Motor Dictograph

The Motor Dictograph iHorn is made from a 1917 Dictograph Motor Speaker.  In fact, it was a communication device installed in the then chauffeured vehicle permitting the elite passengers to speak with the driver.  The "Motor Dictograph" is a system for closed-cabin driver/passenger communication and was first displayed in the 1917 Salon and Shows.

Dictograph was formed in 1902 producing the first room surveillance eavesdropping device.  It was an international corporation, with offices in United States, Europe, and the Orient.  Its most famous product was the “Detective Dictograph Audio Amplifier.”  This police eavesdropping device was used to convict Ohio state senator Rodney J. Diegle of bribery in 1911;  U.S. Senator William Lorimer of Illinois for suborning perjury in 1912; and to indict Albert and Louis Bimberg of White Plains, N.Y., for trying to hire an employee to burn the American Oilcloth Co. plant in Trenton, N.J. in 1914.  Dictograph Products was a big player in telephone equipment, although it received push back because of the hard wiring requirements not present in other interoffice communication systems.  The Motor Dictograph blended telephone technology with automobile application, moving Dictograph into two of the technologies which drove American expansion. 

It is a piece of Americana which reflects ingenuity, beauty and grace.  Its appearance and sound are symphonic.