From Crystal Set to the Internet

The Mayor of Maidstone opened BWBF’s From Crystal Set to the Internet exhibition.

British Wireless for the Blind Fund’s From Crystal Set to the Internet exhibiton was opened by the Mayor of Maidstone.

Clive English launched the event at the Kent History and Library Centre in Maidstone on the 8th August.

It was well attended and the exibition received some very positive comments.

BWBF was one of the groups in the UK to receive a Heritage Lottery Fund All Our Stories grant in 2012.

Funding was secured to collate the history, heritage and technology related to the many specially adapted radio and audio sets which have been issued to visually impaired people over the 85 years the charity has been operating.

The exhibition documents the evolving technology, designs and adaptations (such as Braille labelled dials and top mounted controls) which allowed people with little or no sight to use the radios, from the very first Crystal sets issued in 1929 to the current wireless internet audio player.

It also tells the story of the setting up of the fund by Captain Sir Ernest Beachcroft Beckwith Towse in 1928, the first appeal for funds by Winston Churchill on Christmas Day 1929 and the social history of welfare assistance for the visually impaired.

The exhibition also features radio sets and interviews with people who use the specially adapted radios on a daily basis.

The exhibition will remain at the Kent History and Library Centre until the 15th August.