Switch on to Science is an annual event where museum volunteers operate and demonstrate a wide variety of working vintage equipment and talk about the science and technology principles that make them work.

Everyone will be encouraged to try operating the old equipment and to explore how technology has evolved over the years. The aim is simply to learn while having fun.

This year a great variety of activities are planned, including:

• crystal sets – the earliest form of radio receivers, communicating with amateur radio, learn Morse code,
• play with the oldest telephones and switchboards,
• send messages on a telegraph machine,
• see what kitchens were like 100 years ago,
• learn how clothes were washed before machines,
• buy lollies at an old style lolly shop,
• use a treadle sewing machine, make a scarf on a knitting machine,
• try your hand at spinning wool,
• learn to write with a slate and a  copybook,
• operate a 100 year old silent movie projector,
• play music on a music box and a player piano,
• see germs under a microscope,
• play with windup toys,
• make you own rope,
• churn butter from cream,
• and much, much more.