[IRCA] Bellingham Museum Tunes In and Turns On
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[IRCA] Bellingham Museum Tunes In and Turns On



an article from MY favourite Vancouver newspaper, the Georgia Straight is at: http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=7014
about The American Museum of Radio and Electricity in Bellingham, Washington


excerpt follows

Over in the Marconi wireless room, the story of the Titanic is told. Built around an original Marconi wireless set, the display is an exact replica of the Titanic's radio room. It's eerie to hear a description of the Titanic's last moments as it clipped an iceberg and sank into the icy North Atlantic. (Don't worry, Celine Dion doesn't sing!)

If design is your thing, the collection of radios from the last century will have you spellbound. Some of the radios don't even look like radios; they're cleverly disguised as statues and vases.

Turn the corner and suddenly you're sitting in a 1930s living room, staring at the radio and visualizing the adventures of the Lone Ranger. A special system of internal broadcasting lets Winter and Jenkins feed six different stations through the electrical wires. Each broadcasts different vintage content, so when visitors twirl the tuning knob on the big radio, they surf though the stations and programs just like in the old days.

Education is a priority at the museum. "One of the things we're trying to do is expose the process of discovery," Jenkins says. "One of the ways of getting kids interested in science is to help them understand that inventions don't just happen in a single eureka moment. It's a lot of trial and error and a lot of hard work." The hands-on approach means that kids--and adults--can learn by doing.

Winter points out some of what he calls the holy grails of the collection: unique and extremely rare pieces, like the Collins Wireless Telephone. Built in 1909, it was billed as the first device to transmit sounds without wires. After the invention of the telegraph and the telephone, radio was touted as the next big thing, and investors were looking to get in on the ground floor. Collins went on the road with his device, saying it was the future of communication. In demonstrations, the wireless telephone worked wonders. Conversations seemed to be taking place across great distances. In reality, the other party was six inches away in the next room. The wireless telephone was just a scam used to sucker investors.

In January, the museum will become a radio station when KMRE signs on, featuring vintage newscasts, plays, and music, along with some original programming. The low-power FM station will also stream to the world via the Internet (www.americanradiomuseum.org/site/). Not bad for what started as a little collection in a small city off the interstate, and much more interesting than buying socks at Target.


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