Circular pattern table telephone set

Made:
1885 in England and London

Circular pattern table telephone set, with generator and magnets bell, receiver and transmitter incomplete, made by the Consolidated Telephone Construction Manufacturing Company, England, c.1885.

This is an example of one of the early patterns of circular table telephones and was made by the Consolidated Telephone Construction Manufacturing Company, England, c.1885.

The instrument was fitted with a hand generator and a magneto bell. Many early manual telephones such as this were made for magneto signalling, that is they had a hand-cranked magneto attached that produced an alternating current for signalling to ring the bells of other telephones on the same shared line and to alert an operator at the local telephone exchange that they were making a call.

The transmitter and receiver are incomplete. The transmitter is of the Hunnings form, that is the first of the granular type of carbon transmitter as invented by a clergyman, Rev H. Hunnings, in 1881.

Details

Category:
Telecommunications
Object Number:
1915-207
type:
telephones
credit:
General Post Office