The British Phonebox

by Linge, Nigel; Sutton, Andy

• ISBN13: 9781445663081
• ISBN10: 1445663082
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2017-02-15
• Publisher: Amberley Publishing

Summary

It has achieved iconic status; it symbolises Britain; but it is now seldom used! The British phonebox or, more correctly, kiosk began life as the silence cabinet in the late 1800s, but started to establish itself firmly as part of the landscape in the 1920s when the first standardised K1 model was introduced. However, it was the K2 design by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, and then his more numerous K6 design, that established the now familiar and iconic red box on our streets. Today the mobile-phone generation have probably never stepped inside a phonebox, let alone used one. Nevertheless, there they remain as an essential part of what makes Britain, Britain!This book looks at the history and evolution of the humble British phonebox through all of its major models, including those that were introduced by organisations such as the emergency services, those that have been given a new lease of life as something completely different, and the exciting new designs that are intended to extend the life of the phonebox well into the twenty-first century.

Author Biography

Professor Nigel Linge has worked in the field of computer networking and telecommunications since 1983. His academic research interests include the operation and practical application of computer networks, communication protocols and telecommunications. He has an active public engagement profile explaining and demonstrating telecommunications and computer networking, and the engineering that underpins it, to schools and the general public.Andy Sutton has 30 years' experience in the telecommunications industry and has worked as the Principal Network Architect at the mobile and internet provider EE. In 2013 the University of Salford appointed him as a visiting professor to work with students on research projects. He is a member of the Association for Industrial Archaeology.