In the annals of human history, observing the night
sky has been a cornerstone of intellectual evolution. Early humans, gazing at
the cyclical dance of stars, sun, moon, and planets, discerned patterns that
unveiled the rhythms of seasons and rains. This understanding transformed the early
hunter-gatherers into a settled community, laying the foundation for the early river
civilizations to flourish. Observing celestial movement in the sky has
therefore been central to human intellect, which places us at the top of the
evolutionary pyramid. Yet, in our modern era, light pollution obscures this
celestial spectacle that plays out in the night sky, denying us, especially
children, the awe-inspiring view that once sparked curiosity and discovery.
Idea for mimicking the night sky in a dome
Oskar von Miller, the visionary founder of the
Deutsches Museum – an inspiration to the founders of Indian science museums – had
an idea to mimic the night sky using projection on a dome. His idea and the
engineering brilliance of Walther Bauersfeld, Zeiss, converged to create a revolutionary planetarium
tool, which could mimic the night sky in a dome that would benefit
astronomy/science education. Thus began the journey of planetariums, beginning
with the Zeiss planetarium, which was one of the important features of the Deutsches
Museum, which opened in May 1925 and spread across the globe over the centuries
with many more players in this field.
It was in the year 1912 that
Oskar Von Miller, an electrical engineer and founder of the Deutsches Museum,
conceived an idea: “Could you project an artificial starry night sky onto a
dome, as a way of demonstrating astronomical principles to the public?” The
idea was unique yet challenging, and therefore, when Von Miller approached the
Carl Zeiss company in Jena, Germany, leaders in the field of engineering and
optics, to design and manufacture such a projector for his proposed science
museum, they initially “rebuffed” him. Eventually, Zeiss came on board to venture
into this unique idea and deep-dived into this project, which was led by Walther
Bauersfeld, their lead engineer, and the result was that Zeiss created
something amazing, whose centenary we are now celebrating this year. The
planetariums became so successful that within a few years of their opening on 7
May 1925 at the Deutsches Museum, the planetariums spread worldwide over including
in India, which boasted of its first mini planetarium in Pune in 1954 and
another one at the National Physical Laboratory in 1956-57.
Engineering Brilliance of Walther
Bauersfeld, Zeiss
Although there existed
engineering tabletop models to show movements of the planets and stars, which
goes back centuries, beginning with mechanical orreries that used clockwork
mechanisms to depict our solar system, nothing like what was being envisaged by
Von Miller was ever attempted, a task which Zeiss had accepted. The task of providing an engineering solution to this novel
idea fell on Walther Bauersfeld, a mechanical
engineer by training who was then the Managing Director at Zeiss. He used all
his mechanical engineering skills to plan and design different components of
electromechanical systems, which were worked out with their mechanism in detail.
Bauersfeld designed and redesigned interdependent mechanisms that were required
for creating a projection in a planetarium. The accompanying image with the
article, from the archives of Carl Zeiss, shows his design setup in his
notebook. The sketch shows the two-axis system for showing the daily and annual
motions of the stars. From this humble beginning of his design arose a
projection system, which became fully functional to serve as a projector for
the planetarium.
It was on May 7, 1925, a hundred years ago, that
the world's first projection planetarium opened to the public at the Deutsches
Museum in Munich, Germany, a marvel that meticulously mimicked the night sky
and simulated the celestial cycles of all seasons. This monumental achievement democratized
access to astronomical wonders and ignited a global movement to inspire
scientific curiosity, particularly among students, a legacy that continues to
resonate in India's vibrant science museum and planetarium ecosystem, a century
later.
Deutsches Museum and its impact on Indian Science
Museums and Planetariums
As the world commemorated the centenary of the
Zeiss planetarium, inaugurated on May 7, 1925, at the Deutsches Museum in
Munich, it is an opportune moment to highlight the profound influence that the
Deutsches Museum, founded by had on India's science museum movement.
NCSM - which governs a chain of science
museums and science centres, small and medium-sized planetariums, including a
large number of inflatable mobile planetariums (taramandals) that have reached far
and wide across the country - owes its genesis to the Deutsches Museum. A visit
to the Deutsches
Museum
by Dr Bidhan Chandra Ray, a distinguished physician, freedom fighter, statesman,
and the Chief Minister of West Bengal, inspired him in the founding of the
first museum under NCSM, the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum (BITM),
Kolkata, which was opened on 2 May 1959.
Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy’s
contributions to the nation extended far beyond politics and medicine. He was
instrumental in sowing the seeds of India’s science museum movement. Deeply
inspired by his visit to the Deutsches Museum in Munich, a pioneering science
and technology museum, Germany, Dr. Roy envisioned establishing a similar
institution in India to spark scientific curiosity and learning among the
masses. Collaborating with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, a staunch advocate
of scientific temper, and industrialist G.D. Birla, he championed the
establishment of the BITM in Calcutta in 1959 under the aegis of the Council of
Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), of which Nehru was the President.
BITM became the first government-sponsored
science museum in independent India, which laid the foundation for a nationwide
movement. Its success and popularity led to the creation of more such
institutions, beginning with the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technology Museum
(VITM), Bengaluru in 1965, followed by the Nehru Science Centre in 1978-79 and
85 in two phases. Dr. B.C. Roy’s foresight not only laid the foundation for
BITM but also ignited a movement that democratized science education in India, eventually
resulting in the establishment of the NCSM in 1978. Today, NCSM stands as a
premier institution in India, inspiring millions through its network of science
centres and museums across the country—an enduring legacy of Dr. Roy’s
visionary leadership.
Oskar von Miller and the founding of the Deutsches Museum
Oskar von Miller, a visionary engineer, Deutsches Museum in 1903, which later opened to the public in a grand new building on 07 May 1925. The museum also included the first ever planetarium in the world. This year, along with the centenary of the planetarium, the Deutsches Museum also celebrates its centenary. The Deutsches Museum has grown to become not just a landmark of the city of Munich but globally. It is now considered one of the world's largest museums of science and technology. Every year, around a million-plus visitors flock to the Museum Island, located between 2 branches of the Isar River. Locals and tourists alike, both adults and children, are fascinated by the many thousands of science and technology exhibits and artefacts in the exhibition rooms covering an immense range of science and technology topics.
Genesis for founding the Deutsches Museum, by Oskar von Miller, traces its history to the visit of Miller to the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers (National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts) in Paris and the South Kensington Museum, which is now the Victoria and Albert Museum, in London. He also visited the London Science Museum and the Natural History Museum in London, which were earlier part of the Kensington Museum. Inspired by his visit to these museums, Miller developed an idea for a museum of technology and science in his home city, Munich. He envisaged an institution for all social classes based on a completely new concept that had scarcely been heard of before that point. Miller wanted a museum where you could touch things, and a place where children could have fun. A museum which could both educate and entertain, two buzzwords which have become central to NCSM.
Miller wanted the museum to be housed in an architecturally unique building.
Therefore, he conducted an architectural competition to select the best
building design. Gabriel von Seidl was chosen from amongst many participants to
be the designer for the building. Unfortunately, he died in 1913 and did not
live to see the opening of the museum. Moreover, the First World War and the
inflation that followed caused delays, and during this time, the project as a
whole was at risk of failure. However, thanks to Miller's good contacts in the
construction industry, he managed to continue the construction of Seidl's
design with some minor modifications. Instead of the 2 towers originally
planned by Seidl, only one tower was built: the rear one on the west side,
which was also of a slightly different shape. The museum finally
opened its doors on 7 May 1925.
Miller initially studied
civil engineering, but later became famous as an electrical engineer and
hydropower pioneer. He was the first to succeed in transmitting electricity
over long distances. He built the world's largest hydroelectric power station
at Walchensee and promoted the development of electricity supply for the whole
of Bavaria. Miller, who was well-connected in politics and society, used his
contacts and relationships with scientists all over the world in soliciting
donations and rewarding his supporters. This helped him in developing his dream
museum, the Deutsches Museum, which is now
globally well-known.
Deutsches Museum and Carl Zeiss Collaboration for the Planetarium.
Being an engineer, Miller wanted to introduce a special attraction in his museum, which would distinguish itself from the London Science Museum or the V&A Hall that he had seen in England. He wanted the Deutsches Museum to be one of its kind in the world. And for this, he dreamed of a plan to translate his vision for simulating the night sky in the museum on a dome. In 1912, Oskar von Miller conceived this idea for an apparatus that would depict the apparent motions of the sun, moon, and planets
along with those of the stars. He firmly believed that if an engineer with a
passion for experimentation got involved in this project, he could succeed in
translating his vision into reality. He thought that the best-known technology
company specialised in optics, required for simulating the night sky, in
Germany that could attempt this project, would be Carl Zeiss.
Oskar von Miller in the year 1913, approached Carl Zeiss in Jena, Germany, leaders in
the field of engineering and optics, for the manufacturing of a "rotating star sphere".
He envisaged that Zeiss would design and manufacture such a projector, which
could imitate the night sky in a dome. Zeiss initially cold-shouldered his
ideas and did not find any merit or a market in attempting his idea.
Eventually, they came on board and chose Walther Bauersfeld as their lead
engineer to lead this project. Unfortunately, there was a setback in the
project owing to the onset of World War I.
Walther Bauersfeld, who was also a member of the Carl Zeiss Jena Board of Management, after many trials and
errors, came out with a design for a projection planetarium in March 1919. He
began working with the employees under him to translate his design into a
working mechanical reality of a machine.
Planetarium Projector for Public
Shows.
The planetarium projector, designed and scheduled to be commissioned by 1923, was, in fact, a chain of many smaller
projectors and a host of gears. According to the Zeiss Archive, a large sphere
held all of the projectors for the fixed stars as well as a “planet cage” that
held projectors for the sun, the moon, and the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars,
Jupiter, and Saturn. The fixed-star sphere was positioned so that it projected
outward from the exact centre of the dome. The planetarium also had projectors
for the Milky Way and the names of major constellations. The projectors within
the planet cage were organized in tiers with complex gearing that allowed a
motorized drive to move them around one axis to simulate the annual rotations
of these celestial objects against the backdrop of the stars. The entire
projector could also rotate around a second axis, simulating the Earth’s polar
axis, to show the rising and setting of the sun, moon, and planets over the
horizon.
The final defining moment both for Oskar von Miller and Walther Bauersfeld, Zeiss, arrived. It was on
21 October 1923, the
Zeiss Model I, which was developed painstakingly by Bauersfeld and his team at Zeiss, was first demonstrated to the Museum
committee at the Deutsches Museum, Munich, during their tour of the Museum
construction site. It is to be noted here that although the Deutsches Museum
was founded in 1903, the museum had to wait for another two plus decades for
the befitting museum building to be constructed for the museum to be thrown
open to the public. It was during one of those inspections of the new museum
building by the museum committee that they were shown the Zeiss I model of the
planetarium.
Immediately thereafter, the museum authorities, seeing the
potential that this projector has to be a huge public attraction, decided that
the projector would be run in public operation in the still unfinished dome on
the museum island for six weeks. Accordingly, this projector ran at the
Deutsches Museum. At the end of
December, the device went back to Jena, the factory site of Zeiss.
Incidentally, because of the huge success of the projection during the public
demonstration in Munich, the Zeiss company offered a public demonstration of
this projection on the roof of the Zeiss Factory in Jena from August to October
1924. Thereafter, the projection went for the opening at the Deutch Museum in
their newly constructed dome. It was on the historic occasion, on 7 May 1925,
100 years ago, that the planetarium was officially opened to the public at the
Deutsches Museum in Munich.
Today, as we celebrate the centenary of this historic Museum and
the planetarium, it is pertinent to recall that from that moment, there was no
looking back for the rapid spread of planetariums across the globe, including
in India.
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