The Enérgeia exhibition is a tour of the different energy sources as engines of human activity and industrialization. Exhibition on energy, the essential engine of industrialization that allows us to understand the importance of the use of energy sources over time.

To make the concepts more understandable, the show features important large-format historical objects such as the Fontaine turbine, steam engines, a large switch, models like the Old Saints Vapor, experiments called “yellow dots” from the inclined plane in the operation of the turbines, to experiences with electricity, notably the demonstrations being held in the Faraday Cage. In addition, this exhibition is made up of several audiovisuals.

Areas:

1. Blood Energies: The energy of always. Applications of blood energies.
2. Water And Wind: The energies of nature. Mills, wheels and turbines.
3. Steam And Coal
4. Electricity: Instantaneous energy. Generation, distribution and applications of electricity.
5. Gas And Petroleum: The energy of fossils. To know gas and oil, from their formation, to their uses, making their origin, production and applicability understandable.
6. Power Planet

Highlights

Ramsden static electricity machine
Static electricity machine which comprises a fixed glass disc with a metal axle in the centre, rotated by means of a handle. As the glass passes through two wooden struts or parts supporting the axle, the surface rubs against the two bearings on the struts. The rotating movement serves to electrify the glass disc, which receives a positive electrical charge on both sides. A long transversal brass cylinder is the isolating conductor, on two glass feet. The far ends of the cylinder have two gilded arms, which end in points which almost touch the disc, discharging the electricity without rubbing.

Escuder gas engine
This was one of the first gas engines built in Spain. The engine (1887 – 1895) is essentially based on the steam engine, and uses the so-called Otto cycle. It has a horizontal cylinder. It uses sliding valves to aspirate the mixture of fuel and air, which enters the cylinder, where it is ignited by electric sparks generated by spark plugs, using a coil and battery. A connecting rod attached to the piston is linked to the rim of a flywheel, which produces a uniform output of energy, with an axle running through it, fitted with two gear wheels to transmit the force of the machinery powered by the engine.

Waterwheel
Vertical compartment waterwheel with wooden compartments rotating around an axle with 10 spokes. It was operated by the force provided by the drop along the mill run. The drop matched the height of the wheel.

The function of the wheel was to beat the cellulose pulp, removing the impurities and refining it.

It comes from the former paper mill Cal Ton del Pere, in Sant Pere de Riudebitlles (Alt Penedès). This old mill was first a flour mill, before switching to paper production in 1785. It remained in operation until 1967.

High speed steam engine Willams & Robinson
Vertical structure high speed steam engine with 3 circular wooden upper turrets. Rest the whole set on a large rectangular iron base. On each side and at the base, there are different control and regulation knobs.

This type of machine aimed at increasing performance and diversifying applications. It was outdated by the explosion engines.

Belliss & Morcom steam engine. LTD
This steam engine was powering a textile factory in Sant Celoni (Vallès Oriental). When the company was restructured, he donated to the National Museum of Science and Technology of Catalonia.

Alternator Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques Belfort
Alternator. It consists of two rotors arranged parallel to each other, thicker than the other, supported by hollow iron quadrangular platforms in the middle. The rotors are fixed on the side by thick iron screws. At the top they have iron rings to lift the alternator where appropriate.

Alternator used to open the floodgates of the Flix hydroelectric power station. Of French construction, it was used on the Panama Canal before providing its services at the Flix plant.

Drawer wheel
Large circular wooden wheel with width formed by drawers of the same material distributed proportionally along the entire circumference. The central axis is metallic and from this, on each side of the wheel, different wooden crossbars. On one side of the wheel is a smaller one, designed to transmit the energy produced.

Klimov VK-1 turbojet engine
The Klimov VK-1 engine was developed by the Soviet Union after the end of World War II, with the aim of equipping its fighter jet wing-wing bombers with the MIG-15 Fagot. The engine design, by Vladimir Yakovlevich Klimov, is an evolution of the RD-45 engine based on the British-made Rolls Royce Nene engine with centrifugal compressor, and began serial production in 1948.

This engine, with some variations, was also mounted on the MIG-17 bomber fighter, and the Soviet-made Il-28 and Tu-14 bombers, all of which became one of the most manufactured jet engines in history. aviation.

EB Submarine Diesel Engine
4-cylinder diesel engine with 3 pistons and side steering wheel. It has transformations to adapt it to electricity, such as a water cooling system. It was originally painted light green.

In the early 50’s, in the midst of electrical restrictions, the director of the Biblioteca de Catalunya, Felipe Mateu i Llopis, requested a generator from the Barcelona Provincial Council. This engine provided him with this engine, which had been drained in Barcelona at the end of World War II. The engine was installed in the “tunnel”, in the old Convalescence House.

Pelton turbine wheel
The Pelton wheel is made up of spoons specially designed to receive water and make the most of it. This type of turbine is intended for use in low flow hydraulic jumps. The water is driven through long pipes with large slopes or jumps, to transform the maximum potential energy into kinetic energy. At the end of the tube are the injectors, which hit the bucket-shaped blades typical of this type of turbine.

This particular wheel was designed and built for the use of the Nere River (Vall d’Aran), for a hydroelectric power plant that was not yet built.

Casanova Pulse Reactor Replica
The pulsoreactor is the simplest type of jet engine. It is a tube with an inlet and outlet duct, a fuel diffuser and a combustion chamber. With the movement of the vehicle, the current of air passing through the device is mixed with the fuel and burns with the help of spark plugs produced by spark plugs. This results in the expansion of the exhaust gases through the exhaust nozzle, producing a boost that allows the vehicle to move forward.

The first pulsoreactor motor in history was invented in 1917 by the Catalan Ramon Casanova i Danes. The piece retained in mNACTEC is the only replica of its engine.

National Museum of Science and Technology of Catalonia
The National Museum of Science and Technology of Catalonia (mNACTEC) is one of the three recognized by the Parliament of Catalonia national museums. Its mission is to permanently show the implementation and development of scientific and technical progress in Catalonia, industrial application and especially their involvement and social impact.

The National Museum of Science and Technology of Catalonia is the product of the rich and lengthy heritage of scientific and technical innovation and knowledge, and the industrial application of this, as developed in this country over the centuries. Although the plans for a museum dedicated to the dissemination of scientific and technical knowledge, vocational development in these two fields and the preservation of the most substantial material records of the technical creativity of humanity, and the most significant objects invented or manufactured in this country, originally dates back to the early 20th century, it was not until 1984 that they were to take shape in the form of this cultural and social landmark museum.

The mNACTEC and its Territorial Structure, closely linked to Catalan industrial society, as an element of national identity and focus, decentralised, innovative, regionally implemented and with the utmost social return and impact, has over the course of 35 years successfully positioned itself as an international flagship and model presenting the uniqueness, specificity and social impact of scientific, technical and industrial culture in Catalonia. Despite the economic difficulties the country finds itself in, the mNACTEC maintains, consolidates and underpins the growth and expansion of this important museum, heritage, cultural and social project with new aims, greater expectations and an even greater dose of renewed enthusiast and interest.

We are in a moment of social change which is forcing us to focus all our efforts in the consolidation of the existing spaces, updating the Museum’s programming, planning new initiatives, ensuring access to a suitable structure, updating and expanding the museumological discourse of the Territorial System when applicable, and encouraging new projects providing incentives which further allow us to become a national museum of note in the new museumology of the 21st century. It should be a modern dynamic museum which must necessarily have major direct involvement in our contemporary society without forgetting its important role in the recovery, conservation and valorization of the scientific, technical and industrial heritage and culture of Catalonia without forgetting the power and drive of our people who, by making this heritage their own, transform the mNACTEC into a living project serving and promoting “the soul” of this society, reminds us where we came from, what we are and where we want to go.