Ipsophone telephone answering machine and handset, c. 1952

Introduced in 1951, the Swiss-made “Ipsophone” was the first automatic record and answer telephone answering machine introduced in the UK and was described as “the robot telephone device with a brain.” At this time, most domestic telephone equipment in the UK was provided by the General Post Office (GPO) but the Ipsophone was an “approved attachment” provided by the Ansafone Company. The GPO introduced their answering machine in 1958, the originally named “Answering Machine No. 1.”

The Ipsophone was made by Oerlikon Buhrle & Co and was introduced into the UK by Southern Instruments Ltd, London.