Navyphone

A Navyphone is a rugged type of telephone made specifically for shipboard applications using short-range circuits. For some time, the Royal Navy called these "loud-speaking telephones", but the word "navyphone" was coming into usage as early as 1902. They considered them as being slightly different to long-range telephones.

Form Factor

Unknown "Navy'Phone" (front)
circa 1900

Unknown "Navy'Phone" (back)

Unknown "Navy'Phone" (inside)

Navyphones varied considerably in their physical details, not all of them resembling a conventional telephone. Some resembled intercoms, and some were rather comical in appearance with trumpets or large horns in front or to be clopped over one's ears as though sharing a secret with a sunflower. Most were to be mounted on a bulkhead or other convenient vertical surface.

A brass navyphone recovered from a wreck of a Royal Navy armoured cruiser by a Dutch diver in the modern era may loosely be taken as an example. Like other British navyphones, it was supplied by the Graham company, and was probably identified by Admiralty Pattern Number (an "1814" on this one may be such, but I can find no reference to such a model).

This article seems to have been portable, with a hinged carry handle on its top, a cable gland at the bottom, and a single push lever labelled "Press to Speak". You can see by the design of the push-to-talk lever that it rotates a capsule of carbon granules within the housing, as in the Pattern 1855 Navyphone. The front round aperture is the microphone through which the local user would speak; it may have been protected by a light mesh which corroded away before restoration work began. The brass horn emerging from the back is where the remote speaker's voice would emanate, its geometry helping as much as possible to amplify the volume.

British Patterns

Most were in watertight metal cases with receivers at the back with diaphragms facing the back of the instrument, projecting into trumpets which carried the sound out to the side. The transmitter was placed in front and could be revolved by hand although no clear description is offered of the plane of rotation, but we may guess that the example shown above was typical.

They were most often battery-powered, initially, powered in pairs off six pattern 1453 cells in a pattern 1704 battery box until the Lord Nelson, Bellerophon and later classes in which they were powered by a motor generator.

Issues with rain, wind and spray were solved in 1907 by a "damp-proof" model (of unstated type; it was one of those compatible with motor generators, so perhaps 2140A) which was rigorously tested by pouring buckets over it and immersing them in water for 24 hours.

Graham-type Loud Speaking Phones and Navyphones in British Service
Pattern	Application	Deployed	Notes
1639	upper deck areas	before 1902[Inference]	battery-powered push-to-call open shutter to answer external bell
1643	engine room	before 1902[Inference]	battery-powered push-to-call open shutter to answer external bell
1855	upper deck areas	1902	battery-powered, push-to-talk, external bell
1856	engine room	1902	battery-powered, external bell
1856A	engine room	1907	powered by battery or generator
2108	control positions	~1904	paired with 2109 push-to-talk no bell
2108A	control positions		fitted in some cabins in Dreadnought and later ships
2108B	control positions
2109	gun positions	~1905	paired with 2108 push-to-talk bell
2109A	gun positions		fitted in some cabins in Dreadnought and later ships
2109B	gun positions
2140	universal type
2140A	upper deck areas		suitable for generator
860	fire control	Bellerophon class	similar to 2109A, but with a bell on top
861	fire control	Bellerophon class	no bell similar to 2108A w/portable receivers
862	fire control	Bellerophon class	no bell, similar to 1856A works with 2108A
863	general use	Bellerophon class	bell on top, similar to 2140A new shutter and push
541	cabins	~1914	modern-type handset
2461	general use	Lion and Orion classes	buzzer call-up
2461A	engine rooms	Lion and Orion classes	with bell contact replaces 2140A, 2108A, 2108B, 2109A, 863, 1856A
2462	cabins	Lion and Orion classes	buzzer call-up
2463	TS	Lion and Orion classes	buzzer call-up
2464	Guns	Lion and Orion classes	buzzer call-up
2465	TS	Lion and Orion classes	transmitter only, buzzer call-up
2466	destroyer & exposed positions	Lion and Orion classes	buzzer call-up
3330	TS	Queen Elizabeth class	buzzer call-up
3331	gun positions, etc	Queen Elizabeth class	buzzer call-up
3332	TS	Queen Elizabeth class	buzzer call-up
3333	gun positions, etc	Queen Elizabeth class	buzzer call-up
3334	TS	Queen Elizabeth class	transmitter only, buzzer call-up

See Also

• Telaupad
• Voicepipe
• Telephone

Bibliography

• H.M.S.O., London Torpedo Drill Book, 1905 (Corrected to December, 1904). Copy in Tony Lovell's library.
• H.M.S.O., London Torpedo Drill Book, 1908 (Corrected to December, 1907). Copy in Tony Lovell's library.
• H.M.S.O., London Torpedo Drill Book, 1912 (Corrected to April, 1912). Copy in Tony Lovell's library.
• H.M.S.O., London (1914). Torpedo Drill Book, 1914 (Corrected to May 15) Copy in Tony Lovell's library.
• H.M.S. Vernon. Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1902. Copy 268 at The National Archives. ADM 189/22.