On This Day in Telephone History August 2ND 1879 The Edison Telephone Company of London was formed, predating British Telecom.
By 1879 Edison had produced a telephone receiver known as the ‘chalk receiver’, ‘motograph receiver’ or ‘electromotograph’.
During the summer of that year, The Edison Telephone Company of London Ltd was registered with a capital of £200,000 to work with the Edison telephone patents. Within a month the company’s first exchange opened officially, at Queen Victoria Street, London, with ten subscribers who used carbon transmitters and chalk receivers. By the end of the following February, when the company had another two exchanges in operation, it served 172 subscribers.
Edison’s telephonic challenge to Bell in Britain lasted only a little longer than the Western Union effort in the USA. Once again, the power of Bell’s original patents was too strong.
After some litigation in the courts, the Telephone Company Ltd and the Edison Telephone Company of London Ltd were amalgamated in May 1880 to form the United Telephone Company with a capital of £500,000. The new company, controlling Bell’s and Edison’s patents, now had a near monopoly in Britain.