February, 19 13 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



63 



The simple and unobtrusive telephone here does away with the old and complex system of tubing for communicating with the kitchen 



The House Telephone 



By Henry Putnam Lewis 

 Photographs by T. C. Turner and others 





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HE delicately-built mechanism which carries 

 the voice half across the continent is also 

 the means of keeping the different depart- 

 ments of the household in close touch with 

 one another. So marvelously efficient is its 

 service that both these widely dissimilar 

 tasks are performed equally well. 



A certain city home built a generation ago, was then 

 regarded as especially complete. One of the conveniences 

 which so excited the admiration and envy of other home- 

 keepers was a complex and wonderful system of speaking 

 tubes which were intended to be the means of communica- 

 tion between the different rooms. The house contained 

 some fourteen rooms, and to render the service complete 

 each room was provided with a tube to every other room, 

 and these imposing arrays of porcelain receivers projecting 

 from the wall, and other 

 rows of bell buttons 

 formed a feature which 

 could hardly be called 

 decorative. Another 

 drawback was found in 

 the propensity of these 

 tubes to get out of 

 order, as well as the 

 cost necessary to main- 

 tain repairs constantly 

 necessary. 



All of this old order 

 of affairs is changed 



The house telephone keeps the various rooms in close touch with one another 



to-day in the household, large or small, which is equipped 

 with the house telephone. The mechanism of this modern 

 accessory to domestic convenience is exceedingly inconspicu- 

 ous and may be concealed in numerous ingenious ways 

 which in no wise interfere with the very practical service 

 which it renders without easily getting out of running order. 

 Such telephones are particularly useful in a city home built, 

 as most city houses are, to cover a small area but towering 

 four, five or even six stories into the air. If the home be 

 in the country the usefulness of the house telephone is even 

 greater, for the house may be connected with the stable, 

 the garage, and with any outbuilding that may be situated 

 a considerable distance from the dwelling proper, but which 

 are thus kept directly in touch with the master, the mistress 

 or the housekeeper. 



The house telephone need not be a system separate and 



apart from the tele- 

 phone which connects 

 the house with the out- 

 side world for, if a 

 simple switchboard be 

 provided, even the most 

 inexperienced maid who 

 may be on duty in the 

 hall can easily connect 

 the telephone with any 

 room of the house, and 

 the connection is, of 

 course, broken when 

 the receiver is returned 



