National Museum of Computing to Open New Flowers to Fibre Exhibition

The National Museum of Computing in Bletchley (Buckinghamshire, England) is to open a new Gallery Exhibition on 11th March 2023 – ‘Flowers to Fibre’, which as the name suggests will aim to tell the “hidden story” of Britain’s telecommunications journey all the way through the copper and fibre optic broadband age.

The new exhibition reflects The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC) and The Communications Museum Trust’s (CMT) joint move to celebrate the anniversary of the start of a journey to modernise Britain’s telephone network under the engineering genius of Tommy Flowers, the man behind Bletchley Park’s Colossus code-breaking computer.

Flowers and his successors at the General Post Office (GPO) and British Telecom (BT) worked for half a century starting in 1947 to make the existing copper voice network a faster and more reliable vehicle for the digital services we enjoy today. “They not only turned research into core principles of the technology underpinning telecoms – including fibre – they also built the world’s first digital phone exchanges in Britain,” said the announcement.

The exhibition itself will thus take visitors from the first pilots of those prototype digital exchanges and all the way up to the “planned national switch from copper to fibre after 2025“. But this isn’t necessarily the best way to express the December 2025 target, which largely reflects the date for the switch-off of Openreach’s old analogue telephone service, rather than a switch away from copper itself.

The reality is that copper lines will continue to be used for many years beyond 2025, albeit mainly to serve consumers with broadband and IP-based phone services in locations that haven’t yet got or completed their transition to Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines.

 The hands-on, interactive experience includes:

• A working example of early Strowger electro-mechanical telephone exchange equipment, that dominated the national phone network and visitors can use to make phone calls
• Rare examples of components from the early modern exchanges, a prototype of System X digital telephone switching system, and ADSL pilot equipment from the dawn of Britain’s broadband.
• The chance to experience dial-up internet today with the technology of the past – a 1990s PC/modem.
• Press material from coverage of the GPO’s very first, ground-breaking digital-exchange pilot.
• The chance for those involved in the development of Britain’s high-speed phone network to record their stories as part of a planned, new TNMOC archive project.

Hopefully they haven’t forgotten about the impact of ISDN and Cable (coax via NTL / Telewest) based connections in amongst all that.

Jacqui Garrad, TNMOC Director, said:

“We take the digital age for granted – broadband on the go, streaming media, social apps – but these would not have been possible without modern telecoms foundations. Tommy Flowers is rightly celebrated for his wartime work on Colossus but his contribution to laying those foundations is often overlooked.

Flowers to Fibre celebrates the work of Tommy and his team at the iconic GPO Dollis Hill Research Station, plus their descendants. Their vision and conviction that technology could be done better regardless of the obstacles in their path is an inspiration to us all and something The National Museum of Computing and Communications Museum Trust wished to celebrate. We wish to thank CMT for their hard work and support in delivering this compelling and exciting visitor experience at our museum in support of this date!”

The exhibition will formally open on the 11^th March with a gallery opening event – it will then remain open all year.

10:30 -10:45 – Refreshments -Welcome

11:00 -12:15 – Dr David Abrutat, Departmental Historian (GCHQ Historical Section)

12:20 -13:30 Gallery Opening – Visitors explore the Exhibition and meet the experts

13:30 – 14:15 Lunch & Networking

14:15 -16:30 Visitors explore the Exhibition and meet the experts

You can find out more and purchase tickets for the event on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/flowers-to-fibre-tickets-479544820467 .