Artifacts of the Museum

National Telecom Museum (NTM) was established on 18th August, 1995 at Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh (Central Provinces), India. It is now housed in a new building having an area of about 20,000 sq. feet. The building is located atop a small but picturesque hill, giving a panoramic view of the city below.

NTM has a unique collection of telecom equipments, books, documents, photographs and other releted material showcasing the development of telecoms in India since 1835 when first Morse telegraph line was established between Calcutta and Diamond Harbour. Some unique exhibits showcased in the NTM are:-
(1) Heiten Galvanometer used for Morse Telegraph link between Calcutta and Diamond Harbour
(2) Red sandstone pillers used to erect India's first long distance telegraph line between Calcutta and Agra in 1851 over a distace of about 1000 miles . This telegraph system played crucial role in the victory of British forces in India's first war for independence.
(3) Various types of Morse keys, sounders, teleprinters of various types and models
(4) Radio telegraph equipment used during WW I
(5) Baudot Telegraph Machine of 1880 vintage. With this machine it was possible to transmit and receive multiplexed telegraph signals.
(6) Voice telephone switching systems including early Magneto systems with magic eye indicators, Central Battery Manual Non-Multiple and Mmultiple systems, Strowger systems, models of Cross- Bar and E10B exchanges,indigenously developed exchange equipment for rural applications e।g।64,128,256,512 port rural exchanges developed by Centre for Development of Telematics during 1980s, pendulam clocks for generating pulses for various applications in Strowger exchanges,ringers etc etc

(7) VF-VF repeater used for long distance telephony in 1915-20 period, 1+1 Carrier system of 1922 vintage, 3channel, 8channel, 12channel open wire carrier systems,terminal of Jodhpur(India) - Karachi(Pakistan) 8channel carrier system which was shut down in1965 after Indo-Pak war, repeater of Delhi-Bombay 12 channel carrier system retrieved from Mohan - a place famous for legendry bandits and dacoits of Central India, S+DX and S+4DX carrier systems of 1960s vintage
(8) Two terminals of India's first 1800 channel microwave system of NEC make installed between Calcutta and Asansol in 1965,terminals of 300 channel water cooled klystron microwave system for short haul routes, terminals 30/60/120 channel digital UHF systems for end radio links
(9) High frequency high power transmitter and receiver used for communication links to remote and distant places before the advent of sattelite communications
(10) Very Small Aperture Satellite terminal for low traffic links to remote places
(11) Power plant equipment like motor - generator sets and their control panel, batteries of various types e.g. large open type lead acid cells, maintenance free battries, modern battries for cell phones and similar applications
(12) collection showing development of active components from very large sized vacuum tubes to magnetrons,amplitrons,TWTs,transistors, VVLSI etc. There is one model of transistor developed by Shockley et al.
(13) collection of magnetic materials like ferrite pot cores, rods, beads etc
(14) collection of wires of different types e.g.bare iron and copper wires of various gauges, ACSR wires, copper weld copper coated wires, enamelled copper wires, litz wires
(15) underground cables of various types including copper cables, coaxial cables, optical fibre cables, cable pressuring equipment etc
(16) line construction equipment e.g. poles of various types, line brackets,saddles,stalks, U clamps, cast iron sockets
(17) model of Indo-USSR troposcatter link
(18) models of Indian communication satellites (INSAT)
(19) collection of telephone instruments of various types
20) cast iron PCO booth, cast in the UK in 1898
(21) 900 kg bronze gong of the clock tower of Simla Telegraph Office. It is of 1880 vintage.
(22) office table of Sir C. V. Raman, 1930 Physics Nobel Laurate along with his office ceiling fan. It is of the period when he worked with P&T Audit in early 1920s

(23) chair of Mr. S. N. Bose who was a co-scientist of Albert Einstien and discovered atomic particle -boson
(24) Autographed 1945 Wireless World article of Arthur C Clark along with his message
(25) photographs of eminent inventors, scientists, discoverers etc
(26) photographs of important telecom installations in India and world
(27) stamps and coins reletated to telecomms
(28) books, notes, documents related to early telecomms in India
(29) model of the office of Captain Sleeman who wiped-out thuggery in India in 1838-52 period. He used this building to try and punish the thugs. He even hanged them to death from thick wooden beams of his office building. Later-on , this building housed Jabalpur Telegraph Office, one of the earliest in India. It is also the geographical centre of un-divided India.
(30) Bradma mchine which was used to print addresses on the telephone bills
(31) photo-copying machine of 1972 vintage. It was the first such machine made in India..
(32) collection of small computers including ZX 81, ZX spectrum , desk top and lap-top computers
(33) old accounts books inspection reports of telecom installations of pre-1900 era
(34) tools and photographs of line installation parties of bygone era
(35) collection of minerals found near Bhopal.

Let a Million Dishes Bloom

One of the interesting museum artifacts is a letter from the great Science Fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke on his vision of satelite communication in India. (Click on image for larger view).

The Telecom Museum at Bhopal

A visionary telecom expert, Mr. R. N. Goyal, lead the set up this unique museum to tell the story of evolution of telecommunications in general and that in India. The main aim of this Telecom Museum is to introduce evolution of Indian Telecommunication to the people of India. This will excite the inquisitiveness of persons who are curious about the History of Science and Technology, the Telecommunication specifically.


This Telecom Museum is first of its kind in the country was inaugurated on 18th August 1995 by Shri P. S. Saran, Member Services, Telecom Commission Delhi and Ex- Officio Seceratry to the Govt. of India, Ministry of Communication The Telecom Museum which is situated in the office of the Chief General Manager. Telecom Madhya Pradesh Circle at Hoshangabad Road, Bhopal is an excellent mixture of old and new communication machines that have helped humanity to bring the world closer.


All communication equipments in this Museum are pulsating with electrified life and speak about the 150 years of glorified hisotry of Indian Telecom.The Museum contains rare machines like first Telegraph system and old obsolete Telephone Exchange that have
become antiques, now these form part of the museum. There are rare displays of SOS Telegrams sent by Commandars of East India Company about 1857 Revolution, photographs of Sir Graham Bell, the Inventor of Telephone, Father of Satellite communication first satellite earth station of the world. There is the History of Indian Telecommunication on display. A link between the past and the future, the museum displays most ancient and most modem telecommunication equipments to-days and the great use of all these machines. It will be a great treat for everyone young or old man or woman, scientist or Artist!
The Madhya Pradesh Telecommunications has plans to convert this into a National Telecom. Museum in Madhya Pradesh at Near Arera Exchange, Bhopal to make this dream into a reality