Connections Museum

What is interesting about the museum

The Museum of Communications, formerly the Herbert Warrick Jr. Museum of Communications, is located in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle. He exhibits communication equipment of all kinds and has at his disposal rare apparatus, from telegraphs and teletypes to telephone booths.

The Museum of Communications in Seattle can claim to be a complete coverage of the history of communications, although it would be more accurate to call it a museum of the telephone. However, this narrow area does not make the collection of vintage telephone equipment any less attractive.

Here is a large selection of beautiful devices: from a replica of the same telephone, on which Alexander Graham Bell spoke the immortal words: “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you” to the relatively modern telephone booths that were once everywhere. In addition to the larger relics of telecommunications, there are also a large number of telephones from the 19th and 20th century.

Particular attention is paid to the products of AT&T, once a communications monopoly company. The collection also has a small section on the UNIX operating system, created by Bell Labs in 1969.

Perhaps the most notable aspect of the museum is the fact that a large number of telephones and equipment on display are still in working order.

Find out more about why teletypes were needed and how early telephones worked in our article.

In the museum you will see equipment for PBX "Step-by-step" and "Crossbar", antique telephones, switches and other equipment related to communications and communications. It also has a cataloged telecommunications reference library useful for researchers.

The museum is open every Sunday from 10:00 to 15:00, but please note that the doors close at 14:30 to give visitors enough time to complete the tour. Plan to arrive early to allow at least one hour to visit the two floors of the museum.

Standard tours take two hours. It is possible and more for those who are interested in technical issues. The entrance fee is $5 for adults and $2 for youth aged 12 to 18.

Story

The museum was co-founded by the non-profit community organization Pioneers and the volunteer network Pacific Northwest Bell, founded by Don Aostran and Herb Warrick.

It was originally supposed to be one of three telephone museums in the northwestern United States, but it ended up being the only one that was destined to come true.

Work on it began in 1985, and it was opened to the public only in the fall of 1989. In 2016, the museum rose to fame with a video on Tom Scott's popular YouTube channel as part of the "Things You Don't Know About" series.

Exhibits

• Telegraphs

This area of the museum contains the telegraph and teletype machines that were responsible for international calls, leased lines, and secure communications.

The telegraph was invented by Samuel Morse in the 1840s. This is a device for communication between two remote locations. Operators at both ends of the line sent and received messages using a series of electrical pulses and dashes. Each combination of dots and dashes represents a letter. The operator sent the message by letter, and the recipient wrote it down.

• Teletypes

Teletype machines were useful because they reproduced a written paper copy of the transmitted message. The museum exhibits many different types of teletypes dating back to 1918. In total, you will find more than 30 types here, including a German teletype created by Lorentz. This company during World War II created the Enigma, a device that turns text into encrypted messages.

Teletypes were later used by the FBI, commercial airlines, stock exchanges, and newspaper and radio news distribution services such as the Associated Press.

• Phones

Telephone sets are devices that subscribers did not originally own, but rented from the telephone company. The museum has many models, from a replica of Alexander Bell's first telephone to videophones.

The museum has a large collection of early wall telephones. They were popular in the early days of the technology because they were so large and heavy that they could not be physically moved. Many of the devices are fully functional.

The Connections Museum archive collection includes over 80,000 photographs and slides, numerous books, memorabilia and publications related to telecommunications technology, business, culture and people.