Two coupled Gower-Bell telephones

Frederic Allan Gower was an American entrepreneur who, between 1876 and 1880, was a licencee of the patentee of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell. Because Gower was aware of the enormous potential of the telephone, he was intent on getting away with Bell’s protective patents. He succeeded by using a much heavier receiver. Its main element was a large horseshoe magnet. Therefore, the receiver had to be placed in a wooden box. The sound was led to the ear by flexible tube. In this exceptionally early specimen the speaking end is also a tube. In 1880, when Gower got acquainted with the Hughes-microphone, which was not protected by patents, he relinquished Bell’s microphone. For a long time the Gower-Bell telephone was the standard in Western Europe.