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Hello All

I'd like to thank Alan for adding his remembrances, and for filling in 
the gaps of my own memory of the event. He also gives a much more 
thorough description of the activities that were part of Big Machine 
Summer. Certainly, personal experience does color our general 
impressions, which it as it should be.

"Big Machine Summer" was an excellent first effort to use the outdoor 
spaces around the Hall. At the time, it was just a gravel, weedy parking 
lot. Nothing like the fine outdoor space NYHoS has now.

Being still so new in the field then, it was a great pleasure for me to 
work with Marcia and especially Jane Safer, who, if I'm not mistaken, 
may have been volunteering much of her time. It was amazing the way they 
pulled it all together in such a short time with such a small budget in 
cynical NYC. Just imagine interacting with those construction companies!

Since I worked during the week and only filled in on one or two 
weekends, I didn't see nearly all the great visitor interactions that 
Alan remembers. I completely missed the Backhoe Rodeo, for example. One 
story I heard involved a hot shot operator from Case Equip. putting a 
golf ball into the narrow end of a traffic cone with a backhoe.

Now an egg looks a lot like a golf ball from a small distance. And maybe 
Alan, who it is now revealed received some instructions in operating 
that backhoe (can we call him a 'ringer?'), performed like a company 
expert from Case. He certainly was a hotshot back then. And still is.


Joe R.



On 10/27/2012 11:03 AM, Martin Weiss wrote:
On 10/28/2012 10:40 AM, Alan Friedman wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
>
> As I recall it was indeed Marcia Rudy, working with Jane Safer, who
> thought up and arranged Big Machine Summer at the New York Hall of
> Science.  We were doing a series of summer special events we arranged
> ourselves, as a way of saving money over traveling exhibition rentals.
> Joe is also right that visitors couldn't operate the machines, although
> there were demonstrations from time to time.  Case Construction Equipment
> provided many earth-moving machines, big and bigger, and held the "Backhoe
> Rodeo" Joe mentioned, with operators coming from around the country to
> demonstrate how they could, for example, pick up an egg and deposit it on
> a plate without breaking anything, using a 10 ton machine.  They also
> taught some of our staff how to operate a backhoe so we could do
> demonstrations on our own, every day.  So visitors did get to see machines
> operate, along with a patter about how they worked and what they could do,
> every day.
>
> [Disclaimer:  I was one of the staff who got trained, and the joy of
> learning to operate a big backhoe and show off for the public may have
> colored by memories of Big Machine Summer in a positive way.]
>
> I recall much more visitor happiness than Joe does.  Just seeing those
> machines up close was fun, and being able to climb up into them was a real
> treat for nearly everyone.  I recall lines waiting to get into the super
> pumper firetruck, and lots of cameras clicking around kids sitting behind
> the big steering wheel.  In hindsight, this is much the same as the
> attraction of aviation museums, where you never get to fly a plane, or
> even taxi one on the tarmac, but you do get to see them up close, even
> touch them in most cases, and sit in cockpits in a few samples.  We also
> had Explainers doing demonstrations, as Joe mentions, including hands-on
> activities for visitors, around common features of the big machines.
> Levers, for example, are everywhere on any big machine, so we could do
> hands-on, table-top activities on building leveraged devices, as well as a
> "lever treasure hunt" poking around the machines themselves.  So I think
> there was enjoyment and learning happening aplenty.
>
> What didn't happen were the huge crowds we were looking for.  Attendance
> was only average, I think.  I recall we had a quality food service set up
> an outdoor tent, tables and chairs, and sell good quality sandwiches and
> other food and drink.  But the crowds, while reasonable for a typical
> summer weekend, were not what they needed to turn a profit, so they pulled
> out after a week or two.  But let us borrow their tent, tables, and
> chairs, for us to offer a more modest food service for the rest of the
> summer.
>
> My take-away was to keep doing things like this, but work harder on the
> marketing and PR, and find more ways to have more visitor physical
> involvement.  I see a lot of small backhoes and material handling machines
> around now, and if I were doing this again I'd look for a manufacturing
> partner who would provide several of each, along with volunteer
> instructors/safety superintendents, so we could give everybody a chance to
> experience the joys of hydraulic controls and serious leverage.
>
> I also see indoor exhibits of small, custom-made devices that work like
> backhoes, operated directly by visitors or through remote controls. Yes,
> these demonstrate the principles, but like model airplanes, they lack the
> dimensions of sheer size and authenticity of the real thing. So I like
> them best in close conjunction with actual big machines.
>
> Cheers,
> Alan
> ________________________________________
> Alan J. Friedman, Ph.D.
> Consultant for Museum Development and Science Communication
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>
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-- 
Joe R
www.TheExhibitGuys.com


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