The Fullerphone

This artefact is a Fullerphone. The Fullerphone is a portable telegraph signalling device that was used in both world wars.

Invented by Algernon Clement Fuller, a member of the Signals Corps with the British Army in World War I, the device was designed to put a stop to the Germans intercepting intelligence in the trenches.

German listening posts had been eavesdropping on frontline communications from the commonly used trench buzzer signals. The Fullerphone overcame this problem transmitting Morse signals with negligible chance of being overheard.

They were first used on the Western Front in late 1915 and were widely used by 1918. the Fullerphone was also used in World War II.

Find out about our other museum artefacts and recent acquisitions.