Automatic Electric Phone

The Automatic Electric iHorn is made from an Automatic Electric telephone with patent dates to approximately 1917.  It is coupled with a vintage funnel as the horn. 

Automatic Electric Company (AE) was the largest of the manufacturing units of the Automatic Electric Group.  It was a telephone equipment supplier for independent telephone companies in North America, and also had a worldwide presence. With its line of automatic telephone exchanges, it was also a long-term supplier of switching equipment to the Bell System, starting in 1919.  For translation purposes, “automatic telephone exchanges” is techno speak for eliminating the need for telephone switchboard operators to connect most telephone calls.  This was the market niche which made Automatic Electric Company a huge success and permitted it to survive from 1891 to 1983 when it finally merged with GTE.

The Automatic Electric is proof that you do not always have to come up with an new idea, just have to find a way to make an existing idea or process better or more efficient.