The Information Age – A Nostalgic Tour

The Information Age – A Nostalgic Tour

ITP Insights Science Museum Information Age Gallery visit – a personal journey spanning 50 years.

Strowger Two Motion Selector - Information Age gallery The Science MuseumI have very fond memories of the Science Museum having been a fairly regular visitor since the mid-1960s. I didn’t know back then how much of an influence it would have on my future but from the first time I visited the museum I had a fascination for science and technology that remains with me to this day. So, when I received the invitation for the ITP Insight guided tour of the Information Age gallery with John Liffen, the Curator of Communications I jumped at the chance.

My grandparents took me on many museum trips but the Science Museum was by far my favourite. I also distinctly remember two trips there from my primary school in Peckham. I remember feeling quite an authority during the school visits because I had some prior knowledge about some of the exhibits. This was particularly true for the electromagnetic, electrostatic and electronics exhibits.

I remember the Van Der Graf generator, a door that opened when a beam of light was broken, relays, solenoids, radios, domestic appliances and so many other obvious and not so obvious everyday items. My fascination extended to the point where I wanted to know how everything worked. I lived next door to a British Relay television engineer, whenever I saw him I asked him about his job. Whenever the TV engineer came out to fix our TV I watched intently and asked lots of questions. I had learned some of the component names and even some of the valve numbers. TVs were incredibly unreliable back then so the engineer was out to us several times a year. My mum used to get really annoyed when the TV stopped working but I couldn’t wait for the engineer to come out so I could get another look inside the back of the TV.

“…failures ranged from absolutely nothing to spectacular mini explosions.”

This fascination stayed with me through my first two years in secondary school where I had an inspirational physics teacher (Mr Melo). The most valuable lesson I learned from the great Mr Melo was that it is OK to make mistakes because when things go wrong we are presented with an excellent learning opportunity. Many of his experiments failed several times before we got to see the success we were all waiting for. The failures ranged from absolutely nothing to spectacular mini explosions.

I suspect now that Mr Melo took us through these ordeals on purpose which is why I believe he was such a great teacher and one I will never forget. My passion for physics waned in my third year when Mr Melo’s retirement coincided with three close family bereavements in as many months. I went off the rails for some years losing interest in school. The only subject I achieved anything in was art.

My interest in science and technology was further fuelled just before I reached my teens when my grandparents bought me a Philips EE8 Electronics Engineering kit. I think the EE kit is best described as a very crude predecessor to a bread board made out of perforated hardboard and springs. I immediately starting following the design plans to build the out of the box projects, but what was more important for me was I had the ability to experiment. I regularly visited electronics shops in London to buy magazines, books and test equipment along with replacement components that I had managed to destroy as I experimented and learned. I redesigned some of the circuits and changed component values to see what effect they would have on previous results. It was an excellent learning tool and it enabled me to get my foot on the first rung of my career ladder. All this came flooding back to me as I waited outside the Science Museum for the ITP party to arrive.

The Information Age gallery is divided into six networks that changed our world. These are:

  • The Cable
  • The Broadcast
  • The Exchange
  • The Constellation
  • The Web
  • The Cell

We assembled at the centre of the Information Age gallery in front of the large and iconic tuning coils from the Rugby VLF transmitter, calling code GBR. The transmitter operated at 16kHz with a wavelength close to 200m which is why the tuning coils were so large. I remember learning about this during my apprenticeship in 1974. It amazed me that the signal could travel around the world using the surface of the Earth and the underside of the Ionosphere as a waveguide. I also remember learning that the frequency was so low it was possible to hear the whistle in certain locations close to Rugby. The transmitter was in operation from 1926 providing Morse Code communication around the world and was later used to communicate to submarines (VLF can penetrate up to approximately 40m in salt water).

“The fact that the information was late and customers could not see what was happening to their stocks fuelled the panic making matters even worse.”

Rugby Tuning CoilsFurther along the Cable Network there is a section on the Wall Street crash. The exhibit demonstrates how dependent the world had become on international communications. During October 1929 stock prices started to fall so fast that the ticker tape machines and operators could not keep up. The delays meant that trading decisions were being made based on old information. The fact that the information was late and customers could not see what was happening to their stocks fuelled the panic making matters even worse.

The failure of the telegraph system to keep up with prices was not responsible for the crash but it certainly made matters worse causing more financial casualties. It also highlighted the dependency on skilled operators to operate and read the ticker tape, causing delays in the region of four hours. Later developments would see stock prices transmitted in plain text. Fast forward 60 years to 1989. I was working for a currency broker in the City cutting over some transatlantic combined ‘hoot and holler’ and data circuits from satellite to cable as the satellite latency was considered too risky for trading.

When we go around to the Exchange Network it was very nostalgic for me. I spent much of the first five years of my career working on Strowger telephone exchange equipment. The last two years on PABX maintenance. I can remember the sound and the smells on the exchange floor. The skilled exchange technicians and engineers could diagnose problems with their ears, and on some occasions – when electromagnets or wire-wound resistors were over-heating – their noses. Electromechanical telephone exchanges were a living entity.

“We take routing and network address translation for granted but back then this was an incredible feat for electromechanical switching equipment.”

Exchange NetworkWith all of the switching and ancillary equipment being electromechanical the presence of dust, dirt and fumes were our worst enemy. So much so every telephone exchange employed someone to keep the exchange floor clean. This included constantly polishing the highly varnished wooden floors. Controlling the environment was absolutely essential for reliable operation.

Exchanges in the major cities were referred to as Director Area Exchanges. When I worked for the Post Office there were six Director Areas. Every subscriber in a Director Area Exchange had a seven digit number. The first three digits identified the subscribers local exchange. However, the size and complexity of the networks in these areas made it impossible to route calls between exchanges using just three digits. A director area exchange had a translation mechanism to convert the three destination exchange digits to up to six code digits. The code digits were used to route through Code Selectors in intermediate exchanges to the destination exchange. The final four digits were used to route to the subscriber within the destination exchange.

We take routing and network address translation using routers or routing software for granted but back then this was an incredible feat for electromechanical switching equipment. I worked for some time in Brixton LTE (Local Telephone Exchange) where we had three exchange units (274, 733 and 737), each with up to 10,000 lines. The noise in the Director Room was unbearable during the busy hour as the electromechanical switches were processing all of the outgoing calls and translating the dialled digits into routing digits. Incidentally, the majority of the equipment in the 274 exchange unit dated back to before the 1930s.

“To put this in perspective there were approximately 120,000 relays in a Director Exchange.”

Going back to controlling the environment, back in 1977 the exchange I was working in had just been decorated. Telephone exchanges required a special paint that gave off less fumes than domestic or usual office paint. Unfortunately, the message did not get through to the contractors and they used commercial emulsion. Over a period of about two weeks after the decorators had finished the entire exchange failed with around 90% of the calls misrouting. The paint fumes had left a residual film on the electromagnet pole faces of the relays causing them to stick.

Telecommunications relays had critical operate and release times for reliable exchange operation. Relays responsible for handling dialled digits were even more susceptible to contaminants as they had to operate and release at a rate of ten pulses per second otherwise calls would misroute. After some remedial work to restore service it took several months to clean all of the relays in the exchange. To put this in perspective there were approximately 120,000 relays in a Director Exchange.

I saw so many personal reminders of my career as I walked around the Information Age Gallery today. It was a time for reflection and it made me realise the big impact the Science Museum has had on my life. Having a guided tour through the six networks in the gallery by John Liffen brought the selection of the exhibits alive by talking us through some of the personal trials, tribulations, successes, failures and disputes experienced by some of the famous and little known pioneers of our industry.

“…Alan Turing shortened the war by at least two years saving millions of lives, Tommy Flowers MBE was an important element in Turing’s success.”

Acoustic CouplerOf all the exhibits my favourite was a single thermionic valve in cabinet with a display screen on the front. The valve was a survivor from the original Colossus machine. The interactive display was a tribute to Tommy Flowers MBE, one of my personal heroes. Many people know of Alan Turing as the man who cracked the German military codes in World War 2. Tommy Flowers was a Post Office Telecommunications engineer one of the developers of the first electronic telephone exchange who, like Alan Turing, played a crucial role in the outcome of the war.

Tommy Flowers designed Colossus, the computer based on thermionic valves Alan Turing and his team used to process encrypted German messages. Tommy knew the importance of controlling the environment for operational reliability. Many at the time were convinced thermionic valves were far too unreliable. The director at Bletchley preferred to continue with electromechanical processors even though they were not fast enough to process the data. Tommy knew that if thermionic valves were not switched off and were operated within their design parameters they would be stable and reliable. Fortunately, Tommy won the day.

I always thought of Tommy Flowers as an old school engineer inventor. He was so committed he financed much of his research and experimentation himself. He did not let the lack of support from the authorities or his contempories get in the way of his passion to solve the problem. Experts say Alan Turing shortened the war by at least two years saving millions of lives, Tommy Flowers MBE was an important element in Turing’s success.

“I happened to be sat opposite a retired academic, a computer scientist with some thought provoking opinions and very interesting stories to tell, including the time he met Tommy Flowers.”

The ITP excelled again in organising another interesting Insights Visit. I thoroughly recommend a visit to the Science Museum Information Age gallery. Before I close I want to say a big thank you to John Liffen for his insightful tour and for the ITP for facilitating the visit. Just before I left I picked up a copy of ‘Information Age – Six Networks That Changed Our World’ the book that accompanies the gallery (along with some gifts for my grandchildren). The book is a mine of information on significant developments in the history of our industry and well worth putting on your Christmas list.

On Friday I attended one of my Livery Company’s Christmas lunches (there are several panels, each with their own lunch). The tables were free seating and the conversation flowed faster than the wine. The subject moved on to Tommy Flowers, and a few people asked the usual questions… “Who is Tommy Flowers?” “Who did he play for?” I happened to be sat opposite a retired academic, a computer scientist with some thought provoking opinions and very interesting stories to tell, including the time he met Tommy Flowers.

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