borrowed from the Exploratorium and others created by the...