'Brick' phones wanted for display

"Manchester Communicates" is due to open in October

Mancunians are being asked to bring out their old brick-style mobile phones.

The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester is on the lookout for specific communication items for a new gallery due to launch in October.

"Manchester Communicates" will tell the story of human communication, from signs and gestures through to modern mass media.

The museum asked for relatively recent items to fill gaps in the exhibition's 1980s and 1990s section.

'Really old stuff'

As well as old style mobile phones, organisers said they needed electronic typewriters, daisy wheel or dot matrix printers and laser and inkjet printers.

The museum's Curator of Science, Jenny Wetton, said: "People tend to think that museums are just full of really old stuff, but if you think about how quickly communications technology is developing, even items that are just a few years old have already been superceded.

"Yet some of these items are real design classics, so we want to make sure that they are properly recognised by putting some of them in our new gallery."

Anyone who has an item which fits the bill is being asked to contact the museum directly.