Help Us!
There are several ways in which you can contribute to the success of ElectroKinetica, and maybe get to play with some exciting toys too...
Knowledge
Restoration and repair of older equipment often requires extensive knowledge of the technologies and techniques involved. This familiarity is slowly being lost as the number of engineers and technicians with the necessary experience decreases. As the experts hang up their tools and slide rules and the documentation becomes harder to find and understand, the chain of wisdom from designer to manufacturer to maintainer becomes broken for ever. If you worked in an electrical industry or have gained experience of older electrical technologies, you might know something we don't! We would be delighted to hear from you, and by joining in you can help keep the links alive as you share your knowledge and experience.
Information
Most documentation is useful, service information is very useful. Even pages full of seemingly irrelevant scribble might unlock the mysteries of something important in the future. If you have documents that you could donate or allow us to scan electronically, please do get in touch.
Donating artefacts
We are always on the lookout for original artefacts to expand and maintain our collection. Big or small, ancient or modern, we might have a slot for your item somewhere; and if we don't we might still be able to find it a home somewhere else. It doesn't have to be in working order or incredibly rare, or even electric, as we will need all sorts of vintage pieces to complete our period settings. Spare parts will also be needed to keep our working exhibits in good order, and some parts and materials are more or less unobtainable now in any condition. Some will be difficult to replicate due to the special tooling required to manufacture, and we must do our utmost to avoid remaining stocks going to waste.
Locating artefacts
Do you know of a piece of electrical equipment that is sitting around unused, that we might be interested in? Much of our plant has come from disused sites, where we have often recovered the equipment shortly before demolition. We are always willing to discuss the feasibility of retrieval, and we're getting quite adept at rescuing endangered items!
Volunteering
If you like 'hands-on', get in touch! There's plenty to do, and you don't have to be a technical boffin to make a really worthwhile contribution. At the moment, in the absence of a permanent exhibition, most practical work relates to recovering artefacts, but there's something for everyone. Lots of important work can even be done from home, such as research and correspondence. If you have resources or facilities that might be useful, we will be glad to hear from you.