TY - JOUR TI - History of communications and the Congruence Engine: early thoughts and possibilities AU -Jon Agar PY - 2023 VL - Congruence Engine IS - Autumn 2022 KW - communications KW - Congruence Engine KW - digital history KW - digital humanities KW - historiography KW - history of communications KW - history of technology KW - 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. N1 - 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’. N1 - 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’. N1 - 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). N1 - Telephone kiosk, K6, with A+B button decimal payphone, 1936–1968. National Museums of Scotland reference T.2003.244 N1 - 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 N1 - Historical Directories of England & Wales. About this collection. https://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p16445coll4 (accessed 25 August 2022) N1 - 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 UR - https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/history-of-communications-and-the-congruence-engine-early-thoughts-and-possibilities/ T2 - Science Museum Group Journal