Siemens & Halske First Telephone (1800)
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:31448643 | Brand: Siemens & Halske |
| Country/Region of Manufacture: Germany |
First Telephone in South AfricaSouth Africa has a rich telecommunications history, which stretches back to April 1859 when the first telegraph was installed.This telegraph was a single-wire earth return telegraph line (a circuit run) on wooden poles between Cape Town and Simonstown , installed by The Cape Of Good Hope Telegraph Company.It was a Cooke and Weatstone-system – a visual needle telegraph.The first telephones were installed in Cape Town in 1878, two years after A...lexander Graham Bell filed his patent for an “apparatus for transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically”.Adolph Boettger, owner of a small watchmaker’s shop in Short Market Street in Cape Town, imported a few telephones from Siemens & Halske.These telephones were used experimentally to link the dwelling of the Telegraph Departments chief clerk with the St George Street Post Office.The early telephone models used in SA before the advent of telephone exchanges in the country (1878-1882) worked over private wires and are referred to as Bell telephones.In 1878 the Bell Telephone Company also sent Sir Garnet Wolseley 12 sets of telephones for use in the Zulu War in South Africa.If these phones were used in the Zulu war, it was the first time that the telephone was used in warfare.
