Comments on: In the Archives: Forgotten Phones

By: Irene Hieber

Irene Hieber — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 22:19:56 +0000

I think the mystery object is a whimsical honey pot.

Irene Hieber

By: Laura Bien

Laura Bien — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 01:37:02 +0000

Jim Rees: Thank you for adding some very interesting info to the story. Gillett’s moment in the sun was short. I did not know that the carbon transmitter was in use for a century (!).

Your collection sounds neat. I also collect old phones, including a working model from the early 1940s which I love. Heavy thing. At one point I had about seven wired in sequence on top of the piano, so when a call came in, they rang ALL AT ONCE! You could hear them from quite a distance! Good times.

By: Jim Rees

Jim Rees — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 01:20:10 +0000

No fair mounting the wire bread holders sideways on the toaster. That really threw me off.

Finally, a subject I know something about. By 1890, Gillett’s transmitter had been completely displaced by Thomas Edison’s carbon transmitter, which is even capable of amplification. The carbon transmitter was used for a hundred years before being replaced by dynamic and electret mics in electronic phones. The phones at my house are mostly Western Electric sets from the 1960s, and have carbon transmitters.

On a related subject, I was at Hathaway’s a couple weeks ago and was distressed to find that the telephones were missing. I hope they are just out for repair and not gone forever. Those phones are probably 100 years old, and are battery powered with hand crank ringer magnetos.

By: Laura Bien

Laura Bien — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 19:15:49 +0000

(Wags finger) Ah ah ah, ABC, have you been chatting with nationally-known culinary historian Jan Longone over at the Clements Library? Because…now, that wouldn’t be quite fair, would it? :)

By: abc

abc — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 15:05:03 +0000

Ahh… the perfect cocktail s’more machine. You know long ago people realized that a s’more was too big for your mouth. That is when the mini marshmallow was invented, followed quickly in very elite circles by the ‘cocktail s’more’. This neat little device eliminates the need for a stick (how gauche!) as well as sticky fingers. Place this simple cast piece on a wood stove to get warm. Assemble your s’more in the fly’s abdomen and lower the lid. It works like a mini Panini maker. Watch the wings, their descent signals that all is melting according to plan. Lift the lid and there you have it; cocktail s’mores.

By: Laura Bien

Laura Bien — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:12:53 +0000

Barbara: Interesting guess…we shall see. :)

By: Barbara

Barbara — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 20:44:15 +0000

It’s a match safe. I have one similar to this, only mine is painted. It will hold about a dozen or so small wooden matches.

By: Laura Bien

Laura Bien — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 04:52:17 +0000

Cosmonican: That guess made me smile…but I will say that in this case, unlike previous Mystery Artifacts, the form is divorced from its onetime function.

By: Laura Bien

Laura Bien — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 04:50:56 +0000

Sebastian: Indeed, you’d never guess that this item has a secret compartment. It’s quite beautiful and detailed too, for what it served as: if you turn it over and look at the fly abdomen, it is beautifully and realistically striated.

By: cosmonıcan

cosmonıcan — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 04:40:20 +0000

Do I dare suggest, with Valentine’s Day just past, that the object is a dispenser for capsules of Spanish Fly?