%0 Journal Article %T Understanding storm surges in the North Sea: Ishiguro’s electronic modelling machine %A Claire Kennard %D 2016 %V %N Autumn 2016 %K History %X 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. %Z This is the equivalent of over one billion pounds in 2016. %Z The NOC is now based in Southampton and Liverpool after merging the Wormley Institute, The Proudman Oceanography Laboratory and the University of Southampton. %Z 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. %Z 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). %Z 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. %Z Woodworth discusses the machine in his oral history of the NIO for the British Library. %Z 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. %Z The Science Museum has not been able to test whether the machine is still operational. %I The Science Museum Group %@ 2054-5770 %B eng %U https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/ishiguros-electronic-modelling-machine/ %J Science Museum Group Journal