Mechanical Workshop

The Mechanical Workshop showed a workshop environment from the end of the 19th century. On display at the museum until August 2011.

The exhibition shows what a typical mechanical workshop might have looked like about 100 years ago. In these early workshops, the machines – lathes, milling machines, drills and planing machines – were driven by belts and shafts in the ceiling. The power source would most probably have been a water turbine or a steam engine.

The system was called V-belt transmission and was in use at smaller workshops right up until the 1960s. Before electric lighting started to be introduced towards the end of the 19th century, working hours were limited to daylight hours. Work requiring the most precision was done at file benches below the big windows.