Goodwin Alfred George, Esq. ATCA Charter member number 16 Mr. Goodwin Ive was the first member from outside of the United States to join the Antique Telephone Collectors Association. The first ATCA directory, printed in 1971, shows that he lived at Farm Cottage, High Road, Chipstead, Surry, England. His membership was followed by our first Canadian member to join ATCA the following year. It has not been determined how Mr. Ive learned about the formation of ATCA. It does not appear as if he attended either of the first two telephone shows since his daughter, Frances, indicated that, although he had visited the United States, to her knowledge he had never been to Kansas. We have to speculate that, since he did collect telephones, there is a strong possibility

that he learned about ATCA through Ron Knappen’s Phoneco catalog. However he learned of the association, there is no doubt that he joined within the first several months of its organization. Goodwin was a scientist, an engineer and a hobbyist in England. In the early 1950’s he was concerned about pollution and wrote a paper for the British Communication & Electronics Journal describing the smoke pollution problem and what instruments were available for smoke measurements for combustion control. In 1955 he wrote a 150 page book that is still sought after today entitled Photo-Electric Handbook; Installation & Maintenance. As a scientist, Goodwin holds at least one United States patent, number 3798628A. This is for a “Protective Systems and Apparatus Therefor”.

As a hobbyist, Goodwin was interested in the electronics of telephones as well as recording devices. His main collecting interest was vintage phonographs. Below is a photo of him with an Edison tinfoil talking cylinder or phonograph that he constructed himself. As a telephone collector from the UK, we have to assume that his collection consisted of British Post Office. His daughter indicated that his collection was rather small and provided an image of one that she still has.