RT Journal Article
T1 Understanding storm surges
A1 Claire Kennard
YR 2016
VO 6
IS Autumn 2016
K1 Science Museum
K1  Interpretation
K1  Mathematics: The Winton Gallery
K1  Collections
K1  Zaha Hadid Architects
K1  Twentieth Century
K1  Shizuo Ishiguro
K1  North Sea
K1  Tides
K1  Tide Prediction
K1  Storm Surges
K1  Mathematics
K1  Japan
K1  Biography
K1  Flood
K1  Oceanography
K1  Models
K1  History
K1  Social
AB In December the Science Museum will open Mathematics: The Winton Gallery. The new gallery tells mathematical stories in relation to a broad spectrum of fundamental human concerns. One of the key exhibits is a newly acquired machine for modelling storm surges in the North Sea. Designed by Japanese engineer Shizuo Ishiguro, the object offers a way to explore the far-reaching impact and relevance of mathematical work.
NO This is the equivalent of over one billion pounds in 2016.
NO The NOC is now based in Southampton and Liverpool after merging the Wormley Institute, The Proudman Oceanography Laboratory and the University of Southampton.
NO As Carlsson-Hyslop has identified, the Tidal Institute in Liverpool relied much more heavily on methods of mathematical theory and statistics rather than physical modelling and hydrodynamic physics preferred at the NIO under Deacon. 
NO Alongside the acquisition of Ishiguro’s machine, the Science Museum has acquired a copy of the report Ishiguro completed at the end of this UNESCO project; this provides a great insight into the wide ranging influences on his research, detailing all the books, conferences, and institutions he was looking at in this period. This included trips to the Royal Astronomical Society, the Royal Statistical Society, and various London exhibitions on electrical components (Ishiguro, 1959).

 
  
  
 

 
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NO This movement of knowledge across the globe, a specific aim of the UNESCO funding, would also later influence British cultural history as Ishiguro’s son, Kazuo, born just a few years before Ishiguro’s move, went on to become a highly successful British author.
NO Woodworth discusses the machine in his oral history of the NIO for the British Library. 
NO Ishiguro had published a paper on an electronic system for modelling in 1949 while at the Marine Observatory. We are not able to know whether the machine is still in working order as we are unable to make objects in the collection operational.
NO The Science Museum has not been able to test whether the machine is still operational.  
PB The Science Museum Group
SN 2054-5770
LA eng
DO 10.15180/160603
UL http://journal.sciencemuseum.org.uk/browse/issue-06/understanding-storm-surges/
CR 1 January 1953, ‘Japanese Research in Physical Oceanography’, Bulletin of the Beach Erosion Board Office, Chief of Engineers, Department of the Army Corps of Engineers, Vol 7, No 1
CR 1 October 1956, ‘UNESCO Activities Report for the Period October 1955–September 1956’, UNESCO; Department of Natural Sciences, UNESCO/NS/OCEAN/44 (Paris)
CR 2013, ‘1953 east coast flood – 60 years on’, Met Office, http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/in-depth/1953-east-coast-flood (accessed 9 March 2016)
CR T W Research, 2009, ‘Developing a Maths Gallery’, Qualitative Research Findings (Science Museum)
CR Baxter, P, 15 July 2015, ‘The east coast Big Flood 31 January–1 February 1953: a summary of the human disaster’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Vol. 363, pp 1293–1312
CR Bissell, C and Dillon, C, 2012, Ways of Thinking, Ways of Seeing: Mathematical and other Modelling in Engineering and Technology (Berlin: Springer-Verlan)
CR Boon, J D, 2004, Secrets of the Tide: Tide and Tidal Current Analysis and Applications, Storm Surges and Sea Level Trends (Chichester: Horwood Publishing)
CR Carlsson-Hyslop, A, 2010, An Anatomy of Storm Surge Science at Liverpool Tidal Institute 1919–1959: Forecasting, Practices of calculation and Patronage (University of Manchester, PhD Thesis)
CR Cartwright, D, 1999, Tides: A Scientific History (Cambridge: CUP)
CR Cartwright, D, 29 June 2011, ‘National Life Stories: An Oral History of British Science’, British Library, interviewed by Dr Paul Merchant, C1379/50, (Part 5 of 9), http://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/Science/021M-C1379X0050XX-0005V0 (accessed 20 January 2016)
CR Darrigol, O, 2005, Worlds of Flow: A History of Hydrodynamics from the Bernoullis to Prandtl (Oxford: OUP)
CR Deacon, M, 1971, Scientists and the Sea 1650-1900: A Study of Marine Science (London: Academic Press Inc)
CR Ishiguro, S, 1959, Final Report of UNESCO Fellowship (UNESCO/ML/813/Annex III, 1956)
CR Ishiguro, S, 19 March 1959, ‘A method of Analysis for Long-Wave Phenomena in the Ocean Using Electronic Network Models’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Vol 251, No 996, pp 303–340
CR Ishiguro, S, 1968, Storm Surges in the North Sea analyzed by an electronic model, The National Oceanography Centre, filmed by Madgwick, A F and Mansbridge, N T, http://viewer.soton.ac.uk/nol/image/102/1/LOG_0000/ 
CR Ishiguro, S, 1976, ‘Pressure-generated surges in the North Sea’, Institute of OceanographicScience, Report 35
CR Laughton, A et al (eds), 2010, Of Sea & Ships & Scientists: The remarkable story of the UK’s National Institute of Oceanography 1949-1973 (Cambridge: Lutterworth Press)
CR Parker, B, 2010, The Power of the Sea: Tsunamis, Storm Surges, Rogue Waves & Our Quest to Predict Disasters (New York: Palgrave MacMillan)
CR Rooney, D et al, 2012, Mathematics Gallery Design Brief (Science Museum)
CR Smith, K and Ward, R 1998, Floods: Physical Processes and Human Impacts (Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd)
CR Walker, M, 2012, History of the Meteorological Office (Cambridge: CUP)
CR Woodworth, P, 8 July 2015, Notes on Mathematics and Oceanography at NOC, interviewed by Claire Kennard, Science Museum
CR Woodworth, P, 4 December 2012, ‘National Life Stories: An Oral History of British Science’, British Library, interviewed by Dr Paul Merchant, C1379/44, (Part 5 of 9), http://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/Science/021M-C1379X0044XX-0008V0 (accessed 20 January 2016)
WT Science Museum Group Journal
OL 30