Short history of the museum
The museum was founded in 1909 by engineer Dimitrie Leonida (1883-1965) following the model of the Technical Museum from Munchen (1903), that Leonida visited while he was a student (1903 - 1908)at the Charlottenburg Polytehnic, near berlin. In 1908 Dimitrie Leonida founded the first school for training electricians and mechanics in Romania. the teacher gathered, together with his students, the first pieces that were to represent the base of the future museum(1909). Its strong didactic character differs it from other museums of the same type. Its founder wanted it to be a school where everyone could see and even operate on mechanisms that illustrate the mechanics, electricity and magnetism laws. In 1928 the museum was sheltered inside one of the pavilions from the Carol I park. Beginning with 1935 it was sheltered by its present-day building.

Neighbourhood Monuments

The museum is situated on an area of real interest for torists. Here are some of the neighbouring technical monuments: The Filaret railway station, where the first railway from Romanian was inaugurated in 1869; The electric Filaret factory, built between 1906-1908. The building's architecture resembles to that of the Lille buildings, France. It is in the records of the national technical heritage; The artesian well with a zodiac (1934), situated at the entrance of the park, built in the time of Nicolae G. Caranfil, ex-general manager of the Petroleum and Electricity Company;

An alley guarded by secular lime-trees leads to the Monument of the Unknown Hero, guarded by four towers that had been used during World War I. The monument was arranged on that place in 1923, moved at Marasesti in 1962 and brought back on the old location in 1992;

The "Arenele Romane" open-air theatre, built by engineer Elie Radu, having 4500 seats, similar to some Italian theatres. In the theatre's neighbourhood there are two monumental wells made of marble-plated stone, one built in 1870 by the then mayor of the capital city, George Cantacuzino, (for which reason the town council voted on the eigth of august 1969 that the well should bear Cantacuzino's name). The other one was built in 1906 on the occasion of the park's organization (known by the name of Fântâna Minelor si Carierelor - The Well of the Mines and Quarries-); The first ferro-concrete bridge (1906) built by Gogu Constantinescu, founder of the sound science; Tepes's tower used by physicist Emil Giurgea to make radio-telegraphic transmissions (1914) with equipment brought on his own expenses from France.

The museum's collections:
The Technical Museum by the patrimony it shelters, over 5000 exhibits from all the fields of activity, represents the most interesting objectiv in the area.

Here are some of the museum's exhibits: The cillinder of the first steam machine, used in the Romanian industry; the machine was brought from Wienn in 1853 to put in motion the oil press and the stones that milled the wheat; Two Brush dynamos (1882) of the first power plant from the country. On the 4th of september 1882 in New York, Thomas Alva Edison, the greatest inventor of all times (1903 patents), put into service the first power plant. It was also in 1882, that in a store house situated on Calea Victoriei, Bucharest, (the present-day location of the University Library), a power plant was put into service. The plant supplied with electricity the arched electrical lamps from the Palace Garden and, by an electrical transport line, the exterior of the National Theatre, the Cismigiu park and the Cotroceni Palace; the Edison dynamo (1884) that supplied the National Theatre. This one was put into service on the 4th of September 1997 on the occasion of the "Thomas Alva Edison - The Light Hommage" exhibition;

Electrical tram engine (1894). The tram became functional in Bucharest in 1894 ( and in the world in 1883 - in Austria and England). The museum shelters an engine of the type that had been obtained by Dimitrie Leonida with the help of doctor Constantin Istrate, the one who was responsible for the artrangement of the Carol I park, in his capacity of commissary general of the exhibition (1906);

Motor car with Aurel Persu aerodynamic shape, the first one of this type in the world, having the wheels included in the interior of the aerodynamic line. The car was built in 1923 and patented in 1924. The inventor drove over 100,000 kilometres behind its wheel; The "Olds Patent" carriage car (1888), one of the first motor cars that first circulated in Bucharest. It has a spark ignition engine, the steering is actioned through a handle bar and the illuminating is made by acetylene lamps.

The Gogu Constantinescu sonic engine
Gogu Constantinescu created a new science - the science of sound (1916). There is a matematical correspondence between the laws of the sound transmission (transmission of the energy through mecanical vibrations) and the laws of electrical energy transmission;

IAR-K 14 plane engine from 1937, at that time considered, due to its technical performances, to be the second in Europe; The model of the Vuia airplane, which on the 18th of March lifted in the air with exclusively own board means, at Montesson - France for the first time in the world; The first individual flying apparatus made and patented by Justin Capra in 1958; The Karpen cells with golden and platinum electrodes, made by Vasilescu Karpen, ex-rector of the Politechnic during 1920-1940;

Impressions:
On visiting the Technical Museum in 1964, Walker Cisler, the President of the Edison Company said: "I am happy that I visited tis marvelous museum where so many have learnt about the technological achievements. You have reconstructed here part of the greatest achievements of man". In september 1974, cosmonaut Eugen Cernan visited the Technical Museum. Here is his comment on this visit: "you have to be congratulated not only for the history of technics exhibiton but for your great contribution to finding the truth of science for your people and for your country. Good luck and thank you!".