Kirkaldy Testing Museum facts for kids
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| Established | 1983 |
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| Location | Southwark London, SE1 United Kingdom |
| Public transit access |  Southwark Waterloo East |
Welcome to the Kirkaldy Testing Museum! This amazing place in Southwark, south London, England, is where David Kirkaldy once had his special workshop. It's home to his giant machine, which was used to test how strong different materials were. You can also see many smaller, more modern testing machines here. The museum is usually open on the first Sunday of each month.
The building itself is very old and important. It became a special historic building in 1971 and was given an even higher protection status in 2014.
Contents
Meet David Kirkaldy and His Big Idea
David Kirkaldy was born in Scotland in 1820. He studied at Edinburgh University and later worked at a shipbuilding company. There, he became a top designer and calculator.
In 1861, David decided to do something new. He spent over two years studying how people tested materials. He then designed his very own, super-powerful testing machine! He wanted to know the true strength of materials, not just guess. Another engineer, William Fairbairn, had already started testing how strong materials were and how they behaved under stress.
David paid for his machine himself. He ordered it from a company in Leeds. He watched its creation very closely. In September 1865, the huge machine arrived in Southwark, even before it was completely finished!
The Amazing Universal Testing Machine
This testing machine is truly massive! It's about 14.5 meters (47 feet) long and weighs around 118 tonnes (116 long tons). It works horizontally, pushing or pulling materials to see how much force they can handle. It uses water pressure, not oil, to apply the force.
Here's how it works:
- The machine has a special weighing system with levers.
- A "jockey weight" moves along a scale.
- As water pressure builds, the machine pushes on the material.
- The operator moves the jockey weight to balance the force.
- When the material breaks, the number on the scale tells you how much force it took.
The machine can measure tiny forces or huge ones. It can test loads up to a massive 450 tonnes (1,000,000 pounds)!
Today, the machine is still in working order at the museum. It uses an electric pump now, instead of the old London water system. When they show visitors how it works, they use a smaller force, usually around 20 tonnes.
David Kirkaldy also found ways to look at metals up close. He would cut tiny pieces, polish them, and then use chemicals. This helped him see the hidden structure of the metals.
Famous Tests and Discoveries
Kirkaldy's workshop tested materials for many important projects. These included:
- The Eads Bridge in the USA (built in 1874).
- Hammersmith Bridge in London (1887).
- The old Wembley Stadium (1923).
- The Skylon tower for the Festival of Britain (1951).
His work also helped figure out why things went wrong. He tested materials from famous disasters, like the Tay Bridge Disaster in 1879 and a plane crash in 1954.
The Tay Bridge Mystery
In 1880, Kirkaldy played a key role in solving the mystery of the Tay Bridge collapse. This railway bridge in Scotland fell down in a storm on December 28, 1879. He tested many pieces from the bridge for the official investigation.
He found that the iron parts connecting the bridge's columns broke easily. These parts were made of cast iron and fractured at the bolt holes. Many broken pieces were found after the disaster. The engineer of the bridge, Thomas Bouch, thought these parts were much stronger. Kirkaldy showed they broke at only about 20 tonnes of force, not the 60 tonnes they were supposed to handle. This weakness was a main reason the bridge collapsed.
Kirkaldy tested many samples. He found that some parts were weaker than others because of flaws like air bubbles in the metal. This proved that the quality of the parts was not consistent. The main support beams, made of wrought iron, were very strong. They were found mostly undamaged after the accident. Some were even reused in houses!
The Museum Building's Story
David Kirkaldy first used his machine in a different building. But his business grew, so in 1874, he moved to a new, specially built workshop at 99 Southwark Street. This is where the museum is today!
The new building was designed by Thomas Roger Smith. It has four floors and was built with brown and yellow bricks. You can still see a sign on the front that says "Kircaldy's Testing and Experimenting Works." Above the door, there's a motto: "Facts not Opinions." This means he believed in testing things to find out the truth, not just guessing.
The heavy testing machine was placed on the ground floor. The testing room still looks much like it did back then. The basement has another old machine, acquired in 1906, for testing large chains.
After David Kirkaldy passed away in 1897, his family continued to run the business. His son, then his widow, and later his grandson, kept the testing works going. The business stopped being a commercial company in 1974. The upper floors became offices, but the basement and ground floors reopened as a museum in 1984.
Today, the museum is run by volunteers. It's a great place to learn about science and engineering. They even have a program called "Material Difference" to help students learn in a fun way. The museum's goal is to inspire young people in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) subjects.
