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The Institution of Engineering & Technology (The IET) |
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The IEE has gathered a wealth of archival material and manuscripts relating to many aspects of the history of electrical engineering, as well as to the development of the Institution. The material falls into five groups:
The Institution Archives reflect its many activities since its foundation in 1871. The main classes of records comprise Council Minutes; Minutes of all boards and committees; Minutes of Annual General Meetings and Special General Meetings; correspondence files; membership application forms between 1871 and 1901; and plans and photographs of the Institution buildings taken at various times.
The Archives also hold records of the two bodies with whom the Institution has amalgamated - the Institution of Electronic and Radio Engineers (IERE, formerly the British Institution of Radio Engineers) and the Institution of Manufacturing Engineers (IMfgE, formerly the Institution of Production Engineers).
The Institution has acquired the papers and manuscripts of many distinguished people concerned with electrical science and technology. These collections include medieval manuscripts and the papers of several eighteenth and nineteenth century men of science.
The Special Collections begin with the working papers of Sir Francis Ronalds (1788-1873), presented to the Institution after his death. Several of the collections relate to the development of the telegraph in the nineteenth century, including seven volumes of the papers of Sir William Fothergill Cooke. There are also nine other bound volumes of early telegraph material, and six volumes of the papers of Jacob Brett.
Perhaps the most important collection is the Blaikley Collection of Michael Faraday manuscripts, presented to the Institution by David James Blaikley in 1915. The collection includes manuscript notebooks, including a volume recording Faraday's trip to Europe with Sir Humphrey Davy in 1813-14, and another entitled "Chemical notes, hints, suggestions and objects of pursuit", in which Faraday began speculating about the relation of magnetism and electricity. The collection also includes some 600 letters from a vast range of 19th century scientists and men of affairs.
Other important collections include working papers of Oliver Heaviside (1850-1925), innovator in electrical theory who discovered the ionised layer in the atmosphere which bears his name.
The NAEST collections range from 19th century papers to records of modern firms and papers of contemporary electrical engineers and scientists. Other aspects of electrical engineering, such as power generation, are well represented - one of the largest NAEST collections consists of records from Battersea Lombard Road, Stepney and Croydon A power stations.
The NAEST collections contain a wide range of electrical engineering and telecommunication firms' records. For example, there are records from Eidsforth and Mudford, a small consulting engineering concern (1883-1929), Walters Electrical Manufacturing Co. Ltd., makers of telegraph and signalling equipment (1880-1960), and drawings of electric light installations from the 1920s and 1930s and theatre switchboards from the 1890s from Lucas and Pyke Ltd., consulting engineers.
One of the most significant NAEST collections is the GEC Rugby collection. This contains some 13,000 glass negatives and 28 albums, depicting early GEC sites, British Thomson-Houston works, manufacturing processes and a vast range of electrical products, both as finished and in situ. The subject matter and the completeness of the series make this a unique visual record.
NAEST contains papers from several eminent engineers and scientists, including Henry Boot, who developed the cavity magnetron, Douglas Chick, a Ministry of Supply radar scientist during WWII and Sir Arthur Fleming, a past-President of the Institution who did outstanding work on the education and training of engineers.
NAEST also contains comprehensive administrative records of the Women's Engineering Society and the Electrical Association for Women, as well as the papers of Dame Caroline Haslett, director of the EAW from its beginning in 1924 to 1954.
Two magnificent book collections come under the care of the Archives Department. The first, the library of Sir Francis Ronalds, came to the Institution in 1876, after Ronalds had died in 1873. Ronalds had collected books and pamphlets on all aspects of electrical engineering, and his collection formed the basis of the Library.
Silvanus P. Thompson, a past President of the Institution, was a wide-ranging polymath who collected books, letters, autographs and photographs. Among his collection are two 14th century manuscripts - the Epistola de Magnete of Petrus Peregrinus and De Spera by Sacrobosco.had an interest in all areas of science and engineering, and collected books and pamphlets on a vast range of subjects, including some rare fourteenth century manuscripts. Thompson's library was bought for the Institution thanks to donations from his former students.
The libraries of these two men form a unique resource for the history of science and electrical engineering.
The Archives Image Collection contains over 4000 photographs, prints and drawings. There are portraits of eminent engineers and scientists, IEE members and office-holders such as past-Presidents.
There are also some images of objects and electrical equipment, photographs of both the interior and exterior of the IEE's offices in London, Birmingham and Glasgow and a wide range of images illustrating the varied activities of the Institution.
It should be noted that the collection does not constitute a picture library, but is an integral part of the archives.
Many NAEST or SC MSS collections also contain photographic material. There are several collections which illustrate the laying of submarine cables in the 19th and 20th centuries. Other albums include photographs from the 1881 Paris Electrical Exhibition and the construction of Ferranti's Deptford power station 1888-1892.