1878 - Magnetic hand telephone

The telephone was introduced for the public for the first time in 1876, when the Scottish born professor Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated his invention at the world exhibition in Philadelphia.

The model shown below is a so-called magnetic telephone from 1878. It is manufactured by Werner Siemens in Germany after Graham Bell's patent. In such a magnetic telephone you alternately talked and listened in the same receiver - something like the can telephone we had in our childhood.

The first practical use of the telephone in Denmark was when Kjøbenhavns By- og Hustelegraf was established in 1879.

Post & Tele Museum - Koebmagergade 37 - Postbox 2053 - DK 1012 Copenhagen
Tel. (+45) 33 41 09 00 - email:museum@ptt-museum.dk