Connected Earth - Amberley Museum (original) (raw)

Originally founded by BT, this centre now forms the most complete collection of telephone instruments and overhead line insulators in the country, alongside vehicles dating back to the 1930s. The exhibition covers the development of the telephone, along with the work of telephone operators and engineers, telegrams, telegraphs, telephone exchange, and the development of cables. There are working phone boxes, switchboards, telephone exchanges and teleprinters, as well as many other interactive displays, including an old-style Post Office where you can write a telegram and see it delivered by pneumatic tube to the teleprinter room.

The Museum also houses a re-created 1930s rural telephone exchange, which is in working order and is used for the Museum’s internal telephone system.

The Connected Earth Centre was part of a £6 million investment by BT in 2002, created to promote the widest possible access to its collection of historical communication artefacts while ensuring proper standards of care for them.