Tin Can Phone
in
String Phone: At a Glance
| Category | Rating (0-5) |
|---|---|
| First Impressions |
|
| Phone Configuration |
|
| JN Testing |
|
| Voice Quality |
|
| Ease of Use |
|
We’ve been doing VoIP phone reviews for a while now, but today we’re going to be doing something a little different. High-resolution LCD screens, crystal clear wideband audio, and XML applications are nice, but don’t you long for a simpler time? Back when the air was cleaner, the sun shined brighter, and all you had to worry about was smallpox, typhus, typhoid fever, dysentery, scarlet fever, the common cold (boy was that deadly back then), influenza (also a doozy), dengue fever, malaria, and tuberculosis...
Ah... those were the days. What we now know to be preventable diseases aside, it was pretty great!
Come with us on our journey back, won’t you? We’re going to be looking into telephony history and trying out an apparatus that perhaps started it all.
Variations of the string telephone, sometimes referred to as the “lover’s” telephone, were invented centuries ago. Today the string telephone is most commonly known as the ‘tin can phone’. This voice-transmitting device is often made up of two tin cans or paper cups attached to the ends of a non-stretchable string or wire.
So, how can something as simple as two cans and a string transmit sound? I’m not ruling out witchcraft, but according to some ‘reliable’ sources (*ahem* witches), there is a perfectly scientific explanation. When the string between the two cans is taut and someone speaks into one of the cans, its bottom turns into a diaphragm, vibrating back and forth very quickly with the sound waves of the speaker’s voice. The vibrations then travel through the string, causing the bottom of the second cup to start vibrating just like the bottom of the first cup. This process produces sound waves on the other end, which the second person can hear.
I know. Your mind is blown.
Apparently, this is not so different from how an old-fashioned telephone works.
Clearly, these are witches planning something on their magic phones
Tin Can Phone Feature Overview
- 2 cans or 2 cups
- 1 string
- 1 line phone
- Up to 100+ feet range
- Great for drinking beverages *
- Can be used as nunchucks *
*Will probably ruin your string telephone
Price: ~ $2
First Impressions
The look of the string telephone can vary greatly, but they are often ergonomically designed with very little in the frills department. These devices are built for one thing and one thing only—listening and talking (not at the same time, though) to one other person within a reasonable distance.
The string telephone gives us a great first impression simply because of the nostalgia factor. Without the fundamental knowledge developed in the design of this device, there would be no modern telephony, and no VoIP phones. Respect!
Finally, the estimated price tag and the fact that string telephones are easy to make contribute to the high rating.
Phone Configuration
There’s very little to be said about configuring a string telephone. It’s easy to set up and you can be up and running in absolutely no time at all.
- Obtain 2 cans/paper cups
- Punch tiny hole at the bottom of each can/paper cup
- Obtain piece of non-stretchable thread (kite string also works)
- Thread each end of the thread through each hole and secure by either tying a knot or using tape
- Spread the 2 cans/paper cups apart until the string is taut
- Talk way, profit, and win at life
Junction Networks Interoperability Test
Our interoperability test is unfair to the string telephone. We’re happy to report that in our Junction Networks ‘would this impress and baffle a crowd from the 18th century’ test, the string telephone passes with flying colors.
Voice Quality
The distance between the two cans and the tautness of the string significantly impact the voice quality. What you get with the string telephone is admittedly a little lower in clarity than what you get on a Polycom 650. It’s not exactly wideband audio, but it was also surprisingly not as bad as we thought it would be.
Sometimes it even sounded like we were in the same room as the person on the other end … when we were in the same room with them.
Ease of Use
Using the string telephone is incredibly easy. You just pick up the tin can or paper cup and talk into it when you want to say something and hold it to your ear when you’re expecting a message from the person on the other end. You can’t talk and listen at the same time, which means you may have to do some conversational guesswork. You will most definitely run into some problems if you and the person on the other end are both talking or both listening at the same time. Pretending you’re in a military flick and saying ‘over’ after you’re done talking is a good way of getting around this.
If you really think about it (as in, this is a HUGE stretch), the tin can phone discourages interrupting people while they’re talking and encourages really listening. Thank you, tin can phone, for teaching us a valuable lesson about mutual respect.
There are limitations to this technology. The design of the phone means that you have to make one for each and every person you’re planning on engaging in conversation, and that means a lot of string and a lot of cans. That’s way too much Campbell’s soup for anyone to eat in one sitting.
Final Thoughts
The string telephone is old school telephony at its finest. It laid down the fundamentals of sound transmission and many of the same concepts were later used by Alexander Graham Bell. Unfortunately, the limited range and the excessive wiring that would be required to set up a tin can office telephone system are severe limitations. Today’s business requires communicating with people more than 100 feet away, and luckily, there are much better suited phones for doing that now.
Still, it is always useful to take a look back to help us gain a greater appreciation for where the technology has been, where it is currently, and where it will go in the future.
