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Saving History From The Dumpster!

These pages are dedicated to preserving a historical record of broadcast equipment. Others are doing an excellent job in recording other aspects of the history of broadcasting. As we find them, we'll add links to them. This site consists of scanned manuals and catalogs of broadcast equipment. This page started in 2002.In October 2005, the site was changed from hand coded HTML to a wiki. In June 2014, this was migrated to a new server and an updated wiki code set. In September 2015, the wiki was again moved to another server (a virtual private server at 1&1 running Centos). In August 2021, the wiki was moved again, this time to Contabo running Alma Linux. Because of severe issues with wiki spam, only registered users can edit the pages.

See recent changes here.

If you would like to register so you can edit pages and upload files, please email me (harold@hallikainen.org). If you have a scan you'd like posted, please mail it to me, and I'll post it.

Free To Good Home

As I finish scanning manuals, I will make the hard copies available for free (just pay shipping). See FTGH for more details.

Broadcast Equipment Manuals

Historic Papers

Papers by the people who made broadcasting possible. A collection of papers on technology. Quite a few early papers on AM, FM, and TV.

Photo Gallery

Photo Gallery of contributed photos of historic equipment and installations.

Station Histories

Contributed station histories and links to others.

Other Manual Archives

  • American Radio History - Extensive collection of catalogs an manuals back to 1933.
  • Audio Sharing - An archive of audio equipment manuals including some used in broadcast and film.
  • Australian Professional Audio Equipment - Originally the purpose of this page is to document professional audio recording devices manufactured in Australia. The main focus is on professional reel to reel magnetic tape recorders but other recording devices such as tape cartridge machines, magnetic drum recorders, disc cutting and replay equipment are also covered. The collection inclues equipment, manuals, advertising material and accessories including mic preamps, line amps, mixers, power amps, limiters, volume indicators, program failure alarms, etc. The two criteria for inclusion are that the equipment was made in Australia and that it was used in the recording or broadcasting industry or was used in a commercial setting such as a lift announcement unit.
  • BAMA - Boat Anchor Manual Archive
  • BAMA Mirror
  • BAMA List of Other Sites with free manuals
  • AA4DF manuals for sale with some free. Manuals for consumer, broadcast, communications, and test equipment.
  • AC6V List of ham radio manual suppliers
  • Broadcast Documents - collection of manual photocopies for sale
  • http://www.coutant.org/ - Extensive microphone archive and several other pieces of equipment.
  • DIY Audio Technical Books Online. Extensive collection of tube manuals and books on design and troubleshooting.
  • Electron Ballet - Computer and test equipment manuals and more.
  • KO4BB - Large collection of test equipment manuals and application notes. Some broadcast manuals.
  • Library of Congress Vintage Manuals, Brochures, Catalogs, & Reports - Extensive manual collection and history of recorded sound
  • Nostalgia Air - Antique and vintage radio info

  • nvhrbiblio.nl - Amazing collection of early books, magazines, and schematics

  • Purple Audio Schematic Library - Schematics and manuals for Altec, Ampex, CBS Labs, Datamix, Gates, Langevin, Pultec, RCA, Spectra Sonics, Sony, Telefunken, 3M, UREI
  • eService Info - Service manuals for computers, test equipment, consumer equipment in rar format
  • http://www.ebaman.com/ - Various contributed manuals for electronics, computers, home electronics, motors, etc.
  • Liberated Manuals - Extensive collection of military manuals.
  • PDF Manuals - Tektronix test equipment manuals for sale.
  • One Electron Archive - Extensive collection of manuals and vacuum tube data.
  • Purple Audio Schematic Archive at arhive.org
  • Radio Era - Over 150,000 original factory instruction and service manuals from 1915 - 1985
  • Radio Gear Guide - Links to manufacturer provided manual pages.
  • radiomuseum.org - User contributed manuals, mostly consumer electronics.
  • Radio Papers - Manuals and papers from broadcast equipment manufacturers and consultants.
  • Rider's Perpetual Troubleshooters - Receiver schematics and service info for 1920s through 1954.
  • SafeManuals - Consumer product manuals.
  • A. G. Tannenbaum - Manuals for sale
  • Star City Radio Tools - Manuals scanned by Dale Cook. He has also provided several manuals for this site. He does a great job cleaning up the images.
  • Steam Powered Radio - There are eight sections of interest. The "Radio Stations", "Manuals", and "Catalogs" sections all pretty much deal with radio (sometimes TV) broadcasting items. "Collections" contains pages for individuals who have contributed large amounts of material. "Audio" contains some interesting audio clips collected over the years. "Components" is a collection of parts catalogs, data sheets and manuals of older items you might run across but can't find data onThe "Other Stuff" section is a collection of items I find of interest. This includes old magazines, catalogs, ham radio stuff, railroading or anything else that strikes my fancy. The "People" section is about, well, some of the people who have contributed to the site.
  • Technician's File Cabinet - Attempt to bring together in one place links to service and technical information for electronic equipment. Includes sections for consumer audio, pro audio, old radios, ham radio, test equipment, military electronics, and transformers.
  • Telephony Document Archive - Extensive telephone system documentation collected by Steve Cichorsky.
  • Teletype Manuals and other info related to Teletype teleprinters.
  • Teletype Model 35 ASR
  • Transcom Corporation has manuals for sale. Manuals include transmitters and exciters
  • Northland Radio has quite a few manuals with copies available for sale and a few free for download
  • Tube Books - Collection of vintage engineering texts, vacuum tube datasheets, and other obsolete information. Has an extensive collection of text books on vacuum tube electronics.
  • Vintage Manuals - over 16,000 vintage radio, audio and test equipment manuals.
  • Waltzing Bear Schematic Archive - Schematics and data for AKG, Altec, Ampex, API, CBS, Dolby, Gates, Jensen, MCI, Neve, Orban, Otari, Pacific Recorders and Engineering, Quad Eight, RCA, Sennheiser, Shure, SpectraSonics, Spectrum, SSL, Studer, Telefunken, Trident, Urei, UTC, Valley, Western Electric, and others.

Other Broadcast History Sites

  • American Radio History - Extensive archive of broadcast publications, including Broadcasting Magazine, Broadcasting Yearbook, Radio Daily, RCA Broadcast News, and more.

  • http://antiqueradios.com/resources/

  • Audio Processing History

  • http://www.amfone.net - Restore and put that old broadcast transmitter to work as an amateur radio transmitter!
  • http://www.broadcastpioneers.com of Philadelphia - invaluable...a trove of early TV memories for Delaware Valley nostalgiaholics.
  • David Gleason has a very nice collection of Broadcasting Magazines (1935-1949) and Broadcasting Yearbook (1944-1979).
  • Early Radio History - Thomas H. White's very extensive site covering 1897 through 1927
  • California Historical Radio Society exchanges ideas and information on the history of radio, particularly in the West, with emphasis in collecting, literature, programs, and the restoration and display of early equipment.
  • Chalk Hill Educational Media has a nice collection of historic radio and television info.
  • http://www.coutant.org/ LOTS of information on LOTS of microphones. Also, some manuals on old broadcast equipment.
  • Drake Chenault
  • Donna Halper's History of Broadcasting Links - includes The Story of Jewish Comedians in America, The Short Course by Donna Halper, Donna Halper and The Rush Discovery Story, Halper's History of Radio - Old Time Radio, African Americans and Early Radio by Donna Halper, Milestones of the Radio Age, Radio in 1939 - Halper's History of Radio - Old Time Radio, Broadcasting History Articles by Elizabeth McLeod, John Sheppard III, Some History by Donna Halper, A Radio First in Vinton Iowa by Donna Halper, Rembering the Ladies, A Salute to the Women of Early Radio.
  • Early Radio - Extensive collection of documents at http://www.durenberger.com/ .
  • Edwin Howard Armstrong - FM Inventor - History at Columbia University.
  • Armmstrong Archive Blog - Columbia University is catalogging Armstrong's papers. Ideally they'll scan them andmake them available. Meanwhile, tidbits are available here.
  • Electronic Fossil - Photo collection of Marconi Items, Early Radio, Wireless Age, Early Television, Electrical Devices, 1920's Radio Speakers, 1930's Radios, Scientific Medical and Quack Devices, and more.
  • FCC Audio Division Collected Engineering Documents contains an extensive collection of documents showing the history of radio broadcasting. These include documents on early AM and FM broadcasting, and the Radio Service Bulletins from 1915.
  • FCC Radio Pioneers - The Ideas that Made Radio Possible, The Power that Made Radio Realistic, The Quality that Made Radio Popular
  • FM Broadcasting Chronology - This page shows some of the events in the early history of FM broadcasting in the United States. Note that apex stations referred to on this page used amplitude modulation on VHF frequencies; many of them evolved into FM stations. For dates involving the earliest stations, see also the "earliest FM stations" page at this website.
  • Gates Harris History - Great archive of Gates newsletters back to 1935
  • Bob Groome SOB Site - Extensive schematic and photo collection.
  • History of American Broadcasting by Jeff Miller. Many articles and an extensive list of links to other broadcast history sites.
  • Bob Mayben has a nice collection of photographs of older equipment, much of it restored to like new condition.
  • Modesto Radio Museum - The Modesto Radio Museum foundation was formed in 2004 comprised of current and past men and women with local broadcasting experience. The original idea for the museum came in 2004, when Harry Pappas, owner of the original KTRB property on Norwegian Ave in Modesto, contacted Wes Page, Cecil Lynch and Cal Purviance with the idea to build a museum dedicated to preserving the history of commercial broadcasting in Modesto, and the area, beginning in 1933 when KTRB signed on the air in Modesto. The goal was to increase and preserve the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of their efforts and the equipment they used. Due to economic conditions, the museum is currently on the web only.
  • oldradio.com - Oldradio.com's mission is to find and share information about the pioneer broadcast radio stations and current industry issues, as well as links and references to other locations containing accurate materials on broadcasting. The emphasis is on professional broadcasting, but we can "wander" a bit from time to time. The goal is to shed light on your questions, and clear up some myths.
  • On The Air - 1937 film describing how radio works.
  • http://hawkins.pair.com/radio.html - Jim Hawkins Radio and Broadcast Technology Page. Photo tours and histories of many statons.
  • Radio Lovers - audio archives of old radio programming.
  • Old Time Radio Catalog - EXTENSIVE catalog of old radio broadcast recordings for sale.
  • http://www.marconicalling.com/ - The Guglielmo Marconi archive including MANY historic documents, such as his early patents, Titanic communications, and MUCH more!

  • http://www.radioclubofamerica.org

  • http://www.radioheritage.net - We're sharing the stories of Pacific radio. More than anywhere else in the world, radio found an easy home here, conquering vast distances of ocean, and connecting the scattered islands with each other in much the same way early Polynesian seafarers used the sea itself as their main means of communication.
  • UK Radio and TV Transmitters
  • IEEE Oral History Site - Interviews with those involved in the development of radio, television, radar, the internet, etc.
  • The EBS Accident - In 1971, the wire services carried an Emergency Action Notification requiring normal broadcasting to cease immediately...
  • GGN Information - Early commercial FM and Television broadcasting facilities from mid 1930s to late 1970s. Concentrates on New Hampshire, major stations in New England and the Northeast, as well as other selected early broadcasters.
  • Radio Links - LOTS of links to broadcast oriented sites. The history page links to several dozen broadcast history sites.
  • Reel Radio Top 40 Radio Repository air check collection.
  • The Roots of Radio run deep in Philadelphia - Tells the evoloution of several broadcast manufacturers, including RCA, GE, CCA, ITA, Ampex, Comark, Belar, AEL, QEI, CSI, LPB, Wilkinson, ATI, Dielectric, Ampro,
  • John Schneider's San Francisco Radio History - Very nice collection of station histories.
  • Snugglebunny page by Alan & Sharon Kline. Includes radio magazines from the 1920s forward, links to camera tube datasheets, links to historic broadcast patents, etc.
  • The Radio Historian - John Schneider's extensive collection of documents. This web site was created to be a non-commercial repository of historical information and photos documenting the early years of radio broadcasting in the United States. A substantial portion of the site is dedicated to the history of broadcasting in the San Francisco Bay Area.
  • Video Park Restoration of Old Broadcast Equipment - Photographs of very nicely restored broadcast equipment
  • Western Historic Radio Museum - Vintage Radio Equipment and Memorabilia, 1910 through the 1950s, Virginia City, Nevada
  • Vintage Broadcast Microphones - Private collection of early broadcast microphones, related documentation and collector/historian resources.

  • Video - Found video about radio

    • NBC Presents “Behind Your Radio Dial” (1940) - Describes various aspects of electronics including broadcast radio and television, manufacturing, receiver repair, public address, and maritime communications. Concentrates on the training required and job opportunities.
    • How Radio Broadcasting Works (1937) - Describes a bit of the technology involved in getting sound from the studio to your radio. One interesting image is how amplification works. They show the image of a waveform, then show it amplified. But, the amplified waveform appears to be just an enlarged image of the original, in both the X and Y axis. So, the amplification appears to make the amplitude larger and the frequency lower.

Television

  • Antique Television - a brief page, but has several links that look good.
  • The Old CATV Equipment Museum - A place to post photos of ancient cable TV equipment, with appropriate captions.
  • Cartrivision - The first consumer videocasette machine in 1972.
  • Chalk Hill Educational Media has a nice collection of historic radio and television info.
  • DuMont Television Network - In the late 1940's and early 1950's, DuMont was America's fourth television network.
  • Early Television Foundation & Museum in Ohio. Site has nice images of televisions back to 1928. Has images from a Baird mechanical receiver. Lotsa stuff!
  • Farnovision - Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of television
  • FCC Television History pages.
  • History of UHF Television - Excellent collection of artifacts from Histor's Dumpster
  • Jonz Valve Page - Extensive photo galleries and restoration info for old radios and televisions.
  • LabGuy's World - EXTENSIVE collection of consumer video tape recorders with excellent links to other video sites.
  • Living Test Patterns: The Models Who Calibrated Color TV - The white women known in the 1950s as “Miss Color TV” reinforced longstanding hierarchies of gender and race that were built into generations of technologies. The article also details the battle between CBS and RCA for the color television standard.
  • Mullard CRT Tube Manufacturing - Video on the complex manufacturing of CRT tubes.
  • Narrow Band Television Association - Early television, especially mechanically scanned.
  • North Beach Media has a nice collection of photos of vintage television equipment. Scroll down the page to the photo gallery, then select a "vintage" area in the drop down menu.
  • NTSC-TV has extensive technical information on the US analog television transmission system and its development.
  • Old Boys The 'Oldboys' web site began in 1998 which was the 40th 'birthday' of videotape in the BBC, and so it seemed appropriate to commemorate this with a small collection of pictures from the various decades. Since then it has expanded somewhat to over 1500 pages and 2400 pictures and, in November 2008, we celebrated our tenth birthday.
  • Old CATV Equipment Museum - Vast documentation from the beginnings of community antenna television.
  • Quadruplex Park - Quadruplex park is the home page for those who are interested in collecting electronic equipment used in broadcasting. It is especially for those who collect the more obscure, unusual, and sometimes just plain hard-to-deal-with things, such as large format VTR's, film chains, switchers, studio cameras, terminal equipment, and even transmitters.
  • Ed Reitan's Color Television History
  • Television Tape - Discover the magic of television production on tape, as compared to film.
  • historytv.net - Early television images, including 1929 broadcast of Felix the Cat
  • Tech Notes history and biography. Television oriented including history of translators, TV channel 1, studio equipment, telecine, satellite, video recording, cable television, etc. Biographies include Klaus Landsberg, Harry Lubcke, John Logie Baird, Vladimir Kosma Zworykin, Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, Fondazione Guglielmo Marconi, and Charles Hallinan.
  • tvhistory.tv - The first 75 years of TV
  • Chuck Pharis Video - Chuck has an excellent collection of vintage television broadcast equipment... and radio too!
  • Videotape Systems Theory - Has a nice history and photographs of the development of videotape.
  • W3XK -- America's first television station - A scrapbook of postcards, letters, and QSL cards collected by station owner, Charles Francis Jenkins.

Cinema

  • 3-D Film Archive - Great film technology history site. Besides 3D, has documentation on wide screen, stereo sound, etc. Largely ads for movies featuring these technologies plus ads and articles on the technology.
  • Audio Engineering Society
  • Backstage at the Fox 1929 - Extensive information on early sound for motion pictures as found at the Atlanta Fox Theater with 4,462 seats.
  • New Technology in Cinema - Presentation by Harold Hallikainen to Retired Active Men on 6/16/15.

Amateur Radio

Maritime Radio

  • American Marconi - The American Marconi Foundation is a non-profit education and research organization dedicated to the continuation of the work of Nikola Tesla, Oliver Heaviside, Proteus Steinmetz, Ernst Alexanderson and all the others that contributed to the advancement of electrical engineering. In particular, the study of electrical engineering with regards to the development of the New Brunswick and Bolinas radio frequency electrical substations and future technologies latent in their design.

  • Inland Marine Radio History Archive - Collecting, preserving and presenting the history of radio's use on the Great Lakes and Mississippi River system
  • Marine Radio Historical Society - Radiotelegraph ship to shore
  • Maritime Radio Stations of the World - Nice collection of information on stations throughout the world. Numerous videos. Links to other maritime radio information (Radio Operators Association, etc.).
  • http://www.marconicalling.com/ - The Guglielmo Marconi archive including MANY historic documents, such as his early patents, Titanic communications, and MUCH more!
  • Titanic Radio Page - Very nice site including photos and a transcript of Titanic's distress communications.

MilitaryRadio

Descriptions of military radio equipment and networks.

Museums

This section tries to identify technology museums you can actually visit.

  • American Wireless Association - To preserve and share the history of technology used to communicate and entertain from the first telegram to today’s wireless text messaging. Besides the museum, AWA has extensive documentation, videos, etc. of radio history.
  • California Historical Radio Society, Alameda CA. The California Historical Radio Society (CHRS) is a non-profit educational organization founded in 1974 to promote the preservation, restoration, research and publication of early radio and broadcasting history. CHRS publishes an excellent journal.
  • Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA - preserves and presents for posterity the artifacts and stories of the information age. As such, the Museum plays a unique role in the history of the computing revolution and its worldwide impact on the human experience.
  • David Sarnoff Library
  • Early Television Foundation & Museum in Ohio. Site has nice images of televisions back to 1928. Has images from a Baird mechanical receiver. Lotsa stuff!
  • JKL Museum of Telephony - The American Museum of Telephony (AMoT), known familiarly as the JKL Museum, is dedicated to the preservation of all aspects of telephony.

  • Maritime Radio Historical Society - Morse radiotelegraph station. Transmitter site in Bolinas CA. Receive site in Pt. Reyes Station CA.

    From "Who We Are" - Let's be honest... We're a bunch of radio squirrels. And very lucky radio squirrels at that. We inherited the last remaining Morse code coast station in North America. It was off the air but it was an intact time capsule.

    We made the restoration of KPH to operational status our life's work. That was back in 1999 - the year the last commercial Morse code message in the U.S. was supposedly sent.

    Through the trust and vision of the Point Reyes National Seashore we were given permission to begin our project of restoration, documentation and operation. And we've never looked back.

    As True Believers in the importance of our maritime radio heritage we have tried to research and document every aspect of the field. Our area of specialization is the coast stations, ships and companies of the west coast of the United States. But anything to do with maritime radio anywhere in the world is of interest to us.

    Dedicated MRHS volunteers are busy with the preservation, restoration and repair of the historic artifacts with which we have been entrusted. That work is the foundation on which the real goal of our project rests. That goal is to assure that the culture, techniques and traditions of the men and women who came before us are not forgotten. We feel that the best way to achieve that goal is through actual on the air operations.

    We look forward to visits by fellow True Believers in the importance of the preservation of our radio heritage.

  • Modesto Radio Museum - The Modesto Radio Museum foundation was formed in 2004 comprised of current and past men and women with local broadcasting experience. The original idea for the museum came in 2004, when Harry Pappas, owner of the original KTRB property on Norwegian Ave in Modesto, contacted Wes Page, Cecil Lynch and Cal Purviance with the idea to build a museum dedicated to preserving the history of commercial broadcasting in Modesto, and the area, beginning in 1933 when KTRB signed on the air in Modesto. The goal was to increase and preserve the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of their efforts and the equipment they used. Due to economic conditions, the museum is currently on the web only.
  • Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording - The mission of the nonprofit Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording is to create and maintain a public museum in Austin, Texas dedicated to the research, acquisition, restoration and preservation of vintage magnetic sound recording devices, their documentation and history, and to serve as an educational resource for those interested in the sound recording industry. Also at http://r2rtx.org/ .
  • National Museum of Computing (Milton Keynes, UK) is dedicated to showing the development of computing in its broadest sense from the pioneering war time efforts that resulted in Colossus, to the products and systems we use today. The museum is part of the whole Bletchley Park experience, and all visitors to the park can visit the museum free of charge when it is open. The museum houses the Colossus computer, an exhibition of the most complex code cracking activities performed at the Park, and enhances the Park visitors' experience by continuing the history of the development of computing from the 1940s to the present day.
  • Southwest Museum of Engineering, Communications and Computation, Glendale AZ - A very extensive collection of physical and online resources.
  • Telecom History Group proudly preserves and shares the rich heritage of an industry that has had and continues to have a huge impact on our society, our culture, and most of all, our ability to communicate. THG has museums in Denver CO and Seattle WA.
  • Texas Broadcast Museum, Kilgore TX. When you visit the Texas Broadcast Museum in Kilgore, TX, you’ll be amazed at the vast amount of memorabilia and vintage equipment we’ve collected over a lifetime. From the TV cameras and televisions to the radio equipment and vintage microphones, plus much more, it’s a fun and nostalgic walk down memory lane. There’s even a working radio studio where you can get a feel for what it must have been like to be a disc jockey in the past.
  • Western Historic Radio Museum - Vintage Radio Equipment and Memorabilia, 1910 through the 1950s, Virginia City, Nevada

Police Radio

Recording (audio, video, etc.)

  • Wikipedia article on sound recording.
  • Wikipedia notes on video recording.
  • Ampex Virtual Museum - Dedicated to preserving the history of the most important manufacturer of magnetic recorders, the Ampex Virtual Museum provides online access to Manuals, Schematics, and Service Bulletins; Repair, Maintenance, and Modification Tips; Parts and Repair Sources; Catalogs, Sales Brochures, and Similar Literature; Pictures of Ampexes (mostly); Biographies of some Ampex Mailing List subscribers; Pictures of Ampex Mailing List parties; Ampex history & Other Historical Information; Audio Clips of Interviews with Former Ampex Employees; Alignment Instructions; Links of Interest to Ampex Users; Obituaries; Illustrations Accompanying Dale Manquen's Posts on Flutter; Literature Scanning Project
  • Audio Engineering Society History Commitee - The AES Historical Committee is an international forum open to all who wish to investigate and learn about the achievements of those pioneers whose innovative ideas and inventions have contributed to audio's rich past. Dedicated to the preservation of over a century of audio history, the Committee is developing a broad-based history of audio engineering and the audio industry. AES membership is encouraged but not required.
  • Audio Engineering Society Oral History Project - Oral history DVDs available for sale.
  • Blattnerphone - Adaptation of the wire recorder that used a steel tape instead of a steel wire for magnetic recording.
  • Butoba - A 1950s portable tape recorder with wind-up transport. Early units were vacuum tube with 1.4V A battery and 90V B battery. Later units were transistor based. All used wind-up "clockwork" transport yielding long run time with low battery drain.
  • Capacitance Electronic Discs (RCA Selctavision). A play only videodisc system that used grooved discs (like phonograph records). However, instead of varying the depth and horizontal position of the groove, a conductive underlayer varied in height under the groove. The varying distance between the stylus and the conductive underlayer varied the capacity between the stylus and the underlayer. This is similar to a very high frequency capacitor (condensor) microphone.
  • In Memoriam, Harold Lindsay - Designer of the Ampex 200, the first Ampex tape recorder
  • History of Tape Recording - Starts with Mullin's discovery of the German Magnetophones, the Ampex audio machines, the development of videotape, and audio tape cartridges.
  • History of Magnetic Recording in the United States, 1888-1978 - The history of magnetic recording is an important subject which has not received much scholarly attention. This study uses secondary historical sources in addition to manuscripts, technical documents, interviews, photographs, examinations of artifacts, and descriptive statistics to draw together a history of magnetic sound recording in the United States.
  • LabGuy's World - EXTENSIVE collection of consumer video tape recorders with excellent links to other video sites.
  • Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording - The mission of the nonprofit Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording is to create and maintain a public museum in Austin, Texas dedicated to the research, acquisition, restoration and preservation of vintage magnetic sound recording devices, their documentation and history, and to serve as an educational resource for those interested in the sound recording industry.
  • Old Boys - The 'Oldboys' web site began in 1998 which was the 40th 'birthday' of videotape in the BBC, and so it seemed appropriate to commemorate this with a small collection of pictures from the various decades. Since then it has expanded somewhat to over 1500 pages and 2400 pictures and, in November 2008, we celebrated our tenth birthday.
  • Phantom Productions Vintage Reel Tape Recorder Online Museum - In collecting our vintage recorders, we have attempted to include pieces that had a significant role in the development of audio recording. Our focus is primarily on those reel to reel tape recorders that enabled musicians to hone their craft. We felt it would be interesting to include some of the early cylinder, disk and wire units, however, our main collection reflects the recorders that first became available to musicians and "prosumers" in the '50's, '60's, '70's and early '80's. So many innovations assisted the musician to capture that unique sound. They included, "sound with, and on sound," echo, and then came multi-tracking. Essential to the recordings were the microphones and mixer, so we've added some of those pieces as well. For perspective, we added reel to reel pages in radio catalogs from the late '30's to the early '80's and included tape recorder ads as well. We hope you enjoy our online information. Take a look at our "Phantom Time Line" page also. You'll see some of the audio and video units that were interesting benchmarks of production development. It continues to evolve as we have time. Enjoy!
  • Philips-Miller Film Recorder - Variable width optical recording. The recording was made by using a variable width "stylus" that was vertically modulated. As it dug deeper into the film, the width of the opaque material on the film that was cut away was increased. This is an interesting combination of mechanical recording (like a standard phonograph) and optical playback (the same as analog optical sound on photographic film.
  • Recording Technology History - Great site hosted by UC San Diego. Traces sound and video recording from tin foil cylinders, plastic disks, magnetic recording, and optical recording. Has info about Webster Chicago. I have one of their wire recorders. Also mentions Harold Lindsay of Ampex. Mr. Lindsay installed the stereo in my parents' home. hh
  • RCA 45 RPM Record Changer
  • Sound and the Story - 1956 video by RCA showing how a phonograph record is produced, from recording to tape, cutting the disk, creation of molds and stampers, pressing, packaging, and shipping.

  • Soundfan - Site devoted to analog magnetic recording.

  • Vintage Cassette - The independent cassette deck resource With over 2000 vintage single cassette decks of all brands from the 1970's until now.

Telephone and Telegraph History

  • Any Lawful Device - A brief history of Carterphone and Hushaphone
  • AT&T Long Lines - The Microwave Radio and Coaxial Cable Networks of the Bell System
  • The Latest Word in Communications - "Microwave" - New York - Boston System, Long Lines Dept., Plant Division One. Describes the installation of the New York to Boston 4GHz microwave system by AT&T Long Lines. The link was covered with 8 hops. Posted at microwaves 101, "your number-one source for microwave information since the previous unenlightened century." For fun, also see the Microwave Mortuary.
  • Baudot.net - Teletype Machines - 100 years of Paper Tape and Teleprinters
  • Bell System Memorial

  • Bell Systems Technical Journal 1922-1983. Includes the invention of the transistor, Shannon's Law of information, invention of CCD, etc.

  • Cedar Knol Telephone & Telegraph Company - A Reconstruction of a Typical Pennsylvania Railroad Wire Chief's Office along with other examples of telephone technology.
  • Bruce Crawford Memorial Switching Documentation Library - Extensive telephone equipment documentation.
  • Car Phone - THE MOBILE TELEPHONE IN BELL SYSTEM SERVICE, 1946-1993. These pages are a history of the car telephone as used by the Bell System and its affiliates from the beginnings in 1946 through the end of IMTS telephone product production, although many IMTS car telephone radio systems continued on the air through the late 1990's and some are still on the air in Canada and Pennsylvania.
  • Central Office Buildings - A collection of central office building photographs throughout the United States and elsewhere.
  • Electromagnetic Telegraph- A nice history of the telegraph.
  • ESS, The First CO - Newspaper article about the first ESS1 CO in 1965. Links to some videos including one by Western Electric on the ESS.
  • Evolution of the Dial Phone traces the history of the dial telephone from 1919 through 1965. Photos of a bunch of telephones through history.
  • Central Office - Photos and brief histories of US telco central offices.
  • Hang Up - A movie about New York payphones.
  • History of Phone Phreaking - Contains several articles on telephone signaling.
  • History of Computer Communications - EXTENSIVE information on the history of communications between computers. It starts with modems and the Carterfone decision up through the internet.
  • Independent Telecommunications Pioneer Association - ITPA is the volunteer organization created by and for the independent telecommunications industry.Dedicated to community service, ITPA has been serving the public on behalf of telecommunications companies for over 95 years. ITPA represents over 9,000 telecommunications employees and retirees nationwide. Today Pioneers continue to open exciting new lines of communication and community service throughout the United States.
  • ITU - 1966 film about the International Telecommunications Union
  • JKL Museum of Telephony - The American Museum of Telephony (AMoT), known familiarly as the JKL Museum, is dedicated to the preservation of all aspects of telephony.
  • Manufacture Discontinued - This site is dedicated to the study and appreciation of the telephones of the 1950's, 60's and 70's, especially those made by the Western Electric company for the Bell System in America. I'm Adam Forrest, and I like telephones, especially the Western Electric telephones of the fifties, sixties and seventies. Although I'm a computer programmer and web designer now, I spent the bulk of my younger days learning about, and then installing and repairing telephones and small PBXs. This site is a collection of some of the things I enjoy looking at, I guess it's sort of a telephone collector's blog. I hope you enjoy looking at these phones too
  • Morse Code’s Vanquished Competitor: The Dial Telegraph - In 1842, French watchmaker Louis-François Breguet invented a simpler to use but less efficient alternative
  • Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company Monitor - The company newsletter of the Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company.
  • Museum of Communications in Seattle Washington. Extensive collection of customer premises equipment, central office equipment, and outside plant. More photos available here.

  • New York Times

  • Panel Switchman's Photo Stream - Extensive collection of photos from the 1920s on. Shows manual switchboards, step, crossbar, panel, and ESS. slideshow
  • Payphone Project - Photos and stories about payphones. Also a payphone number database.
  • Principles of Telegraphy (Teletypewriter) - EXTENSIVE discussion of the history and principles of telegraphy. Navships 0967-255-0010. 1967.
  • Pulse of the World - 1924 Mackay System documentary. Great silent video showing operation of the Mackay telegraph system. Shows land and undersea cable installation and repair. Shows operators and a bunch of other great stuff.
  • Pushbutton Calling with a Two-
Group Voice Frequency Code, L. Schenker, Bell Labs Technical Journal, January 1960. Described the design considerations for DTMF (Touch Tone®) signalling.
  • Private Line Telephone History including POTS, wireless, Bell Labs, exchange name history, party lines, Strowger switches, early radio, radar, triode vacuum tube history, etc.
  • Phone Trips - Extensive recordings of the sounds heard during the progress of call completion through various types of switches. Most recordings made in the 1960s and 1970s.
  • Remember phone books? - Nice collection of phonebook cover photographs.
  • RTTY Electronics - Where to get parts for your old Teletype!
  • Sam's Telecomm History Links - Very extensive page of links to sites devoted to telecom history.
  • Mike Sandman's telephone history page. Features old telephone advertising and other nice info.
  • Strowger Switch - The first automatic telephone switch. Strowger switch patent 447,918
  • Strowger Appreciation Site - Site dedicated to the sights and sounds of step exchanges. See especially the bottom of the home page for audio recordings of various step offices.
  • http://www.telebeans.org/ - Telecom stuff for the Mid-Atlantic.
  • Telegram and Cable Company - Send a telegram today! Submit message over web site. It's printed on a Teletype and mailed.
  • Telegraph - The History of Telecommunications and Related Matters. An EXTENSIVE history of the telegraph by Dr James B. Calvert at University of Denver.

  • Telegram for America - 1956 film about the wonders of Western Union. Promotional film for Western Union Telegraph Company, featuring its history, current practice and emerging technology. Pictures Western expansion; railroads; early hand telegraphy and telegraph keys.

    Shows 1950s-vintage teletype and paper tape network serving all cities and towns in the United States. Shows telegraphy of service in business, to families, to government, in natural disasters (floods and fires) and in the commodities market.

    Numerous scenes of 1950s business and industry. Footage of Western Union plant and facilities, including the microwave tower located in the Tenleytown district of Washington, D.C. Considerable coverage of new technology including facsimile (fax) transmission and delivery of telegrams. Also coverage of the "Telmobile," a mobile reception center for fax telegrams that then delivers them to customers in outlying suburban districts.

  • Telegraph Office - A Tribute to Morse Telegraphy and Resource for Wire and Wireless Telegraph Key Collectors and Historians
  • Telephone Answering Machines - A brief history.
  • Telephone Archive - NICE collection of documentation back to 1910 or so.
  • Telephony Document Archive - Extensive telephone system documentation collected by Steve Cichorsky.
  • Telephone Technical Reference at Kadiac.org. Extensive document collection.
  • Telecom Digest long running telecom newsgroup that has a fair amount of history.
  • Telecom History Group proudly preserves and shares the rich heritage of an industry that has had and continues to have a huge impact on our society, our culture, and most of all, our ability to communicate. THG has museums in Denver CO and Seattle WA.

  • Telephone Collectors International - the international organization of collectors of old telephone equipment.

  • Telephone Tribute You'll find all sorts of telephone related web pages here on the history of the telephone, technical information, research resources, human interest stories, clubs, pictures, sound files, links, etc.
  • Telephone World - History, sounds, pictures, pay phones, network, switching systems, etc.
  • The Coming of the Dial - 1933 video
  • The Independent - 1957 film promoting independent telephone companies. Shows a cutover to a new step exchange.
  • This Is A Recording - EXTENSIVE collection of recordings of telephone automated messages (wrong number, etc.)
  • United States Military Telegraph - Site contains extensive documentation on telegraph use during the US Civil War and developments leading up to that point.
  • W1TP TELEGRAPH & SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT MUSEUMS - Very extensive photograph collection of telegraph equipment from the time of the US Civil War.
  • WB6NVH - Extensive documentation of mobile telephone systems.
  • Western Union Alumni - LOTS of stuff on Western Union, the nation's telegraph company since 1851.
  • Western Union Desk Fax - A fax machine to replace the messenger boy in getting telegrams to and from businesses.
  • Western Union Technical Progress - 1935 to 1945.

  • Western Union Technical Review - Published 1947 through 1969. The technology of telegraphy, including multiplexing, switching, transmission, etc.

  • Tom Farley's Telephone History pages.
  • Western Union's Microwave Relay Terminal in Washington DC
  • Western Union Telegraph Company History of Technical Progress
  • YArchive - Norman Yarvin's extensive usenet news archive of telephone information.
  • Your Life's Work - 1946 film about working in the telephone and telegraph industries.

Receiver History

  • Jonz Valve Page - Extensive photo galleries and restoration info for old radios and televisions.
  • My Vintage TV - A tour of home entertainment equipment from 1895 to 1955
  • National - Communications receivers and early television receivers
  • Philco Radio - History, photos, schematics of stuff from the Philadelphia Storage Battery Company.
  • Regency TR-1 - The first transistor radio! Site includes video of the assembly line building these radios in 1955.
  • transistor.org - Sarah Lowrey's great collection of transistor radios, with photos, articles, restoration procedures, etc.
  • All American Five - The popular five tube radio

Computers, Calculators, Digital Electronics History

  • Antique Computers - An extensive collection of photos and documents on computer history by Ed Thelen.
  • Apollo Guidance Computer - Instructions on building your own Apollo Guidance Computer used in the moon landing of 1969. The Apollo AGC itself is a piece of computing history, it was developed by the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory and it was a quite amazing piece of hardware in the 1960s. It was the first computer to use integrated circuits (ICs), running at 1 Mhz it offered four 16-bit registers, 4K words of RAM and 32K words of ROM. The AGC mutlitasking operating system was called the EXEC, it was capable of executing up to 8 jobs at a time. The user interface unit was called the DSKY (display/keyboard, pronounced "disky"); an array of numerals and a calculator-style keyboard used by the astronauts to communicate with the computer.
  • Bell Systems Technical Journal 1922-1983. Includes the invention of the transistor, Shannon's Law of information, invention of CCD, etc.
  • BitSavers - Saving computer history from the dumpster! They have more than 830,000 pages of scanned computer documents in their archive. Also, links to other historic computer sites.
  • Catweasel is an interesting product that lets you use standard PC drives to read old floppies (all PC-formats (180K up to 1440K), Amiga DD and HD (also 5,25" formats), Atari 9, 10 and 11 sektor disks, Macintosh 720K, 800K, 1440K (DD, GCR, HD), Commodore 1541, 1571, 1581 (C64, C128 and 3,5" C-64 disks), XTRA High density with 2380KByte per disk, Nintendo backup station 1600KB format, Atari 800XL (all MFM formats, FM under developement), Apple IIe disks (Apple DOS 3.3 and up)
  • The Charles Babbage Institute - The Charles Babbage Institute (CBI) is an archives and research center dedicated to preserving the history of information technology and promoting and conducting research in the field.
  • Computer Conservation Society - Conserving the UK computer heritage.
  • http://www.computer-history.info/ - Stories of the Development of Large Scale Scientific Computing at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
  • Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA - preserves and presents for posterity the artifacts and stories of the information age. As such, the Museum plays a unique role in the history of the computing revolution and its worldwide impact on the human experience.
  • History of Computer Communications - EXTENSIVE information on the history of communications between computers. It starts with modems and the Carterfone decision up through the internet.
  • Eckert Tapes - Transcript of interview with J. Presper Eckert, one of the developers of the ENIAC, the first all electronic digital computer (with 18,000 vacuum tubes). Computerworld, February 20, 2006
  • CPU Shack - CPU History Museum for Intel CPUs, AMD Processor, Cyrix Microprocessors, Microcontrollers and more.
  • Report on the Eniac, developed under the supervision of the Ordnance Department, United States Army. June 1, 1946. Detailed description of the ENIAC.
  • fourmilab.ch - Univac history, Babbage Analytical Engine, and a history of AutoCAD
  • Historic Computer Images by Mike Muuss. Many are US Army photos.
  • History of Computing Information - Information about the history of computing, assembled by Mike Muuss for your information and edification. Documents from the home of the ENIAC -- The U. S. Army Research Lab .
  • HP Museum - Calculators!
  • History of Computing Information - Information about the history of computing, assembled by Mike Muuss for your information and edification. Documents from the home of the ENIAC -- The U. S. Army Research Lab .
  • A Brief History of the Hard Drive - Nice photo collection starting with the IBM RAMAC drive of 1956, which held 5MB.
  • http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/nsf-net/home.jsp - History of Internet at NSF
  • Kelley Ad shows and describes the early advertising for Apple
  • LED Watches
  • Mouse Site - A history of the mouse and human/machine interface. Excellent info at Stanford University.
  • National Security Agency Center for Cryptographic History - History of cryptography as used by the NSA. See, especially Historical Publications for documents showing the history of cryptography from pre-WW1 through the Viet Nam war.
  • National Museum of Computing is dedicated to showing the development of computing in its broadest sense from the pioneering war time efforts that resulted in Colossus, to the products and systems we use today. The museum is part of the whole Bletchley Park experience, and all visitors to the park can visit the museum free of charge when it is open. The museum houses the Colossus computer, an exhibition of the most complex code cracking activities performed at the Park, and enhances the Park visitors' experience by continuing the history of the development of computing from the 1940s to the present day.
  • Online Timeline - A capsule history of online news and information systems by David Carlson. In particular, this history of The Source is interesting since I (HH) used this before I had a computer. I built a 300bps modem and connected to The Source with a Lear Siegler ADM-1 terminal. They had an MC6800 cross assembler on the system I used to develop my first microprocessor based product.
  • Old Computers . com - The name says it all... Remember the Altair? The PET, the VIC-20? The PDP-8?

  • Radio Shack

    • Ira Goldklang's TRC-80 Revival|http://www.trs-80.com/] - This site is devoted to providing extensive information on the line of TRS-80 personal home computers, with a specific focus on the Model I, Model III, and Model 4. There is also SOME information on the Model 100/102, Model 200, Model 600, Color Computer, and Pocket Computer lines as well as Printers. Information from these links includes product descriptions, catalog numbers, pictures, prices, operations, hardware, software, etc.
    • TRS-80.org - Extensive history with several interviews.
    • Jeff Vavasour's TRS-80 EMULATION Page - Emulate various Radio Shack computers
  • Relay Computer - While not strictly historic, it's interesting nonetheless. A computer made with relays (used as gates, flip flops, ALU, etc.).
  • Retrocomputing Archive - This site was created as a logical extension to the original Commercial CP/M Software Archive. The focus has been expanded to encompass all types of "classic" computer systems and their software, not just CP/M.
  • Retrowagon - A wiki about vintage computers from the dawn of the personal computer
  • Signetics Write Only Memory
  • Southwest Technical Products early supplier of audio and computer kits.
  • Trailing Edge - Archive of software for old DEC machines. Also, the Computer History Simulation Project which simulates the Data General Nova, Eclipse, Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-1, PDP-4, PDP-7, PDP-8, PDP-9, PDP-10, PDP-11, PDP-15, VAX, GRI Corporation GRI-909, IBM 1401, 1620, 1130, System 3, Interdata (Perkin-Elmer) 16b and 32b systems, Hewlett-Packard 2116, 2100, 21MX, Honeywell H316/H516, MITS Altair 8800, with both 8080 and Z80, Royal-Mcbee LGP-30, LGP-21, Scientific Data Systems SDS 940
  • Vintage Calculators . com - A celebration of old calculators showing the evolution from mechanical calculator to pocket electronic calculator.
  • Unix Haters Handbook

Data Communications

+++ ATDT 5551212
  • Living Internet - An elegantly organized tour of the Internet, both fun and informative, a rare combination!
  • Teletext - Data broadcasting on the Vertical Blanking Interval

Transistors and Semiconductors

  • 60s and 70s Semiconductor Datasheet Collection - Scanned datasheets
  • Semiconductor Museum, aka Transistor Museum - The Transistor Museum has grown significantly over the years since we first appeared on the web in 2001. In that timeframe we’ve added hundreds of pages of unique material specifically developed for those interested in the history of the transistor. In these past 14 years, all areas of the Museum have been expanded, including Oral Histories, Photo Gallery Pictures, Acquisitions and Donations, Photo Essay Research Articles, Construction Projects, Timeline of Transistor History, and many other areas covering topics important to transistor history.

Electricity

Other Historic Sites

  • Allied Catalogs - 1928 - 1981 catalogs from Allied Electronics. Includes the Knight Kit Wireless Broadcaster
  • Heathkit - Revists the Heathkit age which began in the late 1940's and lasted through the early 1990's.
  • Bell Systems Technical Journal 1922-1983. Includes the invention of the transistor, Shannon's Law of information, invention of CCD, etc.
  • Bill's Retro World - Nice collection of photos from old television programs, advertisements, and general photos from the 1950s and 1960s.
  • Carl and Jerry- The Carl and Jerry stories from Popular Electronics, October 1954 through December 1964
  • Classic Tek - WONDERFUL site full of manuals, photos, video, and other info on Tektronix.
  • Derek's Virtual Slide Rule Gallery - Real nice simulations of slide rules!
  • Einstein Papers Project - The collected papers of Albert Einstein.
  • Hearing Aid Museum - From ear trumpets to carbon microphones to vacuum tubes, to transistors, to digital signal processors. Hearing aids have changed over the years.
  • Jumpjet.info has an amazing collection of very early (starting before 1915) books and magazines on radios. See Pioneering Wireless.
  • Kight Kit - Home of the Knight Kit Wireless Broadcaster
  • Mark Cselle's History of Technology Page - Extensive information on history of power generation, telephone, computers, vacuum tubes, etc..
  • Mike's Electric Stuff has a nice collection of info on vaccum tubes, Nixies, and more.
  • The Oughtred Society - The Oughtred Society was founded in 1991 by a group of slide rule collectors and is dedicated to the preservation and history of slide rules and other calculating instruments. In the past fourteen years it has evolved to an international organization with members in 22 countries. It is noted for its highly acclaimed Journal of the Oughtred Society,
  • Philbrick Archive - This site is a free non-profit repository of materials from GAP/R George A Philbrick Researches, the company that launched the commercial use of the Operational Amplifier in 1952.
  • Radio Shack Catalogs - Excellent collection of Radio Shack print catalogs from the first 1939 catalog through 2003.
  • Semiconductor Museum - Great collection of photographs and oral histories of the developments of semiconductors. For example, an oral history describes the development of the 2N2222, which was released in 1962 and is still being designed into products today.
  • Southwest Museum of Engineering,Communications and Computation - A very extensive collection of physical and online resources.
  • Spark Bang Buzz - While not truly history, it does tell you how to build many devices from history. Projects include several based on zinc negative resistance, copper oxide thermo electric generator, magnetic amplifiers, an 80m transmitter built around a 2N3904, an alcohol flame triode amplifier, home made CRT tube, arc transmitters, home made coherer, home made vacuum tube triode, sound modulated LED, laser, and flashlight, etc. Fun stuff!
  • Survivor Library - Old books covering a WIDE range of subjects including radio, telegraph, and telephone.

  • Telharmonium - The Telharmonium (also known as the Dynamophone) was an early electronic musical instrument, developed by Thaddeus Cahill in 1897. The Telharmonium was intended to be listened to using telephone receivers.

  • Tesla Wardenclyffe Project - mission is the preservation and adaptive reuse of Wardenclyffe, the century-old laboratory of electrical pioneer Nikola Tesla located in Shoreham, Long Island, New York.
  • Tube Books dot Org - Herein you will find a collection of vintage engineering texts, vacuum tube datasheets, and other obsolete information, presented free of charge and without annoying advertisements.
  • http://www.pat2pdf.org/ - Free online conversions of USPTO patent images to pdf for easy viewing. Just supply the patent number.
  • Watthourmeters.com - An online reference to US made watthour meters.
  • Weston Engineering Notes - "Weston Electrical Instrument Corporation, founded in 1888, is responsible for many important developments in the electrical engineering field. Several years ago, I came across a 3 year collection of Weston Engineering Notes starting in 1946. This was a far different time and many of the things we take for granted today weren't even dreams of the future yet. Clicking the above logo will give you an enlarged sketch of an engineer's desk. Engineering and physics books (complete with log tables) close at hand. The ever present slide rule, a sharp pencil, drafting triangle and the all-important eraser being important tools of the trade. A tube and a large can capacitor are part of a current project. An analog meter waiting to prove or dis-prove the latest theory. The pipe to be used while pondering the latest developments and speculating about the future."

Periodicals



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Harold Hallikainen
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