The steam revolution

Education materials
Teachers notes

Powerhouse publications
Treasures of the Powerhouse

For more than 200 hundred years, steam did almost everything ... pumped water, drove factories, and powered ships across oceans and ploughs through fields. Steam turbines still provide 90% of our electricity.

The steam revolution shows how steam touched the lives of millions.

Twelve working steam engines, 'hands-on' displays, old boilers, videos and much more show how steam engines developed, what they did and how they changed the world.

Click image to launch exhibition panorama - requires Quicktime
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Merry-go-round (Barrel organ & Savage steam engine)
Merry-go-round
(Barrel organ & Savage steam engine).

The Powerhouse Museum commissioned this ‘merry-go-round’ for the Fun at the fair display in The steam revolution exhibition. The barrel organ is powered by a Savage vertical steam engine. It is a Wurlitzer style 18 (also known as style 3535), has 27 pipes and 13 horns and can be heard daily in the exhibition.

Talks aftrenoon
Sunday 27 July, 2pm
Why do we make models?
A thought-provoking virtual tour of the Powerhouse Museum's amazing model collection. Debbie Rudder, Curator of Power Technologies. There are many ways of answering the question posed. The model collection, built up over many decades and including some of the Museum's best loved and most revered objects, provides some answers but raises other important museological questions