Founded
on 1 March, the "Energetics” section was the core around
which got crystallized the present structure of "Stefan Procopiu”
Science and Technique Museum. Arranged on separate sectors, it aimed
at describing the evolution of the main forms of energy used by man,
of some aspects of the worldwide technology at present, as well as
achievements of Romanian energetics, using attractive display methods:
graphic panels, models, various devices and original exhibits, contributing
thus to the comprehension of some phenomena or functioning details
by any visitor.
In the first sector, reserved to hydraulic energy, there is quickly
described the evolution of the use of flowing waters starting from
the first hydraulic wheels (3rd century B.C.) to the introduction
of electricity. A maquette of a microhydrocentral used for lightening
a village and the maquettes of the Franci, Kaplan and Pelton turbines
contribute to the understanding of the functioning principle of water
turbines.
Eolian
energy, also used since time immemorial to pumping water and milling,
is even nowadays used in geographic areas with strong air draughts.
The transformation of kinetic energy of wind into electric power is
illustrated by the model of an eolian plant. In the museums, there
are graphs pertaining to other forms of energy too: solar, geothermal,
produced by the biomass, the waves and the tides.
The
power of steams has been acknoledged since Antiquity. Greek engineer
and mathematician Heron of Alexandria ( 1st century A.D.) built the
aeolipile, o toy rotated by the power of steam. It remained at the
epoch just a technical curiosity without any other explanations. The
first steam-driven machine is considered the pressure cooker of Denis
Papin (1680), followed by the atmospheric machine of Thomas Newcommen
(1712), both of a very low efficiency. In 1765, James Watt built a
steam engine equipped with a separate condenser, which assured a much
higher efficiency. The practical applications in the industries and
transportation, as well as the functioning principle of the steam
engines with a distribution using flat drawers, cylinders and valves,
are illustrated in the museum by graphs and working maquettes. This
sector is completed with the models of the steam engine made by Giovani
Branca in 1629 and the 300kW turbo-generator group made in Resita.
The
internal burning engines are represented in the museum by valuable
original exhibits such as: Zis engine, 12 cylindered V-like engine
and airplane engines with water cooling and with water.
Developed
and improved during the last decades, the jet-engines and the rocket-
engines have a much longer history. In 1964, a 16th century manuscript,
Varia II-374 or Coligatul de la Sibiu was investigated and it was
discovered that in Romania, the first experiments concerning the jet-technique
were carried out in Sibiu, by Conrad Haas between 1529-1569. Chief
of the military arsenal of the fortress of Sibiu, Conrad Haas - forerunner
of modern rocket - describes in this document the construction of
multi step-rockets, jet throwing devices for fighting loads, triangular
stabilizers of the flight direction, as well we the ways the various
useful loads were teleported using several step-rockets. Some centuries
later, Hermann Oberth, born in Medias (l894-1992), published the book
"The Rocket towards Interplanetary Spaces". In May 1931,
on the shore of the Baltic Sea, there was launched the first liquid
combustion rocket (with alcohol and oxygen) designed by Hermann Oberth.
Although
in 1910 the Romanian scholar Henri Coanda built the first airplane
equipped with a motoreactor, the first jet airplanes were achieved
in 1939 by Heinkel and 1940 by Caproni and Campini.
In
the museum, one can trace the evolution of the jet-vehicles, the functioning
principles of the gas turbines, the airplane and the jet-engine of
Coanda's, the classification and construction of modern jet-engines,
the maquette of "Saturn V" rocket, the maquest of "Columbia"
space shuttle and the original engine - turboreactor R.D.-10 A - which
equipped the Soviet airplane "IAK-17V", designed in 1947.
The
main moments of the history of electricity are illustrated in the
sector Electric Power of the museum. Although electrostatic phenomena
had been known since antiquity, electricity is studied only from the
17th century onwards, when the first electrostatic devices are conceived:
Otto de Güerike (1671), Nolet (1663), Whimshurst. The invention
of the electric battery by Volta (1800) accelerated the theoretical
and practical study. Thus, Öersted discovered the electromagnetism
(1819), Ampère put the theoretic basis of electrodynamics (1820),
Faraday discovered the electromagnetic induction (1831), Joule, the
thermal effect of electricity (1843), and Maxwell the existence of
electromagnetic waves (1873).
Electric
devices, direct applications of electromagnetism, are illustrated
in the museum by original exhibits such as: continuous current electric
devices used in the laboratories of the University of Iasi at the
end of the 19th century, alternative current devices, convertors,
rectifiers and transformers produced by famous companies such as:
Gramme Schuckert, Siemens, Ganz, Thomson, Brown-Bovery etc. It is
in the same sector that are exhibited arc lamps which illuminated
the city of Iasi at the beginning of the 20th century.
The
sector reserved to atomic energy illustrates with graphs and experimental
devices the main phases in the evolution of the research which led
to the identification of the internal structure of the atom and of
the application of nuclear energy. The discovery during the 19th century
of some fundamental phenomena in physics and chemistry (the law of
periodicity of elements, Mendeleev –1869, cathodic rays, Thomson
– 1851, thermoionic emission, Edison – 1853, X rays, Röentgen
– 1895, natural radioactivity, Becquerel – 1896) and the
studies carried out during the first hald of the 20th century (aritificial
transmutation, Rutherford – 1919, artificial radioactivity,
Irene and Frederic Joliot Curie – 1934, the fission of uranium
nucleus, 1939) enabled the practical application of atomic energy.
In 1942 in USA Enrico Fermi designed the first nuclear reactor, and
in 1954 in the Soviet Union, the first nuclear plant was built
A
special attention is given to the Romanian contributions to the fields
approached in this section, pointing out famous personalities such
as: Dragomir Hurmuzescu, Dimitrie Leonida, George Constantinescu,
Traian Vuia, Henri Coanda, Stefan Procopiu and others.
>>
photo
gallery energetics <<
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