Hush-A-Phone
I have never seen one before.
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Rare-Telephone-Hush-A-Phone-Telephone-Attachment-Circa-1921/391684244511
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
I assume for a private phone. Like an executives personal desk phone ?
D/P
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)
IF I remember correctly, the cone of silence never worked quite the way it was supposed to!
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."