3-056-254 - The London Archives (City of London)/Heritage Images

"I Could Never Have Believed it Possible!", 1896. 'Drama, Politics, Pulpit, General News, Opera'. Illustration from a flyer advertising a demonstration of the Electrophone, a distributed audio system that operated in the United Kingdom, primarily in London, between 1895 and 1925. Using conventional telephone lines, it relayed live theatre performances, music hall shows, and Sunday church services to subscribers who listened over special headsets. It ultimately failed due to the rise of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s.