Candlestick telephone

Candlestick telephones featured a mouthpiece (transmitter) mounted at the top of the stand, and a receiver (earphone) that was held by the user to the ear during a call.

At the top of the stand was mounted a carbon microphone (transmitter) to speak into, and a switch hook extending sideways upon which an earpiece (receiver) was hung.

This was essentially a candlestick telephone that had its vertical tube-shaft shortened to about 1+1⁄2 inches (4 cm) in height above the round base, and had a cradle on top of it, designed to hold a combined handset with both the receiver and the transmitter in the same unit.

The A1 was only distributed for a short time until the B-type telephone mount was completed the same year, a streamlined design that replaced the tube shaft with a sculpted cone shape.

In the same period, the electric circuitry was upgraded to produce the model 202 telephone, which reduced the strong sidetone characteristic of earlier designs.