Herrmann Wall Phone

The Herrmann wall phone was a type of telephone, created by the Portuguese inventor, Maximiliano Augusto Herrmann, in 1880. The pioneering use of buttons to activate the telephone played a fundamental role to the opening of public lines in the main cities of Portugal. The telephone was composed by a double earpiece, made with long flexible tubes, and a transmitter fixed to main body of the machine.

Its inventor, Maximiliano Augusto Herrmann, worked for the North and East Portuguese Railway Company (Portuguese: Companhia dos Caminhos-de-ferro do Norte e Leste) as telegraph lines inspector. He later opened a workshop dedicated to the production of precision instruments.