Electrophone System

They would then use the supplied receivers to listen to the service.  Users would invite friends around to listen and in one of the pictures below there is a stand with four receivers. 

At £5 a year, the service was not cheap but you were provided with two receivers.  Extra receivers would cost an extra £1 each.

You could also pay via a coin-in-the-slot machine but if they wanted the service at home they needed to pay a subscription.

The system operated with rows of microphones, installed in the theatres in front of the footlights.  When installed in Churches the microphones were sometimes disguised as bibles.

By 1908 Electrophone had around 600 subscribers and carried performances from 30 theatres and churches.  During the First World War, recuperating servicemen were given free access to Electrophone services.

Other European countries also used similar systems.

The fore runners of radio, these systems became redundant after the introduction of radio.

Electrophone users listen to a direct relay from a London theatre scene is the electrophone reception room, Pelican House, 36 Gerrard Street, London 1908

Telephonists and electrophone switchboard at Victoria telephone exchange in Westminster, London 1922

Adelphi theatre Distribution board in 1920.  This would have been under the stage. Note the National Telephone Companies phone.

Adelphi theatre microphones, seen across the front of the stage in front of the foot lights.

Electrophone receivers on a stand

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Last revised: October 31, 2010