Wallace collection showcases Nick Park's wonderful world

A WATERWHEEL which turns the pages of a novel and a vacuum cleaner for cream crackers are among inventions set to appear in Wallace and Gromit.

A new exhibition has brought to life some of the contraptions invented by Wallace along with some wilder flights of fancy from his animator, Nick Park, which have not yet appeared in the animation.

As well as the waterwheel - the Read-o-Matic - and the Crac-o-Vac to clean up cream cracker crumbs, there will be the Thinking Cap Machine where the exhibition's young visitors are meant to throw their own ideas which will then be churned up to produce a genuine "thinking cap" for each inventor.

The Science Museum exhibition also includes real-life sets from A Matter Of Loaf And Death, the most recent film that premiered at Christmas.

The whole show is laid out as if it is in Wallace's house at 62 West Wallaby Street, built on a human scale.

Creator Nick Park, from Aardman, said it was a "real thrill" to see it. Park said: "When I was making [the first Wallace and Gromit adventure] A Grand Day Out, I was at the National Film and Television School and I used to spend my weekends wandering around the Science Museum taking a lot of inspiration."

The exhibition is backed by the Intellectual Property Office which wants to encourage children to be innovative and teach them that what they create could have an economic value.

The final section includes unusual objects from the museum including a resuscitator to revive canaries affected by noxious chemicals in experiments or mines.

Park added: "I think a part of me wanted to be an inventor as a child. It's probably something to do with my dad always tinkering in the shed."

Wallace And Gromit Present A World Of Cracking Ideas runs from Saturday to 1November. See www.sciencemuseum.org.uk for details.