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Connections Museum

@connections.museum

Featuring vintage telephone & communications equipment dating to 1885. Fans of relays, electromechanical devices, soldering, and the Bell System. Home to the world's only working Panel Switch.

Posts Replies Media

Connections Museum @connections.museum · 11/09/2026

I took the time today to fix this hostile design so that y’all don’t have to deal with it. 😤

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Connections Museum @connections.museum · 15/08/2026

We've got a heartbeat! The rectifier is online at our new switchroom in Seattle. No load yet, but that will come soon enough.

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Connections Museum @connections.museum · 13/08/2026

There is a whole case of these tools and they’re priceless. Each on made in small batches to do exactly this job.

A hand holding out two intricate tools made of steel. Beside the hand and tools is a wooden box. The label of the box indicates that its contents are more bespoke tools.

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Connections Museum @connections.museum · 13/08/2026

It’s panel switch maintenance week, and that means using bespoke Western Electric tools and jigs from the 1920s to check concentricity and alignment of vertical drives!

A closeup of an old machine showing a vertical drive shaft with a Starret dial indicator pressed against a driving element.

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Connections Museum @connections.museum · 14/07/2026

Welcome! Step into my office.

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Connections Museum @connections.museum · 09/07/2026

Anybody in our orbit good at CAD/CAM stuff and have a lil free time for a project? I’d like to get these covers for our 5XB made. I can get exact measurements but I do not have the ability to turn them into something that a manufacturer wants :/

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Connections Museum @connections.museum · 09/07/2026

Soup!

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Connections Museum @connections.museum · 19/06/2026

Dual-wielding chain hoists, and using the intergalactic death ray to make sure things are level. The new switchroom in Seattle is coming together!

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Connections Museum @connections.museum · 03/03/2026

unhinged patent filing for the no. 5 crossbar. there’s over 100 pages of just this.

a page from a patent document. it looks like someone was playing a joke on the patent attorneys

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Connections Museum @connections.museum · 03/03/2026

the most important step in setting up my new toolbox

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Connections Museum @connections.museum · 17/02/2026

We are packing up the JKL Museum switch room for shipment to Seattle, which means that I’m spending the day crawling through the ceiling.

A selfie of a girl standing on a ladder. Many cables snake around her.

A distant photo of a friend smiling and waving while standing on a ladder.

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Connections Museum @connections.museum · 12/02/2026

Some doofus in the youtube comments section was big mad that the museum's account has pronouns listed. I didn't even know we did, but now I'm keeping them there, just to be a tar-pit to catch the next asshole who wanders through. Trans rights are human rights, motherfucker.

a screenshot of youtube, showing the connections museum homepage. the name of the account is visible, along with the pronouns "she/her/hers"

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Connections Museum @connections.museum · 17/12/2025

Though to be fair, at the time, Western wasn’t actively manufacturing these objects. So the ad is truthful.

A picture of a western electric, junior electric range

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Connections Museum @connections.museum · 17/12/2025

Oh yeah, Western Electric? Tell me more about how you don’t make washing machines and toasters.

A 1950’s western electric advertisement, depicting, telephone equipment being raised into a newly constructed telephone exchange. Several curious people are looking on from a distance.

A close-up of text from the Western electric advertisement. The text reads as follows. “ Making telephone equipment for the Bell system is Western electric‘s job and has been for 68 years. We don’t make toasters or washing machines or electric ranges. We make telephone equipment. Good equipment that helps give you good service at low cost.”

A picture of a western electric washing machine

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