How does a farming hamlet grow into an industrial town? The Educational Industrial Museum in Hengelo will give you the answer. Its theme is the industrial development of the town of Hengelo in the west of the Netherlands during the last 150 years. The museum starts with an exhibition of textile machines and a metal processing workshop dating back to around 1900. A steam engine and a range of diesel and electric motors from the 1930s onwards then show how, in the course of time, local firms concentrated more and more on mechanical engineering and motor construction. Several generations of radar devices are of outstanding importance for this is a branch of industry which still flourishes in Hengelo, as is the model of a Dutch infrared satellite. A selection of the museum’s technical equipment is regularly put into operation. For children and young people there is a range of interactive electric models which demonstrate various processes from the areas of mechanics, electrical engineering and natural sciences. In march 2006 the museum has moved into the former works buildings of the Koninklijke Machinefabriek Stork.

Synthetic materials, textile printing, machines for utilising milk, aeronautical and aerospace engineering products, and multifunctional radar equipment – this is only an excerpt from the current range of merchandise made in Hengelo. Well-known firms like the Koninklijke Machinefabriek Stork and Hollandse Signaalapparaten - a company which specialises in radars and sensors and which is now a part of the French concern Thales - have made a major contribution to the nature and development of the dynamic industrial town in the far east of the Netherlands. Within the space of around 150 years they have helped to transform an overwhelmingly rural provincial area into an attractive manufacturing centre and regional business intersection. The continual demand for well–trained workers has even given rise to the University of Twente for technical and applied sciences sited between Hengelo and the nearby town of Enschede. Economic development was primarily due to the rapidly growing, high-quality metal industry. This is the central feature in Hengelo’s Educational Industrial Museum (HEIM). It was founded in 1983 as a branch of the Oald Hengel historic museum, for the technical collection had grown so huge as to justify an exhibition in its own right. HEIM places great value on children and young people. Its declared aim is to stimulate their interest in technical matters and professions. It does this by allowing young visitors to try out their skills on interactive electric models. Within the framework of a guided tour a range of different questions are thrown up which can be jointly answered. At the end the young visitors are given the opportunity of putting the knowledge they have gained to practical use by drawing up plans for their own products.