[FARC] Fw: HEM Article

[Jeff Fishman]

If you are wondering if the Historical Electronics Museum is worth a few
hours of your time this Saturday, please read this article that was sent to
me by Charles Weems:

> Baltimore Sun - Sunday
>
> Electronics museum should be on your radar
> Visions
> ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JANUARY 15, 2006
> A museum whose collection took billions of dollars to produce but which
has
> relatively few visitors is tucked within the aerospace-industrial sprawl
> that surrounds Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall
Airport.
> The museum isn't filled with Monets or Picassos but rather an
extraordinary
> array of electronic equipment ranging from massive antennas that squat on
> the grass outside to rows of black boxes that line the interior aisles.
> It's the Historical Electronics Museum, and it's jammed with mostly
military
> radios, radar, sonar, sensors and other electronic devices, many of which
> were invented by scientists and engineers who worked in the nearby
> facilities of defense contractors.
> Last week, the museum unveiled a new exhibit, a mural-sized image of the
> Great Orion Nebula pieced together from 104 images taken by the Hubble
Space
> Telescope. The mural is in the museum because technology once used by the
> National Aeronautics and Space Administration is lodged there.
> The museum houses an old Doppler radar used in an early missile designed
to
> attack flights of Soviet bombers; a variety of satellite sensors used by
the
> National Security Agency; and a camera and other equipment that flew
aboard
> early NASA space capsules.
> An estimated 18,000 visitors toured the museum last year, about a third of
> them high school and college students. The 22,000-square-foot building
> housing the collection is provided by Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems,
> successor to Westinghouse Defense and Electronics Systems Center, which
> started the collection in 1973.
> The museum is run by a non-profit corporation with a board that includes
> representatives from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics
> Laboratory, the Carnegie Institute and the University of Maryland,
Baltimore
> County, in addition to a number of corporations that specialize in defense
> electronics.
> The museum benefits greatly from grants and donations from various
agencies
> and engineering societies, according to Michael A. Simons, its director.
> The museum, which doubled in size in 1999, includes a new events and
meeting
> space and a half-acre of outdoor exhibit space. Educational programming is
> being developed, including Young Engineers and Scientists Seminars and an
> annual Robot Festival.
> - Larry Williams
> The Historical Electronics Museum is at 1745 W. Nursery Road, Linthicum,
and
> is open daily from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Information: 410-765-0230.

73,

Jeff Fishman KB3FIO