Over the last year or so, Sam Battle of YouTube channel Look Mum No Computer has been gathering together interesting tech and gadgetry from the past and musical curiosities of his own design for a collection known as This Museum Is (Not) Obsolete, which is now open for business.
As regular readers may already know, the affable tinkerer has real form when it comes to repurposing gadgetry into musical instruments, as we've seen with his Synth Bike (where an old bicycle was converted into a pedal-powered synth), the It'll Kill You 5000 (a synth drum Jacob's Ladder made from microwave parts), and of course the nightmarish Furby Organ (where a popular toy from the 1990s becomes a synthesized choir).
He clearly has great enthusiasm for old tech too, and it's these combined passions that seeded the idea for This Museum Is (Not) Obsolete – which actually launched as The Museum of Everything Else, but had to undergo a quick name change. Battle describes the project – which is located in Ramsgate, Kent – as "a museum of experimental, obsolete scientific and musical technologies."
Within its walls, visitors will find such treasures as Marconi signal generators, oscillators and other equipment; various electronics education kits spanning 50 years; the Jennings Univox all-valve synthesizer; old phone systems and equipment, vacuum tube displays; and a few of Battle's own creations such as the 1,000 Oscillator Megadrone, a synth constructed using a bunch of Game Boy handheld consoles, and of course the Furby Organ. Some displays are static, but others invite interaction from visitors – including Nervous Squirrel's Owl Organ.
The museum looks jam-packed with interesting, bizarre and nerdilicious technology, and Battle plans to add to the collection as time goes on. It was funded with the help of Look Mum No Computer's Patreon supporters, and opened its doors to the public a few days ago, though viewing dates are limited for the time being due to the global pandemic. The project is introduced in the video below.
Source: This Museum Is (Not) Obsolete
