Letter: Nation needs new telecoms museum

Sir: We have recently read of the forthcoming closure of the BT telecommunications museum in London (report, 1 March; letter, 5 March) and of the uncertain future for the would-be museum of computing, cryptography, radar and electronics at Bletchley Park.

On 10 February, you reported the impending break-up at auction of the priceless Marconi archives and early wireless equipment, though the collection has been given a temporary stay of execution.

We have national museums devoted to railways, aircraft and ships; is it not time to establish a National Museum of Communications, Electronics and Computing on one site?

There was no exhibition on Marconi's work in the centenary year of his discoveries, and why is it that EMI has chosen to stage its centenary exhibition on sound recording privately, and not under the auspices of a national museum? There is a fine telecommunications museum in Stockholm - and if Sweden can do this, so could we.

T C H GOING

Southend, Essex