Telephone No. 16 (1890s) : style and content

This magneto phone was a triumph of design over function. The magneto-type telephones needed magnets to generate the necessary electricity to make a call. Usually these were horseshoe shaped, as in the early Bell models. However, rather than have the magnets as add-on components, the Swedish company Ericsson integrated them into the whole shape of the phone, so the legs on this phone double up as the magnets.

Ericsson also managed to successfully combine the transmitter and receiver together into a functional handset, when most phones, such as the candlestick, still provided separate ear and mouthpieces.

When the handle on the side was cranked it signalled the operator at the exchange that you wanted to make a call, who could then connect you. The magneto system was in place until the 1920s however its use dwindled from the mainstream into private networks.