The University of Glasgow is rounding off a year of celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Lord Kelvin by unveiling a virtual reality exhibition dedicated to the pioneering scientist.
The exhibition is the latest development in the £5.6m Museums in the Metaverse project, led by researchers from the University, which is digitising assets from cultural collections around the world to make them available in virtual reality form online.
Born in Belfast on June 26 1824 as William Thomson, Lord Kelvin became one of the 19th century’s most accomplished scientists. He made breakthrough contributions to physics, engineering and mathematics during his career at the University of Glasgow, where he first enrolled as a student aged just 10.
Announced to coincide with the anniversary of Kelvin’s death on 17 December 1907, the virtual exhibition showcases items from the unique collection of The Hunterian, the oldest public museum in Scotland.
The Hunterian curates a large collection of objects related to Lord Kelvin, some of which are on display in the real-world museum on the University’s campus.
The virtual exhibition features a series of carefully-digitised scientific instruments and artifacts related to Kelvin’s work at the University of Glasgow, many of which are not normally on public display.
The objects are displayed in a digital recreation of a typical 19th-century University of Glasgow laboratory, built from historic photos of Kelvin’s labs and featuring historically accurate architectural elements from the Gilbert Scott building. The space is illuminated by the glow of early electric lighting, highlighting Kelvin’s role as a pioneer of electricity – his house on the University campus was one of the first in the world to be lit entirely by electric bulbs.
Professor Neil McDonnell, of the University of Glasgow’s School of Humanities, is principal investigator of the Museums in the Metaverse project. The Kelvin exhibit was curated by Museums in the Metaverse team members Dr Pauline Mackay, Dr Lynn Verschuren and Dr Alan Matthews in partnership with Lateral North, who created the digital environment.
(l-r) Professor Neil McDonnell, Conor Fraser, Dr Pauline Mackay, Dr Lynn Verschuren and Dr Alan Matthews pose with VR headsets beside a binnacle compass invented by Lord Kelvin on display in The Hunterian
Dr Mackay said: “We’re delighted to be part of the University’s bicentenary celebrations of the birth of Lord Kelvin, and to work with our colleagues at The Hunterian to put some of their lesser-seen items on virtual display.
“Since the project began last year, we’ve digitised hundreds of objects from collections around the world and will make them available for people to build their own virtual museum collections online from spring next year. This virtual exhibition is the first themed museum we’ve built from the ground up to showcase a single collection, and we’re very proud of the work we’ve put in to create a 19th-century lab environment which showcases Kelvin’s life, work and legacy.
“It really does feel like visitors are transported back in time to see for themselves objects once handled by Lord Kelvin or developed through his research, and it’s a tremendous showcase for the power of virtual reality.”
The Museums in the Metaverse content creation team – Conor Fraser, Ben Morris and Christopher Viney – used state-of-the-art photogrammetry techniques to create 3D models that visitors can pick up and examine in virtual space. The team’s high-resolution scans have captured the items with remarkable detail, allowing visitors to see oxidation patterns and material textures in each piece and magnify details for closer inspection.
Highlights of the virtual collection include sections of submarine telegraph cable from the era of the first transatlantic communications, showcasing Kelvin’s key role in the development and laying of the world’s first transatlantic telegraph cable. Visitors can also see two versions of the mirror galvanometer, which was developed by Kelvin to help carry telegraph signals across long-distance cables.
Kelvin’s contributions to electricity are represented with three different types of voltmeters showing the evolution of electrical measurement. The exhibition also features models demonstrating Kelvin’s groundbreaking pitch-based experiments, which showed how substances could exhibit properties of both solids and liquids.
The Geoprecessional Top, a modified globe Kelvin used in class demonstrations to show how the Earth’s axis creates a continuous ‘wobble’ that completes one circuit every 26,000 years, highlights Kelvin’s achievements as an educator. Visitors can also examine Kelvin’s binnacle compass bowl and card, demonstrating his innovations in maritime navigation.
Dr Nicky Reeves, Curator of Scientific and Medical History Collections at The Hunterian, said: “Enabling opportunities for meaningful, creative and substantive access to and engagement with our diverse collections is at the core of our practice. We are delighted to have had a role in the Museums in the Metaverse project as a welcome addition to our existing access offer.”
The unveiling of the exhibition brings to a close the University of Glasgow’s Lord Kelvin 200 celebrations, marking the bicentenary of the birth of William Thomson. The University has hosted a series of events celebrating Kelvin’s legacy, including public lectures, an international symposium, and exhibitions.
Visitors to the University’s Mazumdar-Shaw Advanced Research Centre (ARC) will have the chance to see the exhibition for themselves this week before it is made available as part of the full Museums in the Metaverse platform next year.
Professor Neil McDonnell and Dr Pauline Mackay visit a bust of Lord Kelvin in The Hunterian
The Museums in the Metaverse platform is supported by £5.6m in funding from the UK Government’s Innovation Accelerator programme, led by Innovate UK on behalf of UK Research and Innovation. It is being developed by the University of Glasgow in partnership with immersive learning platform Edify, Historic Environment Scotland and National Museums Scotland.
Councillor Susan Aitken, Chair of the Glasgow City Region Cabinet, said: “Projects like Museums in the Metaverse are harnessing Lord Kelvin’s inimitable spirit of innovation, so it’s fitting that state-of-the-art technology pioneered here in Glasgow and being exported internationally is celebrating the life of one of Scotland’s greatest minds.
“The work of Lord Kelvin contributed to Glasgow’s reputation as a global centre of science and ingenuity. Supported via programmes like the Innovation Accelerator, our universities continue to be cradles of cutting-edge science and technology, with invention and innovation once again our calling card to the world.”
When completed in April 2025, Museums in the Metaverse will provide two interconnected experiences: one for visitors to access collections and dynamic experiences, and another for virtual curators to build enriching and entertaining storytelling using objects and environments that have never been placed together in the real world.
For more information on opportunities to see the Kelvin exhibition in the ARC this week, or to sign up for user testing next year, visit the Museums in the Metaverse web pages.