National Museum of Science and Technology (Spain)

The National Museum of Science and Technology (Spanish: Museo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología - MUNCYT) is a Spanish technology museum dedicated to technology promotion and preservation. It owns a collection of more than 17,000 scientific instruments, technological devices, vehicles, machines and industrial tools from the 16th century until nowadays.[1]

National Museum of Science and Technology

Museo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología
La Coruña MUNCYT façade
Established	30 June 1980
Location	La Coruña and Alcobendas, Spain
Type	Technology museum
Collection size	17,000
Website	http://www.muncyt.es/

The museum was established on June 30, 1980[2] and its first location was opened on 1997 in the old Delicias railway station building in Madrid sharing premises with the Railway Museum.[3] The museum current main exhibition hall is in La Coruña, opened on May 4, 2012.,[4] with a second exhibition hall in Alcobendas (Madrid), opened on December 12, 2014.[5]

Among the pieces in display at La Coruña are the prototype of the "Mechanical Encyclopedia", the 1949 mechanical precursor to the electronic book, by Spanish inventor Ángela Ruiz Robles,[6] the Fresnel lens used between 1857 and 1904 at the Tower of Hercules lighthouse,[7] the first computer arriving in Spain, an IBM 650 computer bought by RENFE in 1959[8] and the front section of the "Lope de Vega", an Iberia Boeing 747 in service between 1981 and 2003, airplane that brought the Guernica to Spain on September 1981.[9]

Gallery

• 
  La Coruña hall main entrance
• 
  Alcobendas hall main entrance
• 
  Iberia Boeing 747 "Lope de Vega" front section
• 
  Fresnel lens from the Tower of Hercules
• 
  Train
• 
  The first computer in Spain (1959), side view of the IBM 650 Console Unit

References

1. National Museum of Science and Technology. "Collection". Retrieved May 1, 2020.
2. Boletín Oficial del Estado (3 September 1980). "Royal Decree 1691/1980, of June 30, by which the National Museum of Science and Technology is created". Retrieved May 1, 2020.
3. Joaquín Vila (14 September 1980). "Las Delicias station will be a Museum of Science and Technology". ABC. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
4. "Opened in A Coruña the first National Museum in Galicia". La Voz de Galicia. 4 May 2012. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
5. "The National Museum of Science and Technology opens in Alcobendas with more than 500 treasures". RTVE. 12 December 2014. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
6. National Museum of Science and Technology. "Mechanical Encyclopedia". Retrieved May 1, 2020.
7. "The Lens of the Tower of Hercules is a museum piece already". El Mundo. 24 February 2012. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
8. National Museum of Science and Technology. "IBM 650 computer". Retrieved May 1, 2020.
9. "The National Museum of Science and Technology buys the cockpit of the Jumbo that brought the Guernica". El país. 27 March 2009. Retrieved May 1, 2020.