Hudson & Ellsworth

[the phone house]

Anybody have any information on this company?
Box marked Hudson & Ellsworth Nassau St NY

[Sargeguy]

It certainly is an interesting looking phone.  It is part of an acoustic/mechanical telephone, a sort of fancy string phone. It was manufactured by Knudson & Ellsworth whose headquarters were on Nassau St in New York.  They were the electrical supply business, including telephones.  They are listed in The Railroad, Telegraph and Steamship Builders' Directory of 1890 in Google books.  They produced an acoustic string phone.

Here is a description of the invention from The Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 21, available through Google Books:

Acoustic Telephone of Knudson & Ellsworth

There is an extended field of usefulness a practical operative mechanical telephone that shall prove itself to be adapted to fill the gap now existing between the ordinary speaking tube and the magneto electric telephone of Bell and others. The speaking tube cannot be made operative over a greater distance than a hundred feet or thereabout, and the cost of the magneto telephone is prohibitive of its application in the thousand and one situations between home and office, between offices and shops, between dwellings and lodges, and stables, at warehouses, docks, fire and police stations, railway and freight stations, and so on ad infinitum. The presence of facilities to direct by word of mouth would be highly advantageous. The transmission of sound over considerable distances by means of tense cords or wires, and by wood is a phenomenon with which the scientific world has long been acquainted, and long before the day of the telephone. A striking and always greatly applauded scientific experiment in the lecture hall was the telephonic concert in which the sounds of a musical instrument played at a distance were transmitted by rods of deal and made audible to an audience. The simple string telephone has long been known and used as an interesting scientific toy. These experiments, though suggestive of possible practical applications, were not thoroughly studied by inventors interested.  In the subject of transmitting articulate sounds, until quite recently the electric telephone, having probably overshadowed them.  Of late, however, the subject of acoustic telephones without the intervention of electric agencies has been intelligently taken up and as one result an apparatus has been devised and perfected which completely fulfills the requirements of a simple efficient and durable method of transmitting speech over moderate distances, say within two miles, and which fully answers for the numberless situations above referred to in a manner surpassing even the magneto electric telephone in distinctness of enunciation and absolutely free from the disturbing influences

Good luck finding the transmitter!!!

[Sargeguy]

The mid-1880s seems to have been the heyday of acoustic/mechanical phones, especially when the Bell patent suits left Bell with a virtual monopoly on electronic telephones.  There was an effort to come up with cheaper alternatives.

From THE ELECTRICIAN AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEER June 1884

A NEW MECHANICAL TELEPHONE Although the electrical telephone is very extensively used in social as well as business circles, the price of rental is sufficient to prohibit it from occupying a subordinate but very extensive field where such an instrument, while a great convenience, is not an absolute necessity. The acoustic, or mechanical telephone, has been found to be admirably adapted for use in various localities and its apparent commercial value has attracted the attention of several inventors who have sought to render it more efficient.  A recent improvement in this class of telephones consists in making use of a diaphragm formed of thin splints of wood interwoven in a manner similar to basket work two or more layers of which are firmly cemented together.  One of the principal advantages of this arrangement of the material arises from the fact that it is entirely unaffected by atmospheric changes.  Actual tests made with this instrument prove that it is in every way satisfactory for telephonic communication on short lines.  A patent for this improvement has recently been allowed to Mr A A Knudson the well known electrical and mechanical expert, who is skilfully assisted in his experimental researches by Mr TG Ellsworth.  These instruments in actual use upon lines have been placed upon exhibition in the office of Mr John P Sunderland, Mechanics Bank Building, Brooklyn and also at 61 J Broad Street Boston.  Local companies are being formed in various cities to introduce them.

From 1885's The Annual Register of World Events: A Review of the Year

New Mechanical Inventions
An ingenious modification of the mechanical telephone has been patented by Messrs Knudson and Ellsworth and is now being supplied to the public In the mechanical telephone the sound vibrations travel along the connecting wire whereas in the Bell and other telephones the sound waves merely excite an electric current in the connecting wire and this current reproduces sound waves in the receiving instrument. The mechanical telephone has therefore nothing to do with electricity. It consists of a wooden case about 5 inches square fixed to the wall.  In front of it is a larger plate 9 inches in diameter with a 3 inch hole in the center.  In this hole is inserted a perforated disc made of nickel 2 inches across and to this disc is attached the connecting wire. A similar instrument serves as a receiver and no additional apparatus is required. To call attention it suffices to tap the nickel disc when the sound is heard in the receiving instrument. It is claimed for this form by the inventors that speech is distinctly audible at a distance of 2 miles and for short distances it may be useful as an advance on the speaking tube.

And then there is this from THE ELECTRICIAN AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEER  November 1886

A NEW ACOUSTIC TELEPHONE SYSTEM
Acoustic telephones have long been used with fair efficiency for comparatively short distances A good deal of attention and ingenuity have been bestowed upon their improvement of late The old lover's telegraph is the type of them all the improvements consisting in modifications of diaphragms and conductors chiefly The acoustic telephones of Messrs Knudson and Ellsworth and a special form of wire conductor devised by them have points of excellence deserving attention The diaphragm is the distinctive feature of their telephone It is made of woven strips of a strong wood several layers being cemented together and put under pressure forming practically a solid piece flexible and impossible to split or crack while at the same time it is extremely resonant Special features of the conductor employed by Messrs Knudson and Ellsworth and recently patented seem not less important than the construction of the telephones In the use of acoustic telephones disagreeable and troublesome disturbance of conversation has often been experienced due to mechanical vibrations in the conductor Such vibrations may be due to wind or other disturbing causes The tendency of the stretched conductor usually a single wire under such disturbance is to vibrate in nodal divisions like a musical string and thus produce disturbing noises more or less musical like the sound of an teolian harp in the attached telephones To obviate this disturbance Messrs Knudson and Ellsworth make their conductor of three or more wires of different sizes aud degrees of hardness twisted together and covered with a protecting material This is done with a view of destroying the tendency exhibited by a stretched single wire when disturbed to vibrate in nodal sections and is said to be entirely successful in eliminating the humming so often heard in acoustic telephones The theory of Messrs Knudson and Ellsworth is that the several wires of their conductor having different nodes of vibration and not being so closely twisted together as to form substantially a single wire their different rates of vibration neutralize each other in case of external disturbance but in nowise interfere with the capacity of the conductor as a whole to vibrate longitudinally with the motion of the diaphragm of the telephone We have had an opportunity of trying these telephones as used on short lines and found them very effective Mr Knudson tells us that at an intermediate point on a short line a person holding the conductor between his teeth can hear distinctly what is said at the terminals the action being like th at of the audiphone and can even make himself understood at the terminals when speaking though less satisfactorily than he can hear For some business and many social purposes such telephones would seem to have a considerable field of usefulness

Apparently they did not catch on here in the US, although England seems to have liked it:

Railway Times, Volume 48, Part 2 1885

The following is the opinion of WH Preece Esq FRS Electrician the General Post office Member of Inst CE and Past President of Society of Telegraph Engineers and Electricians dated 22nd July 1885:
1. The Mechanical Telephone Patent No 9,050 the invention of Messrs AA Knudson and TG Ellsworth of America is of simple and construction worked without electricity and free from any of the held by the United Telephone Company
2. I have made many successful experiments with it within the of 2 miles and have been surprised at the distinctness with which voice is conveyed
3. It is very easily fixed and its maintenance is very trifling for there little to go wrong and nothing but the connecting wire to be kept in order
Other most favourable reports are set out in the full Prospectus CE Spagnoletti Esq MICE President of the Society of Engineers nnd Electricians and Electric Engineer to Great Western Railway and from Henry Sach Esq Telegraph Engineer and Superintendent Eastern Railway Company It is proposed to erect the Telephone and fix the wire for a cash of 3 and upwards varying with the distance and to charge a small sum for royalty and maintenance and it is estimated that such will yield a handsome profit to the Company As the ordinary charge made by existing Companies in London for and maintaining a Telephone is 20 per annum there is no doubt there be a great demand for Mechanical Telephones at the above cheap rates Prospectuses and Forms of Application for Shares may be obtained the Bankers and Solicitors or at the Offices of the Company

Then again, maybe not, here is a list of the mechanical telephone's shortcomings in an English trade journal:

The Electrical Review, Volume 17 1885

The instrument of Messrs Knudson and Ellsworth seems to differ only as regards the material of which the diaphragm is constructed from the older forms and though it is quite possible that the new instrument is a distinct improvement on the old still 42,000 seems a large sum to pay for a patent the chief part of which appears to be for a mere piece of wicker work The following are the chief objections common to all instruments of this nature
1 They are unsuited for any but very short distances
2 They are entirely useless for exchange work
3 Great difficulty is experienced when the wires have to be supported in even a few places and where corners have to be circumvented
4 It is difficult to maintain the wires in the taut condition necessary for the effective working of the instruments
5 Where the wires pass through partition walls holes of sufficient size are necessary to allow the wires to go through without touching anything
6 The wires must be overhead and cannot possibly be laid underground
7 A disagreeable humming noise is continuously emitted by the instruments owing to the vibration of the wires by the wind and other causes
Having had some experience with mechanical telephones I trust I may safely say that the electric telephone companies need have little or no fear of their non electrical rival

although the Bell patent decision offered a brief ray of hope, it's probably best not to rely on the US market:

Electrical World, Volumes 11-12 1888

Mechanical Telephones It is thought in some circles that the recent Bell telephone decision will give a stimulus to work in the mechanical field Mr TG Ellsworth of 39 Nassau street the agent of the Knudson Ellsworth telephone tells me he is with a very brisk inquiry and sale for the instrument and he several recent testimonials as to its efficiency A number telephones have been shipped to Cuba