From Edison’s GEM phonograph which played recordings onto wax cylinders, via the Crystal Radio, the early Philips transistor of the 1950’s to today’s connected society where TV and Radio can be delivered at the touch of a screen, broadcasting has changed out of all proportion in just over 100 years.
A small exhibition put together by Greater Manchester Museum contains objects collated from collections across the region.
A picture on loan from Bolton Archives comes from 1953 and shows a mobile television demonstration, then in its infancy people gazed at the small black and white screen of a technology that had only been around in the North of England for two years. The photo strangely shows an all female audience.
Ten years later we had never had it so good as technology based goods fueled the dawn of consumerism.
Perhaps most poinginatly a pocket TV from 1999, we all thought it was the future, allowing the viewer to tune in by scanning through the wave range, yet within less than a decade it would be obsolete
This TV and Radio exhibition brings together objects from the collections of the Greater Manchester Museums Group (GMMG), a partnership of eight museums services in the North West.
It runs from the 27th January until 31st March at The University of Salford MediaCityUK campus between the hours of 9 am and 6pm and is free
