Antique Swedish Telegraf Verkets Verkstad Wall Telephone. Stockholm, ca. 1920.

Antique Swedish Wall Telephone of the brand Telegraf Verkets Verktand manufactured in Stockholm in 1920. It consists of a rectangular wooden box divided into three parts, with the battery box located at the bottom. The lid, with vertical opening, is decorated with the Swedish Royal Coat of Arms polychrome in blue, red and yellow. At the top is placed the telephone handset, attached to the battery part by a long cable hanging on the right side. When not in use the metal handset sits on an upper vertical support. The handset is engraved on a metal circumference at the bottom where the sound is emitted with the brand name and locality: STOCKHOLM. A small circular plate attached to the top of the box with the mark TELEGRAF VERKETS VERKSTAD attests that this is a completely genuine piece. Also on the bottom a sticker faded by time indicates the brand and the date: 1921. On the right side is the crank that allowed to communicate with the teleoperator to develop a call at the beginning of the century. Mechanically this fantastic telephone is in good condition, although electrically it is untested.The first test on the possibility of transmitting the sound of voices at a distance, although unsuccessful, can be placed in 1860, when the German Philippe Reiss developed a system that could transmit sound, but unfortunately, unable to distinguish words. The real breakthrough came from three American men: Graham Bell, Elisha Gray and Thomas A. Edison. Edison who would simultaneously make great advances in sound transmission. Graham Bell and Elisha Gray, co-founder of the Western Electric Company, were working separately on the possibility of using different frequencies to improve telegraph communications by transmitting several messages simultaneously over the telegraph wire. In 1876 the first telephone prototypes were presented at the Philadelphia Exposition. In 1877 Graham Bell founded the Bell Telephone Company and, that same year, the Western Union Telegraph Company created its own telephone company, commissioning Edison to develop an alternative model to that of Bell. The two American companies maintained a fierce struggle for control of the U.S. telephone market. In 1879 Bell's patent was recognized by the courts of justice as the only valid one, leaving the Bell Telephone Company as the company authorized to exploit this technological innovation.Beautiful antique telephone perfect to fill a room with nostalgia!Measurements: 60 x 27,5 cm.