Hanging Acoustic Telephone - Lord Telephone MFG CO Boston Mass

[wds]

I was watching this auction all week, and was interested while it was in the $50 range.  It looks like it's hollow, and I believed it was a toy phone of some sort until the final closing price.  Must not be a toy.  Does anyone know anything about this type phone?  It has hooks on the sides, so maybe it was suspended and anchored from the sides, maybe for use in a mobile setting, like a boat?    



http://tinyurl.com/cajazy7

[LarryInMichigan]

Imagine how much it might have fetched if it weren't so ugly

Larry

[Phonesrfun]

Perhaps it is an early microphone, and not used in telephony, per se.  Early microphones were the same carbon resistance and DC current type that was also used in telephony.  Just my guess.

[kleenax]

Jon Kolger is who won the auction. He collects Acoustic telephones, so when I saw it, I emailed him the link. Guess he liked it! ;-)

I will let you know what he says about it when he receives it.

[AE_Collector]

Here is what I know about Acoustic Telephones. (Someone help me out here)

Bell had the patent on telephones (as we know them) in the late 1800's. Several companies got around that by manufacturing telephones that were Acoustic, IE: Non electrical. Such as two tin cans with a string between them. Of course they weren't for "Exchange Service" but back i nthe infancy of telephone service, many of the phones in use were basically intercoms between two or a few more locations as opposed to the telephone network of today. Thus there was a bit of a market for phones such as Acoustic phones.

Terry

[Sargeguy]

I had one of those in college until the RA confiscated it

[Bill]

Interesting device. My first thought was that if it is an electric telephone, there should be binding posts to attach the wires. And if it is an acoustic telephone, there should be a nipple for a hose connection, like the acoustic telephones used on ships. Since I didn't see either, I got curious. Knowing that "something" was patented (not necessarily this, but something related) on August 3, 1886, I went to the Patent Office web site, and looked through all the patents issued on that date. A tedious process, since there were 458 of them! Some interesting patents showed up - mustache curler, anyone?

But finally, I found it. Patent number 346594 for an Acoustic Telephone, issued to George W Lord of Boston, Massachusetts. As expected, this patent is not for the device pictured in earlier posts here, but seems to be closely related, and perhaps decribes the innards of the device above.

At any rate, it is a string telephone, and the string appears to go out through the top of the device. And much to my surprise, the string doesn't have to go straight from one instrument to another. It can be redirected by running it through a tube containing a pair of diaphragms. In fact, the patent seems to deal primarily with this idea of bending the string, rather than the telphone itself.

So anyway, perhaps this tells the new owner of this thing a bit more than he knew before.

Now we need someone to trace down the patent mentioned as "Patent Pending" on the brass tag on the device in the picture.

Bill

[AE_Collector]

Thanks for all the info Bill. I guess that it is a huge document so it can't be posted here?

I wonder if the little leaver on the side is to signal the other end? It would probably make a sharp clicking noise through the other instrument to get their attention.

Terry

[Bill]

Thanks for all the info Bill. I guess that it is a huge document so it can't be posted here?

No, it is only four pages. Finding the patent number was the tough part. Once you have the number, you just go to google.com/patents and pull it up.

In Patent 361302, we see where Lord has reinvented and simplified the hanger for the sound-conducting string or wire.

I wonder if the little leaver on the side is to signal the other end? It would probably make a sharp clicking noise through the other instrument to get their attention.

Like you, my guess is that it is a little hammer that whacks the sound-conducting string, or maybe the diaphragm. But to be sure of it, we need someone to find the patent number for the "patent applied for" patent.

Bill

[Bill]

And there is the one in the post above - Patent number 356594!

Bill

[davidbholcomb]

This was a neat piece of Americana that went for more than I could pay. Yes I was in the bidding but not for long. I had done some research on it prior to the close in hopes that I might get it but since I did not I will post it here for the winner, Congrats.