Classic Rotary Phones Forum

Telephone Talk => Auction Talk => Topic started by: ..... on January 22, 2017, 05:07:57 PM

Title: Now this is interesting. Hush-A-Phone
Post by: ..... on January 22, 2017, 05:07:57 PM
Hush-A-Phone

I have never seen one before.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Rare-Telephone-Hush-A-Phone-Telephone-Attachment-Circa-1921/391684244511

Title: Re: Now this is interesting. Hush-A-Phone
Post by: Vern P on January 30, 2017, 06:58:41 PM
I have seen many of these over the years, This one is in nice shape, sold for a fair price. (but then I have not been watching the price on them for sometime)   This Co. did also make them for the E and F hand sets.

I have one for the C/S and an F hs.  Yes, no photos. :(

Vern
Title: Re: Now this is interesting. Hush-A-Phone
Post by: Dan/Panther on January 31, 2017, 01:04:19 PM
I assume for a private phone. Like an executives personal desk phone ?
D/P
Title: Re: Now this is interesting. Hush-A-Phone
Post by: AL_as_needed on February 01, 2017, 10:54:28 AM
Its a cone of silence, before the shoe phone though. Looks like it absorbed outside noise/the spoken voice so the user can whisper or at least not be as noticeable when talking. Perfect for those turn of the century scandals. 8)
Title: Re: Now this is interesting. Hush-A-Phone
Post by: andre_janew on February 01, 2017, 05:37:14 PM
IF I remember correctly, the cone of silence never worked quite the way it was supposed to!
Title: Re: Now this is interesting. Hush-A-Phone
Post by: david@london on December 13, 2019, 10:41:07 AM
Currently reading Raymond Chandler's novel 'Farewell My Lovely' (1940), featuring private detective Philip Marlowe, and found this reference to the Hush-A-Phone at the beginning of chapter 31:

"A shiny black bug with a pink head and pink spots on it crawled slowly along the polished top of Randall's desk and waved a couple of feelers around, as if testing the breeze for a takeoff. It wobbled a little as it crawled, like an old woman carrying too many parcels. A nameless dick sat at another desk and kept talking into an old-fashioned Hush-A-Phone telephone mouthpiece, so that his voice sounded like someone whispering in a tunnel. He talked with his eyes half closed, a big scarred hand on the desk in front of him holding a burning cigarette between the knuckles of the first and second fingers."