Experimenting vs Experimental

Quite by chance(1), yesterday (Sat 31st), I was walking along Southwark Street in London (just behind Tate Modern) and saw a sign on a building reading (all in capitals, which I will eschew here) "Kirkcaldy's Testing and Experimenting Works". Being of an inquisitive turn of mind, I crossed the street to examine the window display, and discovered that the premises had been used by one David Kirkcaldy, who in 1874(?) established the world's first facility for the testing of structural materials (including concrete, cast iron, wrought iron, etc.)

It remained in service for almost a century, and is nowadays a museum (including some of Kirkcaldy's original machinery, such as a press able to exert 300 tons force through 48 feet) which is open on the first Sunday of each month.
What struck me particularly was the title "Testing and Experimenting Works". This expresses more accurately the activities performed there than the title of two places that *I* worked in the period 1967 1981 which were "Proof and Experimental Establisment(s)". I'd never previously considered it, but "experimental" is surely the incorrect adjective: the establishment itself is not "experimental", but the work conducted is. "Experimenting" seems more accurate terminology.

Does anyone have examples of "experimenting" still being used in such a context, and/or a history of why the word has fallen into desuetude?

(1) My partner and I had just had lunch(2) with a delightful American lady, whom we knew through another newsgroup. She was visiting the UK, and expressed an interest in walking over the Millennium Bridge.

(2) Which we took in "The Anchor and Hope"; I'd read a review of this pub/restaurant in a Times (Saturday) Magazine back in February, and had been so impressed that I cut out and filed the review, something I'd never ever done with any restaurant review. It's "south of the river", (36, The Cut) about 1min walk from Southwark tube station (on the Jubilee Line), and looks like a 1960s pub on a sink council estate. But the food is fabulous .

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