The Museum of Science & Industry...Part 1

Just as a pre-warning, this post will have a lot of pictures in it and will probably be quite long. Saturday we went to the Museum of Science & Industry. We got a free pass from the library and wanted to take advantage of this great opportunity. Bryan was really excited to go. We have been looking at the museum's website and trying to find out what all they had to see there and realized there is way too much to do in one day, so we planed to go both Saturday and Monday since Bryan doesn't have class that day.

It is only fitting that you would find one of these at the Museum of SCIENCE & INDUSTRY. It is a solar powered trash compacting trash can. We had just seen a whole article on the news about these new trash cans around Chicago and thought it was neat. (You can see the solar panel on the top).
So the first exhibit we wanted to go to was the U-505 submarine exhibit. Eliza had looked at it on-line and knew this was something we should do...so we payed the extra $5 to go on the tour of the inside of the sub and it turned out to be well worth it. We weren't allowed to take pictures on the inside, but got plenty of the outside. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. (You probably won't since you have to be there to experience the majesty of such a ship, but non the less, you will have to take our word for it that it was amazing).

This is the view you see after walking right into the room with the sub. The U-505 was a German sub that was captured by the U.S. during WWII. Before you get to this room you go through a series of halls and exhibits that tell you all about the life and history of the U-505 and its capture. It really is amazing that the U.S. captured it, after understanding how these subs were practically designed to be sunk and or exploded by its own crew if ever captured by the enemy. In fact, the Germans did open the sink holes as they bailed ship in an effort to sink the sub so all classified info would end up at the bottom of the ocean and not in the hands of the U.S. But luckily due to the quick acting of one U.S. Navy Sailor the sink hole was sealed back up and they were able to stop the U-505 from sinking completely. It was captured off the west coast of Africa, and because it was somewhat full of water had to be towed all the way to Bermuda. This entire cross Atlantic journey went undetected by anyone else and the U.S. were then able to obtain valuable info and the power to now decode all German communication.
This exhibit opened in 2004. The room that holds the U-505 was built specifically for the submarine. In fact, they had to build the entire room around the sub. They first made the floor and walls, which actually start at ground level and go down. So when they were done with this part it took them 4 days to get the sub in position and lower it down into the room. Then they built the roof over it.
This torpedo is placed to show you where they would be launched from the sub. They had 4 launch sites, 2 in the front and 2 in the rear. During the tour of the inside you can see there is an actually torpedo that was found on the sub, ("sans the war head" as the tour guide stated). It was so amazing to think that as we were walking through the sub we were looking at the actual thing. Not a replica of what it would have looked like, but the actual U-505 itself. To think of what went on inside and the attacks it made and it's final capture...it really was neat.

I would hate to be caught by one of these propellers while they were moving. Here is a picture of one of the actual torpedoes and what the inside looks like. It is just amazing the technology the Germans had back then.

Here are a few pictures I got off their web-site since we couldn't take any of the inside.

This is the inside of the sub we toured. This is a picture of one of the actual torpedoes on the sub. This is exactly what we saw. If you notice, this torpedo room also doubled as a bunk room, how would you like to be sleeping next to this?

This is the diesel engine room. This room would stay at 110 degrees F. Imagine staying on a sub with 50 men for 3 months in 90-110 degree heat without a shower. No thank you!This is the control room. This is the widest part of the sub measuring a whopping 15 feet across. Trust me, that isn't very much. For those of you with claustrophobia issues, this would not be the place to be. Half of the time you can't stand straight. Here is a link to a video of them moving and placing the sub in the exhibit room. It is neat to watch.

http://www.msichicago.org/online-science/videos/video-detail/activities/moving-the-u-505-submarine/