台灣公用電話機發展歷程初探

A Study on the Development of Public Telephones in Taiwan

本文之撰寫動機乃始自博物館對於科技物件的蒐集與展出。執台灣電信產業牛耳的中華電信，與工博館從93年底開始推動雙方合作，合作重點則是中華電信多年來所搜羅的一批電信文物之數位化，以及數位資料庫、網站的建置與特展的籌辦；基於博物館實務的需求，對於台灣電信產業發展與公用電話機的研究也就因而開始。藉由對有限之文獻的爬梳與整理，以及少數幾位相關電信人員的記憶挖掘，雖然無法詳列出台灣公用電話機的發展軌跡，許多疑點與不解也尚待進一步之考掘，然而，本文仍嘗試從博物館展示之觀點與需求，梳理出公用電話機此科技物件的獨特性質，亦即是後續可行之研究方向，包括：其一，公用電話機是一個反應人際關係的物件；其二，公用電話機是一個文化物件；其三，公用電話機是一個權力的載體；據此，將可作為進一步深入研究之基礎。

The motivation to write this article starts from the collection and exhibition of technological objects in a museum. From 2004 onwards, Chunghwa Telecom, which plays a leading role in a telecommunications industry in Taiwan and the National Science and Technology Museum have been implementing mutual co-operation. The key co-operation items are the digitalization of telecom documents that were collected by Chunghwa Telecom for many years, the installation of digital database, the construction of a website and the planning and sponsorship of special exhibitions. Owing to the practical needs of the museum, research on Taiwan’s telecom industry and public telephones thus begins. Through tidying up and arranging documents that can be found as well as several relevant telecom staff’s digging out their memories, development of Taiwan’s public phone machines cannot be traced in a detailed way and many doubts still need to await further investigation. Despite that, the article will try to adopt the viewpoint and demand of exhibition and sort out the unique characteristics of the technological objects – the public telephone machines. What the article deals with is also to offer research directions that can be pursued subsequently. The first direction is that a public telephone machine is an object reflecting human relations; the second is that it is a cultural object and the third is that it is an object symbolizing authority. These can be a foundation of making a further profound research.