Author: Morris Butler
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Telephone Historical Centre Visiting hours

The invention of the telephone revolutionized communication. At The Telephone Historical Centre, explore how our communications have progressed through time.

Visit this hands-on museum that features real, working telephones as well as the switchboards and switching systems that powered the wired telephone network.

Monday – Friday

In December 1987, the Telephone Historical Centre opened in an old telephone exchange building in Old Strathcona. By 2004 however, it had moved to Prince of Wales Armouries Heritage Centre in Central Edmonton where it remained until April 2019.

The museum boasts an extensive collection of antique and vintage phones, switchboards and outside plant equipment from past years, along with an exhibit tracing the evolution of mobile phones from 1980s car phones to current cellular phones. Visitors will witness displays such as rotary dial phones, decorator phones, hand-crank magneto phones and manual switchboards – in addition to an extensive library of telecommunications reference books for researchers. The Museum is run entirely by volunteers and open to the public by appointment only. For further inquiries or booking, contact the Telephone Historical Centre by dialling 780-432-0099; Monday – Friday 10 am – 3 pm and closed on Saturday & Sunday; hours may differ during holidays & special events, and Wednesday is closed as part of Museum business hours.

Saturday

The Telephone Historical Centre is an interactive and hands-on museum designed to make learning fun for kids of all ages. Situated in Prince of Wales Armouries Heritage Centre, this centre houses an impressive collection of antique telephones as well as other telecommunications memorabilia from yesteryear. Hours for admission vary; Monday – Friday 10 am – 3 pm (closed Saturday). Admission fee per person is $2; groups of 20 or more can pay additional USD2 admission.

The Telephone Historical Centre first opened to the public on December 3, 1987 in Old Strathcona and moved to its current home at Prince of Wales Armouries Heritage Center on September 17, 2004. This museum features an impressive multi-media theatre show that highlights the History of Telephony along with many interactive exhibits that demonstrate communications science, as well as first class manual telephone switchboard, Step-by-Step private automatic branch exchange, mobile telephones exhibit, as well as many other fun exhibits highlighting communication technology and science behind it. Countless tourists visit it each year! One of Edmonton’s premier tourist attractions!

Holidays

The Telephone Historical Centre is an interactive museum that takes visitors on an immersive journey through the history and impact of telephone communication worldwide. Displays include working telephones, hand-crank magneto phones mounted to walls, dial phones, and manual switchboards – as well as hand-cranked phone operators machines! History provides us with fascinating pieces of evidence about electricity, sound and magnetism – essential elements in modern-day communication systems. Take a tour through telecommunications’ past to meet those who made it all possible! Discover the story of Winter Park Telephone Company, founded by a Maitland resident in 1910. Take advantage of online resources and upcoming events at the Museum to make the most of your visit – make this holiday season extra memorable by making it special with family or friends at Telephone Historical Centre!

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Telephone Historical Centre

The telephone has revolutionized human communication. Additionally, its advent has opened doors for new businesses, fostered innovation and significantly impacted our world today.

Although its history has been extensively written about and revised numerous times over, the telephone remains an indispensable part of daily life today and must be evaluated according to its role in contemporary societies.

The Invention of the Telephone

The telephone revolutionized communication; you can call any location in the world to get instantaneous responses to any inquiry you might have.

Alexander Graham Bell was an extraordinary engineer who realized telegraphy could be used to transmit speech long distance. He devoted every penny of his salary and labored hard to develop an efficient method for transmitting the sounds of speech over wires.

After months of research, he devised a telephone using both a transmitter and receiver to transmit sound waves produced by human voice over wire. For the transmitter device, an ordinary drum-like device with needle attached was coupled with paper for use as the transmitting medium.

Bell would speak into the open end of his drum, making the paper and needle vibrate and send out current that could travel along its wire to its receiver at the other end. There, sound waves were converted back into sound using diaphragm connected to a receiver for listening purposes.

The Telephone in Business

Telephones may seem outdated technology, but they still play a vital role in business. You can use it to share information across departments, manage customer and client inquiries, book appointments for essential services and host conference calls through it.

Emergency response apps are also an invaluable resource when responding to emergencies or contacting emergency services quickly and effectively, such as police and fire department services, so as to minimize disruption in your business operations.

As a business, you probably use landline, mobile and digital phones to communicate with staff and customers. They allow you to schedule appointments, provide customer service, share updates about forthcoming projects or hold sales meetings over the phone.

The History of the Telephone in Edmonton

Visits to Edmonton’s Telephone Historical Centre provide visitors with an opportunity to learn about telecommunications technology from its early beginnings to today, through interactive exhibits that engage visitors hands-on and immersive multi-media presentations such as Historical Telecommunications Theatre Show.

The Telephone Historical Centre opened its doors to visitors in 1987, making it the largest facility of its kind in Canada. Entry is by donation with group discounts available.

One of the most fascinating aspects of telephones is their capacity to transmit and encrypt messages directly between locations. This is achieved using a diaphragm located on its mouthpiece that vibrates when certain electrical currents vary, thus making communication seamless between locations.

Although the telephone was invented in 1876, its true breakthrough came in 1885 after Government of Canada declared all Bell patents invalid, opening up competition from independent telephone companies against Bell and leading to an apparent decrease in subscribers to Bell Canada.

The Telephone Historical Centre

The Telephone Historical Centre was an Edmonton museum established to preserve the history of telephones. First opening its doors to visitors on December 3, 1987 at an Old Strathcona former telephone exchange building before later moving to its current home at Prince of Wales Armouries Heritage Centre, The Telephone Historical Centre has long been dedicated to this purpose.

The museum features fascinating and educational displays about Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone system as it stands today, from handphones and bell systems through modern communications networks such as IP phones. Exhibits are hands on and interactive; visitors can try their luck at operating the working switching station themselves while learning more about how communications have developed over time.

The Canadian Telephony Museum is unique. Operated by a volunteer committee composed of active pensioners who possess extensive knowledge about telephone history, it offers something for all ages to see and explore during tours led by knowledgeable docents who share their expertise while giving insights into its development over time.

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The Telephone Historical Centre offers outreach programs that bring the history of telephones alive. Our team of educators can work with your classroom, school, community education center or business to deliver a lesson that satisfies Social Studies standards and the Kentucky Academic Standards for Arts and Humanities.

Classroom Outreach

Classroom Outreach offers teachers and their students engaging, hands-on educational experiences that align with state social studies standards. Museum education staff works directly with classroom teachers to conduct an engaging lesson using historical artifacts as teaching aids.

Students become historians as they analyze historical images and artifacts and participate in activities such as quill writing or wool spinning to develop visual literacy, historical literacy and critical thinking skills. These interactive lessons are free for schools and community education centers.

School outreach programs have the power to engage students with community issues while simultaneously sparking skill development. By connecting economic, political, and societal forces to their everyday lives and showing them how they can impact them directly, school outreach programs have an incredible capacity for positive impactful action from both students and communities over time. By including community partners into classroom learning environments they provide diverse pathways that meet diverse learning styles.

Community Outreach

Community outreach refers to an umbrella term covering many activities. From handing out informational pamphlets on new health and safety regulations, to developing interactive educational games and exhibits that educate residents, visitors, and local businesses; there are countless forms of community outreach programs offered at The Telephone Historical Centre that aim to assist residents in these areas as well as historical preservation, law enforcement, medical care services and much more.

THC promotes our services at local events and through its online presence. Our website and social media platforms are regularly updated with Texas history, cultural heritage, conservation and preservation news and events. In addition, staff at THC attend many public and private events each year to promote our programs – sharing the THC experience with those interested in our historic collections, local treasures and state’s rich history.

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The Telephone Historical Centre Collections offer visitors an exciting and engaging array of antique telephones, telecommunications technology, research documents and archives that they can interact with through hands-on exhibits.

The Bell Canada Telephone History Collection contains over three and a half million documents and 25,000 pieces of equipment dating from late 1800s to present day, documenting the development of telephone technology as it progressed, while honoring early pioneers who made history possible.

Collections

As well as its collection of antique telephones, the museum staff are constantly on the lookout for what will become the next great advance in telecommunications history. To share their knowledge with enthusiasts everywhere, they have compiled an exhaustive list of books and articles every telecom enthusiast should read in order to stay abreast of developments within telecommunications history.

Their award-winning exhibits boast a diverse collection of antique telephones and technology to keep visitors busy for hours on end. Interactive telecommunications themed displays and hands-on programs make finding something of interest easy; you may even come across your favourite item during one of the hands-on programs devoted to this field of technology! Visit Edmonton Museum of Telecommunications (EMOT) if you’re curious about Edmonton’s early days in telecommunications; this trip down memory lane takes us back to a time when Edmonton hosted some of world leading technologies; try on an actual Victorian dress or converse with an actual phone operator!

Exhibits

The Telephone Historical Centre Collections contain an incredible variety of telecommunications artefacts. This includes telephone sets, telegraphs, insulators and even a replica of Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone!

The museum features various exhibits and hands-on activities for visitors to enjoy, such as its Telecommunications History Gallery, Antique Telephone Exhibit, Mobile-Telephone Exhibit that charts wireless communications from 1980s cars through modern mobile phones, among others.

The museum houses an extensive collection of tools of the trade, copper cabling and manholes from early days of telecommunications technology and its development from manual switching to automatic switching. Admission is by donation.

Archives

The Telephone Historical Centre Collections contain a wide array of archives including documents, photographs, artefacts and other items related to the history of telephone technology. These items provide details about early operations of companies including information on personnel; local telephone directories; newspapers; miscellaneous items.

Manual System Telephones: Edmonton first established their manual telephone system in 1885; since then it has continued to adapt in order to keep pace with increasing population growth in Edmonton’s streets. Line switching involved sending signal patterns through switchboard operators at telephone exchanges directly to rotary dial telephones connected by wire.

The Archives Center recently received a grant from the Smithsonian Institution’s Collections Care and Preservation Fund to digitize at-risk film collections for public access. Your donation will help preserve these fragile yet unique resources for future researchers.

Research

Bell Canada’s Telephone Historical Collection is an extensive research archive, comprising nearly three and a half million paper documents and 25K pieces of equipment dating from 1880-2007. While not strictly considered part of Bell’s company archive, the collections provide researchers with access to an abundance of knowledge regarding Bell’s role in Canadian telecommunications history – an invaluable resource.

The Centre’s most captivating exhibit is its impressive collection of antique telephones and communications technology, complete with hands-on exhibits that give visitors an experience first-hand of history such as Alexander Graham Bell’s Gallows Frame Telephone or Thomas Watson’s Thumper Phone; both can be found alongside replicas. In addition, other technological artifacts including Step-by-Step Private Automatic Branch Exchange, mobile phone exhibit, stepping switches etc all trace its evolution since 1870 right up until today’s wireless communication age are also housed here.

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I currently play a 30 button Wheatstone Anglo. I try classical music, but find it difficult, especially with chords. So, I’m considering saving for 40 buttons. Is Wheatstone or Jeffries better for classical music playing? To be clear, I’m not referring to the different reed layouts (not old instruments) and whether one fits better under the fingers.

Choose between Jeffries & Wheatstone

Although I don’t have much experience with other instruments, I do have a Jeffries duet as well as a Wheatstone JD. I play a wide range of music at I would say an intermediate/improving level. I play classical music and the Wheatstone is my preferred instrument. It has a clearer sound than the Jeffries. It would depend on what piece it is though. Consider the oboe instead of French horn. The Wheatstone can also be chromatic to the cello Bb, which is advantageous. While the Jeffries is only chromatic to low G, I’m sure you’re still referring to anglos.

Advantage of the 30 Button Wheatstone Layout

Anglo players are my primary interest, but I occasionally play classical music on both the 30- and 40-button Wheatstone-layouts. The 30-button Wheatstone layout has a major advantage: it is fully chromatic, from A3 through G6, i.e. It covers the same range as a triple English. The G3 covers almost the exact same range, except for the G# and the additional below. As far as I know, the chromatic range for Jeffries instruments with 30-button buttons is around D6 and E6. The extra high notes of the

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Trad Music

Wheatstone is not often used in traditional music but can be very useful in classical music if you are playing from a flute or violin part. Wheatstone also has more duplicated notes (in the opposite direction) Gs, As and I find these notes to be very useful as pivot points for keeping my fingers in check. They are also more likely to be used in chords that appear in the friendlier keys (e.g. three flats to three Sharps).

What about a 40 Button Layout Concertina

It’s obvious that the 40-button layout gives you more options for chords, partial or full, and melodic phrasing. And, if you’re really good at counterpoint, it can be even better. My 40-button instrument has the Jeffries-style “reversed” left hand D#/C# buttons. However, because it’s on the additional column (relatively to 30-button), it doesn’t disrupt the Wheatstone pattern with those Gs.

Let me conclude by saying that my 40-button anglo was a result of luck and taking a chance on something less well-known, in this case, a South African Koot Brits instrument. They are more common than 40-button anglos, and they don’t have the same coveted names that sell top dollars in the global marketplace, so they are a lot cheaper than a decent 30 button accordion-reeded. It’s still my “desert islands” instrument, and I have never regretted it.

I’m addicted to the Anglo unfortunately! Concertinists don’t have to be insane. I can play a great concert harp if that is what I need. Although I have learned many instruments, I prefer to use the book. Father Christmas gave me a 20-button concertina (the most affordable) when I was very young. He forgot to include instructions so I had to search for the music myself. That inner intuition has stayed with my to this day.

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