Rahmi M Koç Museum
Encyclopedia
The Rahmi M. Koç Museum is a private industrial museum
in Istanbul
, Turkey
dedicated to history of transport, industry and communications. Rahmi M. Koç
, member of the wealthiest dynasty in Turkey and retired boss of the Koç Group
, founded the museum in 1991, which was opened on December 13, 1994. The museum is located in the suburb of Hasköy
on the north shore of the Golden Horn
and situated in two historical buildings connected to each other. It is open to public every day except Monday. The museum's director is Anthony Phillipson.
A sister museum, but smaller in size, the Çengelhan Rahmi M. Koç Museum opened its doors to the residents of Ankara
in 2005.
, USA inspired him to create this museum. The Koç Foundation bought the first museum building in 1991, which was left derelict and seriously damaged after a roof fire in 1984. This building (in Turkish
: Lengerhane), was initially used for casting anchors and chains for the Ottoman navy, during the rule of Ahmet III
(1703–1730). It was restored during the reign of Selim III
(1789–1807) before passing into the ownership of Ministry of Finance in the Ottoman Empire
. During the Republican era, the State Monopoly and Tobacco Co. then used the building as a warehouse until 1951. The Koç Foundation spent two and half years for the restoration work of this class II historical monument.
In July 2001, the museum opened a new building to improve the display of its collection of industrial and scientific artifacts. This new section was a disused historical dockyard, founded in 1861 by the former Ottoman Maritime Company (Şirket-i Hayriye) for the maintenance and repair of its own ships. The Koç Foundation bought the building in 1996.
The two buildings are on the same road, on opposite sides: the dockyard part of the complex is on the shores of the Golden Horn. A glass-sided ramp leads down to the basement exhibition area of the Lengerhane.
s, scientific and mechanical items make up the basis of the museum's exhibits.
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Models and toys:
Hands-on: Cutaway car, aero plane, scientific experiments and cutaway domestic goods.
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
dedicated to history of transport, industry and communications. Rahmi M. Koç
Rahmi Koç
Rahmi Mustafa Koç is a Turkish businessmanBorn in Ankara as the only son of one of Turkey's wealthiest man Vehbi Koç, he attended high school at Robert College in Istanbul after his primary education in Ankara. Rahmi Koç then studied at the Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. and received his B.A...
, member of the wealthiest dynasty in Turkey and retired boss of the Koç Group
Koç Holding
Koç Holding A.Ş. is the top industrial conglomeratein Turkey. The Koç family, one of Turkey's wealthiest families, controls the company with its headquarter in Nakkaştepe, Istanbul...
, founded the museum in 1991, which was opened on December 13, 1994. The museum is located in the suburb of Hasköy
Hasköy, Istanbul
Hasköy is a neighborhood on the northern side of the Golden Horn in Beyoğlu, Istanbul, Turkey. It includes the officially defined neighborhoods of Keçeci Piri, Piri Paşa, and Halıcıoğlu, and parts of Camiikebir and Sütlüce....
on the north shore of the Golden Horn
Golden Horn
The Golden Horn is a historic inlet of the Bosphorus dividing the city of Istanbul and forming the natural harbor that has sheltered Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and other ships for thousands of...
and situated in two historical buildings connected to each other. It is open to public every day except Monday. The museum's director is Anthony Phillipson.
A sister museum, but smaller in size, the Çengelhan Rahmi M. Koç Museum opened its doors to the residents of Ankara
Ankara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....
in 2005.
History
A visit of Rahmi Koç to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MichiganDearborn, Michigan
-Economy:Ford Motor Company has its world headquarters in Dearborn. In addition its Dearborn campus contains many research, testing, finance and some production facilities. Ford Land controls the numerous properties owned by Ford including sales and leasing to unrelated businesses such as the...
, USA inspired him to create this museum. The Koç Foundation bought the first museum building in 1991, which was left derelict and seriously damaged after a roof fire in 1984. This building (in Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
: Lengerhane), was initially used for casting anchors and chains for the Ottoman navy, during the rule of Ahmet III
Ahmed III
Ahmed III was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and a son of Sultan Mehmed IV . His mother was Mâh-Pâre Ummatullah Râbi'a Gül-Nûş Valide Sultan, originally named Evmania Voria, who was an ethnic Greek. He was born at Hajioglupazari, in Dobruja...
(1703–1730). It was restored during the reign of Selim III
Selim III
Selim III was the reform-minded Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1789 to 1807. The Janissaries eventually deposed and imprisoned him, and placed his cousin Mustafa on the throne as Mustafa IV...
(1789–1807) before passing into the ownership of Ministry of Finance in the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. During the Republican era, the State Monopoly and Tobacco Co. then used the building as a warehouse until 1951. The Koç Foundation spent two and half years for the restoration work of this class II historical monument.
In July 2001, the museum opened a new building to improve the display of its collection of industrial and scientific artifacts. This new section was a disused historical dockyard, founded in 1861 by the former Ottoman Maritime Company (Şirket-i Hayriye) for the maintenance and repair of its own ships. The Koç Foundation bought the building in 1996.
The two buildings are on the same road, on opposite sides: the dockyard part of the complex is on the shores of the Golden Horn. A glass-sided ramp leads down to the basement exhibition area of the Lengerhane.
Permanent exhibitions
Most of the items exhibited in the museum are selected from Rahmi Koç's private collection. Other objects are either borrowed from or donated by various organizations and individuals. Original machines and their replicaReplica
A replica is a copy closely resembling the original concerning its shape and appearance. An inverted replica complements the original by filling its gaps. It can be a copy used for historical purposes, such as being placed in a museum. Sometimes the original never existed. For example, Difference...
s, scientific and mechanical items make up the basis of the museum's exhibits.
- Road transportRoad transportRoad transport or road transportation is transport on roads of passengers or goods. A hybrid of road transport and ship transport is the historic horse-drawn boat.-History:...
: Racing cars, sports cars (between 1953 and 1986), salon/coupe and convertible cars (1898–1994), utility vehicles (1911–1963), commercial vehicles (1908–2002), motorcycles (1908–2003), - Rail transportRail transportRail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
: Old Istanbul tram (1934), SultanSultanSultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
’s carriage (1867), steam engine locomotiveLocomotiveA locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
(1913), narrow-gauge steam locomotive (1930), Istanbul TünelTünelThe Tünel is a short underground railway line in Istanbul, Turkey. It is an underground funicular with two stations, connecting the quarters of Karaköy and Beyoğlu. Located at the northern shore of the Golden Horn, the underground railway tunnel goes uphill from close to sea level and is about 555...
carriage (1876), Henschel steam locomotive (1918),
- MarineMarine (ocean)Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...
: Cargo vessel, motorboat, lifeboatLifeboat (rescue)A rescue lifeboat is a boat rescue craft which is used to attend a vessel in distress, or its survivors, to rescue crewmen and passengers. It can be hand pulled, sail powered or powered by an engine...
(1951), Bosphorus passenger ferryboat, outboard motor collection, amphibious car (1961), submarineSubmarineA submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
(1944): TCG Uluçalireis (S 338) (former USS Thornback (SS-418)), - AviationAviationAviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...
: AircraftAircraftAn aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...
(1941–1979), aviation parts collection, aircraft engines (1928–1979), large and small-scale aircraft models, - EngineeringEngineeringEngineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
: Ferry boat steam engine (1911), olive oilOlive oilOlive oil is an oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps...
factory, portable stationary steam engine (1872), gas engine, wood saw, marine compound steam engine (1900), - CommunicationCommunicationCommunication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
s: Rotary dial telephone (1920), phonographPhonographThe phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
(1903), Thomas EdisonThomas EdisonThomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
telegraph patent model (1876), valve amplifier (1936), zoetropeZoetropeA zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures. The term zoetrope is from the Greek words "ζωή – zoe", "life" and τρόπος – tropos, "turn". It may be taken to mean "wheel of life"....
(1835), - Scientific instrumentsScienceScience is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
: Wimshurst machineWimshurst machineThe Wimshurst influence machine is an electrostatic generator, a machine for generating high voltages developed between 1880 and 1883 by British inventor James Wimshurst ....
, grand orreryOrreryAn orrery is a mechanical device that illustrates the relative positions and motions of the planets and moons in the Solar System in a heliocentric model. Though the Greeks had working planetaria, the first orrery that was a planetarium of the modern era was produced in 1704, and one was presented...
, marine chronometerMarine chronometerA marine chronometer is a clock that is precise and accurate enough to be used as a portable time standard; it can therefore be used to determine longitude by means of celestial navigation...
, Strassbourg turret clock,
Models and toys:
Hands-on: Cutaway car, aero plane, scientific experiments and cutaway domestic goods.
Temporary exhibitions
- "Leonardo, the universal genius" was the title of the ever first temporary exhibition featuring a collection of 40 full-sized artworks, all created from the original drawings made by Leonardo da VinciLeonardo da VinciLeonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
. The reproductions of machines are envisaged in the famous "Codex LeicesterCodex LeicesterThe Codex Leicester is a collection of largely scientific writings by Leonardo da Vinci. The codex is named after Thomas Coke, later created Earl of Leicester, who purchased it in 1717...
", a collection of largely scientific manuscripts of Leonardo written between 1478 and 1513. The exhibits were grouped in five broad categories: Mechanisms and the four ancient elements of nature, EarthEarth (classical element)Earth, home and origin of humanity, has often been worshipped in its own right with its own unique spiritual tradition.-European tradition:Earth is one of the four classical elements in ancient Greek philosophy and science. It was commonly associated with qualities of heaviness, matter and the...
, WaterWater (classical element)Water is one of the elements in ancient Greek philosophy, in the Asian Indian system Panchamahabhuta, and in the Chinese cosmological and physiological system Wu Xing...
, AirAir (classical element)Air is often seen as a universal power or pure substance. Its supposed fundamental importance to life can be seen in words such as aspire, inspire, perspire and spirit, all derived from the Latin spirare.-Greek and Roman tradition:...
and FireFire (classical element)Fire has been an important part of all cultures and religions from pre-history to modern day and was vital to the development of civilization. It has been regarded in many different contexts throughout history, but especially as a metaphysical constant of the world.-Greek and Roman tradition:Fire...
. The "Mechanisms" section included inventions pertaining to everyday life such as gearGearA gear is a rotating machine part having cut teeth, or cogs, which mesh with another toothed part in order to transmit torque. Two or more gears working in tandem are called a transmission and can produce a mechanical advantage through a gear ratio and thus may be considered a simple machine....
s and lifting systems. A printing pressPrinting pressA printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...
and robotRobotA robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
design were displayed in the "Earth" section. In the "Air" section, parachuteParachuteA parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...
s and flying machines like the ornithopterOrnithopterAn ornithopter is an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings. Designers seek to imitate the flapping-wing flight of birds, bats, and insects. Though machines may differ in form, they are usually built on the same scale as these flying creatures. Manned ornithopters have also been built, and some...
bicycle were on display. The "Fire" section showed machines of war, cannonCannonA cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
s and machine gunMachine gunA machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
s, and water-related inventions such as the Archimedes screw made up the "Water" section. All displays were in functioning condition, and the majority could be operated by the visitors themselves, making the interactive exhibition cultural, educational, and also fun. The show was held from November 1 to December 31, 2006. A few items were also on show at the Çengelhan Rahmi M. Koç Museum in Ankara.