Speaking tube

A speaking tube or voicepipe is a device based on two <a href="/facts/Cone_(geometry)/2c9GIzYD">cones</a> connected by an <a href="/facts/Air/hQ95Jznz">air</a> pipe through which <a href="/facts/Speech_communication/WEelhfTs">speech</a> can be transmitted over an extended distance.
Use of pipes was suggested by <a href="/facts/Francis_Bacon/qMJoNMRB">Francis Bacon</a> in the New Atlantis (1672). The usage for telecommunications was experimented with and proposed for administrative communications in 1782 by the French <a href="/facts/Monk/mDhTrNcB">monk</a> Dom Gauthey in a memorandum communicated to the <a href="/facts/Acad%25C3%25A9mie_des_Sciences/zF42DYQv">Académie des Sciences</a>. Dom Gauthey launched a subscription supported by <a href="/facts/Benjamin_Franklin/Dmfv5URr">Benjamin Franklin</a> and other French scientists to finance further experiments, but was not able to raise enough money to go ahead. The British <a href="/facts/Utilitarianism/CVw8Dmmt">utilitarist</a> philosopher <a href="/facts/Jeremy_Bentham/P2n90Uhx">Jeremy Bentham</a> proposed the inclusion of "conversation tubes" in the architecture of his <a href="/facts/Panopticon/A9ETs7m1">Panopticon</a> (1787, 1791, 1811) and then as a means of military telecommunication (1793) and at the end as a necessary equipment in the architecture of <a href="/facts/Ministry_(government_department)/StaW70TJ">ministries</a> (1825).
While its most common use was in intra-<a href="/facts/Ship/418ptx1L">ship</a> communications, the principle was also used in affluent homes and offices of the 19th century, as well as expensive <a href="/facts/Automobiles/I1IsH8IK">automobiles</a>, military <a href="/facts/Aircraft/EhC4mBep">aircraft</a>, and even <a href="/facts/Locomotive/C9YV7wrQ">locomotives</a>. For most purposes, the device was outmoded by the <a href="/facts/Telephone/P7uEgWQX">telephone</a> and its widespread adoption.

Speaking tube open-in-new

Speaking tube