Have you ever wondered how your voice can travel thousands of kilometres, instantaneously? The transmission of speech long predates Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone of 1876, as makeshift instruments such as pipes or cones were used to project a voice over greater distance. But the telephone as we know it was a more ambitious device; it sought connection across towns, continents and oceans.

The Telephone - How It Works, General Post Office, National Communications Museum collection 8817.