I'm still frantically pulling stuff together for taking the #strowger#TelephoneExchange to #emfcamp but rather than actually fix/pack/prepare anything - I've spent the last 3 hours slapping together a video updating the website:
This christmas tree made from a telephone cable was an exhibit at the “Young People's Exhibition”, Imperial Institute, London, 29 December 1936
The cable dates from before PVC insulation was widespread. Each wire was individually insulated with paper, and the whole cable was covered in a lead sheath.
Arranged in “pairs” there are 6024 wires in total.
The Douglas Telephone Exchange on Renfrew Street in Glasgow. Designed by Colin Menzies in a Baroque style, it was built in 1910 for the National Telephone Company.
Glasgow's former telephone exchanges are an example of a type of building which all look very similar because they were all built in a very short period of time. It demonstrates how the timing of technological advances can create an industry-specific architectural look purely due to the fashions of the time they occured, rather than any required functionality of the new technology.