Solothurn Nature Museum
The Solothurn Nature Museum shows exhibitions on animals, plants, fossils and minerals from the region. Together with the Solothurn Art Museum and the Blumenstein Historical Museum , it forms an administrative department for the municipality of Solothurn . In addition to the permanent exhibition, the Nature Museum Solothurn shows a special exhibition twice a year.
history
The Solothurn Nature Museum goes back to various previous museums. As early as 1765, there was a so-called “economic and agricultural society” in Solothurn with a library and mineral collection.
The Society for Natural Research, which is still active today, was founded in 1823. Its purpose was to «promote physical and natural history knowledge» with the aim of making better use of native natural products. One of the sponsors was the Abbé and Professor Franz Joseph Hugi , who sold his natural history collection to the city in 1825 and thus set up the first museum in the old orphanage.
The city's museum
In 1902 a hall and a museum with an art, a historical-antiquarian and a natural history department were opened in the green belt of the city moat. This classic museum dedicated to art and science was closed in 1978 and converted into today's art museum. The Solothurn sculptor Urs Eggenschwyler (1849–1923), who ran an animal ring on the Milchbuck in Zurich, played a special role in the history of the museum . Its rock structures in zoological gardens are of European importance (including the Hagenbeck zoo and sea lion rocks in Basel Zoo ). His favorite animals were the lions and bears, and the «Zürileuli» and the Kamchatka bear «Urs» became famous. In addition to bears and lions, the Solothurn Nature Museum also has several other animal preparations from Urs Eggenschwyler's animal ring.
Exhibitions
The Solothurn Nature Museum has opted for a systematic order with ecological content.
The museum has exhibitions on most of the native mammals (dormouse, rat, hedgehog, marten, fox, lynx, wolf, wild boar, ibex, deer, brown bear), birds from the region (bird calls can be heard at the push of a button), insects, amphibians (frogs , Newts and toads), reptiles, mollusks (mussels, snails, octopuses) and fish. In addition, the nature museum has set up an evolutionary spiral in the showcases on the 1st floor, which leads from the single-celled organisms to the birds.
Due to the location of Solothurn at the southern foot of the Jura there is an abundant collection of fossils, rocks and minerals.
Solothurn turtles
The museum has assigned a special location to the world-famous fossilized turtles from the city's quarries, “in the middle” of the house and removed from the other fossils. They lived in the so-called Jurassic Sea 150 million years ago and were found in large numbers in the quarries north of the city. The Solothurn authorities obliged the operators of the various quarries to bring the turtles to the new museum under threat of losing their mining license - and that led to the world's largest collection of fossilized turtles from the Jura. The Solothurn turtles formed the basis of the first museum in 1824.
Foucault pendulum
The 15 m long Foucault pendulum swings day and night in the museum stairwell. It is driven by a magnet, otherwise it would swing out slowly because of the air resistance. Because of the earth's rotation, this pendulum changes its direction of oscillation every hour by approx. 10 degrees.
Water barometer
The classic barometer consists of a mercury-filled, U-shaped glass tube that is open on one side and closed on the other. The prevailing air pressure keeps the mercury column at a certain height - in the past the air pressure was not given in "bar" or "pascal", but in clear millimeters / mercury. A barometer is even clearer if it is filled with water instead of mercury. Because water is thirteen times lighter than mercury, the water column in the nature museum is also thirteen times higher than the mercury column - over 10 meters.
Dinosaur tracks in the Lommiswil / Oberdorf quarry
Elephant kicks
Workers in the quarry had seen strange impressions in the stone wall and described them as elephant steps. Only experienced geologists recognized the true origin of the footprints by dinosaurs. The museum team actively helped build a safe viewing platform. A hiking trail with no steep incline leads from the former valley station of the chairlift in Oberdorf to the quarry. Because the foot impressions can only be seen well when the light falls at an angle, the morning or the later afternoon should be chosen for the visit. The journey from Solothurn by train takes 14 minutes. In the museum there is an exhibition related to the traces.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Memorandum for the opening of the museum and hall of the city of Solothurn, Solothurn - Book and Art Print Union, 1902
- ↑ A Solothurn named «Urs»
Coordinates: 47 ° 12 '26.1 " N , 7 ° 32' 21.8" E ; CH1903: 607633 / 228484