--- THE GRANDMA'S LOGBOOK ---: THE SCIENCE & NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS IN LONDON

Joseph de Ca'th Lon is waiting for The Stones

I am Joseph de Ca'th Lon. I am 55. I was born in Switzerland, an amazing beautiful country situated in the confluence of western, central, and southern Europe. It is a federal republic composed of 26 cantons, with federal authorities seated in Bern.

Nowadays, I live in Terrassa, Barcelona. I speak seven languages Romansh, Italian, French and German that I learnt in my native country thanks to my work as a banker in the Swiss National Bank; Catalan and Spanish that I learnt thanks to live in Terrassa after my retirement and English because of my work.

I love Archaeology and Astronomy. They are my life and my great passion. I also like diving, trekking and looking at sky.

I have got few but excellent friends. I am a shy person who prefers staying at home reading. I met The Grandma in Saint-Tropez (France) where we enjoyed our money and our prestigious social position every summer. Some years later, she arrived to Switzerland to open a bank account in my bank office. She was looking for someone to trust on. She did not want to invest her money to earn more, she only wanted to have her money safe and secure.

We are good friends. At the beginning, we had different points of view but we have changed. We are that that we live.

More information: Joseph de Ca'th Lon, Swiss Personality

Today, The Grandma has asked me to travel to London to visit the Science Museum in the afternoon and the Natural History Museum at night with her new family, The Stones. I have accepted. She has told me she was going to delay a little because she wanted to do business alone in the City. It is a post Brexit age and we are under a pandemic situation. The stock exchanges are going down and this is a good moment to invest. Remember! There are always people who take beneficts from disasters. It is sad but it is true.

I am here, waiting for the arrival of The Stones firstly, and The Grandma later. The Grandma has explained me that this morning, they have been studying some English before preparing their visit to the Museum. They have been creating a transport guide to arrive to South Kensington using prepositions of time and they have checked the tube map while The Grandma has been reading Occitan poetry while she was waiting for being attended in the Bank of England.

Welcome to these wonderful museums. I hope you like them.

More information: Prepositions of Place

More information: The Tube

The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and today is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually.

Like other publicly funded national museums in the United Kingdom, the Science Museum does not charge visitors for admission, although visitors are asked for a donation if they are able. Temporary exhibitions may incur an admission fee. It is part of the Science Museum Group, having merged with the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester in 2012.

The museum was founded in 1857 under Bennet Woodcroft from the collection of the Royal Society of Arts and surplus items from the Great Exhibition as part of the South Kensington Museum, together with what is now the Victoria and Albert Museum. It included a collection of machinery which became the Museum of Patents in 1858, and the Patent Office Museum in 1863. This collection contained many of the most famous exhibits of what is now the Science Museum.

In 1883, the contents of the Patent Office Museum were transferred to the South Kensington Museum. In 1885, the Science Collections were renamed the Science Museum and in 1893 a separate director was appointed. The Art Collections were renamed the Art Museum, which eventually became the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Carlos Stone, our parachuter, with the Apollo 10

When Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone for the new building for the Art Museum, she stipulated that the museum be renamed after herself and her late husband. This was initially applied to the whole museum, but when that new building finally opened ten years later, the title was confined to the Art Collections and the Science Collections had to be divorced from it.

On 26 June 1909 the Science Museum, as an independent entity, came into existence.

The Science Museum's present quarters, designed by Sir Richard Allison, were opened to the public in stages over the period 1919–28. This building was known as the East Block, construction of which began in 1913 and temporarily halted by World War I. As the name suggests it was intended to be the first building of a much larger project, which was never realized.

However, the Museum buildings were expanded over the following years; a pioneering Children's Gallery with interactive exhibits opened in 1931, the Centre Block was completed in 1961-3, the infill of the East Block and the construction of the Lower & Upper Wellcome Galleries in 1980, and the construction of the Wellcome Wing in 2000 result in the Museum now extending to Queen's Gate.

More information: Science Museum

The Science Museum now holds a collection of over 300,000 items, including such famous items as Stephenson's Rocket, Puffing Billy (the oldest surviving steam locomotive), the first jet engine, the Apollo 10 command module, a reconstruction of Francis Crick and James Watson's model of DNA, some of the earliest remaining steam engines, a working example of Charles Babbage's Difference engine, the first prototype of the 10,000-year Clock of the Long Now, and documentation of the first typewriter. It also contains hundreds of interactive exhibits.

At the front of the museum to the east is Exhibition Road. Immediately to the south is Museum Lane and the Natural History Museum. To the rear is Queen's Gate and to the north is Imperial College.

During the visit to The Science Museum, Àngels Stone has been a little distracted. She has met an interesting man, Ivan, from Japan, and it seems that it could be the beginning of a great friendship.

More information: Visit London

For me too, the periodic table was a passion...

As a boy, I stood in front of the display for hours,

thinking how wonderful it was that each of those metal foils

and jars of gas had its own distinct personality.

[Referring to the periodic table display in the Science Museum,

London, with element samples in bottles]

Freeman Dyson

The Natural History Museum in London is a natural history museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history.

It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Natural History Museum's main frontage, however, is on Cromwell Road.

The Museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 80 million items within five main collections: botany, entomology, mineralogy, paleontology and zoology.

With the Diplodocus, National History Museum

The Museum is a centre of research specialising in taxonomy, identification and conservation. Given the age of the institution, many of the collections have great historical as well as scientific value, such as specimens collected by Charles Darwin.

The Museum is particularly famous for its exhibition of dinosaur skeletons and ornate architecture -sometimes dubbed a cathedral of nature -both exemplified by the large Diplodocus cast that dominated the vaulted central hall before it was replaced in 2017 with the skeleton of a blue whale hanging from the ceiling.

The Natural History Museum Library contains extensive books, journals, manuscripts, and artwork collections linked to the work and research of the scientific departments; access to the library is by appointment only.

The Museum is recognised as the pre-eminent centre of natural history and research of related fields in the world.

More information: Natural History Museum

Although commonly referred to as the Natural History Museum, it was officially known as British Museum (Natural History) until 1992, despite legal separation from the British Museum itself in 1963. Originating from collections within the British Museum, the landmark Alfred Waterhouse building was built and opened by 1881 and later incorporated the Geological Museum. The Darwin Centre is a more recent addition, partly designed as a modern facility for storing the valuable collections.

Like other publicly funded national museums in the United Kingdom, the Natural History Museum does not charge an admission fee. The museum is an exempt charity and a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, is a patron of the museum. There are approximately 850 staff at the museum. The two largest strategic groups are the Public Engagement Group and Science Group.

More information: Charles Darwin, the Genius of the Evolution

More information: The Galapagos Islands, Charles Darwin's Paradise

More information: The Jones Visit the Charles Darwin's Foundation

More information: Lonesome George, the last Chelonoidis Abingdonii