It was all a bit Heath Robinson at the Royal Society

This year, the Heath Robinson Museum were privileged to be invited to deliver workshops at the prestigious Royal Society’s Summer Science Exhibition, which took place from 2 – 7 July 2024.

Every summer the Royal Society puts on their flagship week-long event which is a free interactive experience open to children and adults alike. Here they present cutting edge research and innovation from over 300 scientists who lead their respective fields in a diverse array of displays, talks, discussions and interactive activities. This year’s exhibition offered excitement for all ages and interests, visitors got hands-on with personal brain scanners, real ice core samples from Antarctica, chandeliers made from waste, and learned how stem cells are revealing secrets of the embryo amongst much much more.

Alongside exhibits by state of the art scientific institutions, the Heath Robinson Museum was asked to represent The Royal Society’s “Places of Science Award” funded projects, which has supported more than 70 museums over 2 years to engage local communities with science through their heritage and collections.

Whilst Heath Robinson was not a scientist but rather an artist and illustrator, he became most well-known for his illustrations of humorously overcomplicated gadgets cobbled together out of junk to achieve a simple or silly task. In 2022, we were awarded a Places of Science grant by the Royal Society to help fund our celebration of the 150^th anniversary of Heath Robinson’s birth, where we put on a free gadget fun day in the Park, with a Meccano model exhibition, build the tallest tower challenge, whacky races and even had as guest workshop leader the you tube sensation, Joseph Herscher of “Joseph’s machines” amongst many other things. The Royal Society loved our event so much that we were invited to take part in their Summer Exhibition this year.

The Heath Robinson Museum workshop ran continuously from 10am until 6pm both Saturday and Sunday 6^th and 7^th July and saw a record-breaking 5,611 visitors over the two days. An estimated 2000 people actually took part in the Heath Robinson activity, where visitors were invited to see how complicated an energy transfer chain reaction they could make out of junk to complete given simple or silly tasks. The feedback from  Royal Society staff and visitors alike was fabulous, with parents and children thanking us for an enjoyable activity and asking if we could return next year. From the visitor feedback analysed so far, several people said that “your (our) stand was their highlight of the exhibit”.

Our staff and volunteers returned to Pinner exhausted but jubilant, having enjoyed such a positive and fun experience. Many thanks to our learning volunteers, without whom we couldn’t put on such involved events. Do contact us if you are interested in volunteering at the Museum at welcome@heathrobinsonmuseum.org.