Accessible to all audiences, the EDF Electropolis Museum in Mulhouse is one of the 11 museums that make Mulhouse and Southern Alsace the European capital of museums devoted to the industrial dream.
Founded in 1992, it is Europe's biggest museum devoted to the history of electricity from Antiquity to the present day, as well as the history of domestic appliances, with 12,000 exhibits including 1,000 permanent ones. Its centrepiece, a generator set from 1901 (steam machine paired with a Sulzer-BBC alternator), a highlight of the city's technical and industrial heritage, is what prompted the museum's creation: thanks to the EDF's sponsorship, the generator set was saved from destruction. A multimedia sound and light show, one of the museum's main attractions, puts it in the spotlight every day.
The visitor can also explore the collections of historic objects, see retrospectives by genius inventors like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, André-Marie Ampère, Graham Bell, etc., take part in activities and public experiments, or stroll around a two-hectare technology garden.
The museum's collection of nearly 12,000 objects a thousand is presented in the permanent exhibition.
There are both objects related to the scientific discovery of electricity and industrial applications - electrostatic machines to generators - and objects of the domestic sphere that illustrate the radical changes made since a century in the field of comfort, household arts, communication and audiovisual...
The collection brings together electrical devices such as motors, generators and transformers; the measuring apparatus; computer equipment, medical and communication; small and large home appliances (stoves, irons....); audio-visual equipment, lighting, telephone; toys, advertising items and works of art.
In addition to this collection, important holdings, posters, technical and commercial archives, allow the museum to ensure its conservation mission, research, valuation of this rarely considered heritage in public collections.
The museum, which enjoys the name "Museum of France", is regularly enriched with new objects and aims to become a place of reference in the field of electricity assets.
