Shire Library
3 primary works
Book 161
From its demonstration to Queen Victoria in 1878, through the bake light models of the 1920s and '30s to the chic plastic designs of the 1970s and '80s, Andrew Emmerson traces the evolution of the humble telephone over more than a century. Magneto, skeleton and candlestick telephones accompany the National Telephone Company, telephone kiosks and railway platform telephones in this fascinating history of Alexander Graham Bell's most famous invention.
Book 337
Old television embraces more than eighty years of progress, from the crude experiments of John Logie Baird in 1925, through the pioneering 405-line days at Alexandra Palace just before the Second World War, to the era when television entered most homes in the 1950s, and the growing sophistication of the 1960s, with the introduction of 625-line colour transmissions. Andrew Emerson explores the British heritage of the black-and-white era of television, and the first years of colour up to the early 1980s and the launch of Channel 4.
Book 597
*New & expanded edition!* The London Underground is a pioneer and an institution. The first underground railway in the world, and incorporating the first ever deep tunnel ‘tube’ lines too, it is at the heart of London life, with millions of commuters and tourists using it every year and its tentacles extending into the suburbs it helped to create. Its turbulent history reflects the trials and tribulations of London itself: it provided a network of life-saving shelters in the Blitz, but has also faced many logistical challenges, with constant improvements necessary to keep the Tube fit for purpose. This book is not a recompilation of facts and photos published elsewhere, however. Taking a fresh approach, it is a history that focuses on the interesting and quirky aspects of the subject. To transport you more vividly back to the past, well over half the illustrations are in colour, including many rarely seen photographs.