Telephone, wall telephone

This General Post Office model 1 telephone could be mounted on an office wall, and has a shelf at the front which allowed callers to take notes when they were speaking. The cranking handle was used to alert the operator when a call was to be made or ended. A plaque on the front provides instructions for use.

The cabinet originally held the battery, which provided the power to make the call. After the introduction of central battery exchanges in the 20th century telephones no longer needed local batteries and could therefore be manufactured in smaller sizes. This telephone has been converted for use on a central battery exchange.

The telephone dates from the period when the state-owned GPO agreed to buy out the private National Telephone Company. The GPO took over the operations of private companies because they could not meet the growing level of demand.