FYI - terms of "equipment available" emails

This all seems eminently reasonable, but I had one question/clarification, about the above: what about museums? In other collecting fields I am aware of (Asian art, old racing cars, steam locomotives) there are a range of opinions about giving things to museums. (I personally don't have any strong feelings / axes to grind either way on these issues, merely raise them as I know there is debate on them in other field.) One issue with museums is that a lot of their holdings are stored out of sight, never to be seen by the ordinary public, and in that case, they might as well be with a collector who can enjoy them, and show them. The other issue (only with the cars and locos) is that some museums have a strict 'conserve it exactly as it was' policy, and since these things were intended to be _used_, an old race car/loco that's been 'stuffed and mounted on a plinth' (as the phrase goes in loco preservation) is akin to a zoo full of stuffed and mounted animals. Yes, using them can cause them to wear out (although there are rare counter- examples - John Harrison's sea-going clocks H1 through H3 are allowed to run, as their bearings, etc are thought to have indefinite life-times - which is not the case with H4, his first chronometer, which is displayed stopped), and also, to get one running may require replacement of some parts (although one can always save the old parts, for historical purposes). Like I said, I can see both sides - just wondered what the feeling was about this. Noel