RT Journal Article
T1 History of communications and the Congruence Engine: early thoughts and possibilities
A1 Jon Agar
YR 2023
VO Congruence Engine
IS Autumn 2022
K1 communications
K1 Congruence Engine
K1 digital history
K1 digital humanities
K1 historiography
K1 history of communications
K1 history of technology
K1 telecommunications
AB Communications is one of three strands of research under the Congruence Engine project, and will follow the other two, Textiles and Energy, in trialling the application of digital methods to better connect and understand collections held in partner institutions. This paper begins with a discussion of definitions of ‘communications’ and an overview of historiography. Interviews conducted by the author with collaborators (in the Science Museum Group, National Museums of Scotland, BT Archives and Historic England) elicit insights into what the Communications strand of Congruence Engine might achieve, obstacles that might be encountered, research directions to pursue and historical questions to ask. Finally, six possible projects are described and discussed.
NO Higgitt (2022b) adds: ‘the big ambition of linking collections, which could involve drawing on existing standards for integrating heritage datasets (e.g. CIDOC CRM) and adding tailored taxonomies/ontologies for communications collections that would create a standard that other curators and researchers would use in the future. This is what Tools of Knowledge hopes to do, building our model within the Arches platform’. 
NO The International Council on Archives defines an authority record as follows: ‘The authorized form of name combined with other information elements that identify and describe the named entity and may also point to other related authority records’.
NO Post Office telephone kiosk No. 6, introduced in 1936, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott for the General Post Office, made by the Carron Company, Falkirk, Scotland, c.1971. Science Museum, on display in the Information Age gallery. A K6 kiosk in Petts Wood is also illustrated in the book accompanying Information Age (Blyth, 2014, p 113). 
NO Telephone kiosk, K6, with A+B button decimal payphone, 1936–1968. National Museums of Scotland reference T.2003.244
NO Magneto manual telephone exchange, fifty-line with hand generator, Ericsson handset, flap indicators and connecting cords, used on Jura from the late 1940s to the mid 1970s. National Museums of Scotland reference T.2004.418
NO Historical Directories of England & Wales. About this collection. https://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p16445coll4 (accessed 25 August 2022)
NO Connected Earth partners included: Amberley Museum and Heritage Centre, Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings, Bawdsey Radar, BT Archives, Milton Keynes Museum, Museum of Science and Industry, Museum of London, National Museums Scotland, Science Museum London, Telegraph Museum Porthcurno (now PK Porthcurno), the Institute of Telecommunications Professionals, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, and the University of Salford. From Nigel Linge’s website: https://www.engagingwithcommunications.com/connectedearth.html (accessed 17 November 2022)
PB The Science Museum Group
SN 2054-5770
LA eng
DO 10.15180/221806
UL https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/history-of-communications-and-the-congruence-engine-early-thoughts-and-possibilities/
WT Science Museum Group Journal
OL 30