A Mechanical Telephone of the 19th Century

How far we have come!  Long before intercoms and room monitors, there was the mechanical telephone. 

In a trade catalog entitled Holcomb’s Improved Amplifying Telephone Illustrated Descriptive Circular, the telephone was described as “unquestionably one of the most marvelous and useful inventions of the nineteenth century.” 

Holcomb’s mechanical telephones used galvanized steel cable-wire to transmit voice communications over distances of two miles. They were designed to meet the needs of businesses and “enable the busy man to save valuable time, to avoid vexatious delays, and to direct from his office the operations of employees at manufactory, mill, office, depot, or store . . . ” 

Holcomb’s Improved Amplifying Telephone Illustrated Descriptive Circular, a circa 1882 catalog from J. R. Holcomb & Co. of Cleveland, Ohio, is located in the Trade Literature Collection at the National Museum of American History Library. More images from the catalog can be found on the Galaxy of Images.—Mary Ann Wilson and Alexia MacClain