THG Blog | The Telecommunications History Group, Inc. Blog

THG’s Connections Museum featured on NPR morning show

by Jeff Georgeson / May 16, 2023 / Uncategorized

NPR reporter Brian Mann visited THG's museum in Seattle in April, and was inspired to create a radio report about what he heard and saw. You can read and listen to the story on NPR's website.

Video Interviews with THG Founder Herb Hackenburg

by Jason-Atlas / May 20, 2020 / THG News

We were saddened to learn that Telecommunications History Group's founder and first Executive Director Herb Hackenburg passed away on March 2nd of 2020. By researching and writing his history book From Muttering Machines to Laser Beams Herb created within USWest an awareness about the value ... Read More

CGTN America’s Report on the First Wireless Phone

by Jason-Atlas / May 9, 2019 / Education, Telecom History, THG Video Archive

CGTN's Phil Lavelle takes a look back at the first wireless phone with an interview at the Connections Museum Seattle. Ed Mattson shows us where it all began with the first space age cordless telephone and the link back to Seattle's iconic Space Needle structure. ... Read More

Twenty Thousand Hertz Podcast – #63 Phone Tones

by Jason-Atlas / April 11, 2019 / Education, Podcasts, THG Video Archive

Twenty Thousand Hertz tells stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds. This episode explores how touch tone dialing changed communication forever. Enjoy this quirky look into telephone history featuring our Denver volunteer and telephone aficionado, Jim Hebbeln and author Annabel Dodd.

Connections Museum Seattle Open House

by Jason-Atlas / August 5, 2018 / Museum News, THG News, THG Video Archive

Connections Museum Seattle held a successful Open House on July 15 & 16, hosting nearly 150 people over the two days. We celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Seattle museum with newly organized exhibits, tours, and a ribbon cutting on a new collection honoring one ... Read More

KING 5 News’ Spotlight Video About the Seattle Connections Museum

by Jason-Atlas / August 1, 2018 / Museum News, THG News, THG Video Archive

KING 5 News Seattle produced a spotlight video highlighting the Seattle Connections Museum and the launch of some of our new exhibits. In the video, KING 5's Ted Land features the AT&T videophone from the early 1990s, some of our wonderful staff and volunteers, and ... Read More

How Phones Work: The Basic Science Behind Telephones

by Jason-Atlas / July 21, 2018 / Education, Telecom History

Before diving into the workings of the very earliest phones, let’s talk about how they work in general. After all, the phones of today work the same way as Bell’s and all the phones of yesteryear. Sure, the trappings are different; we use computers instead ... Read More

How Cordless and Cell Phones Work: The Science Behind Untethered Telecommunications

by Jason-Atlas / June 18, 2018 / Education, Telecom History

For decades the telephone became more and more popular until it became one of the center points of most everyone’s life. The telephone (and television) have become the standard way in which life is conducted, a focal point of everyone’s (and especially teenagers’) lives. And ... Read More

How Long Distance Calls Work: Calling a Country Far, Far Away

by Jason-Atlas / May 13, 2018 / Education, Telecom History

If you’ve been around long enough to truly remember the 1970s, or even the 1980s, and you made any sort of long distance calls overseas, you remember a time when such calls were a bit like being in a vast cave and shouting out into ... Read More

A Time Before Phones: The Inventions Leading Up to the Telephone

by Jason-Atlas / April 24, 2018 / Education, Telecom History

The development of all the bits and pieces of the telephone make for interesting reading all by themselves (or perhaps you haven’t yet read the other articles in this section!), but it is at least as interesting looking over the various inventions that lead up ... Read More