CHiDE (1995 - 2002)

The Centre for the History of Defence Electronics (CHiDE) began life as a special project, but has now become established as a core activity within the Research Unit and as such enjoys its own area within the website. You can access this area of the site using the button on the left.

A major project within CHiDE has been the digitising of the Fisher Archive

Recent Projects

Technology in the Community: a millennium reflection

Technology in the Community: a new opportunity

Talking about Technology sponsored by the Heritage Lottery Fund

CUTOS (1998 - 1999)

In 1998 the Centre for Understanding Technology through Oral Sources, (CUTOS) was established with a remit to expand the work begun by CHiDE to embrace the broad range of technologies which have undergone exponential development during the 20th Century, and to develop opportunities for young people to explore these technological changes through oral history activities within the National Curriculum.

A pilot project was conducted with children from two schools in Dorset. Groups aged 10 - 11 and 14-15 were introduced to the basic principles of oral history interviewing and asked to interview older relatives about their early memories of domestic technology and their feelings about adjusting to the rapid changes which technological development caused in their lives. Extracts from the childrens' interviews were published on a specially developed project website.

Teachers and pupils were very positive about the experience, and, convinced that there is a future for this approach to investigating our technological heritage, CUTOS grew into the fully fledged History of Technology Research Unit. The pilot project within CUTOS led on to the Research Unit's major project for 1999/2000, Technology in the Community: a millennium reflection.