Nineteenth-century ‘Paris Wonder’

© Mark Ollig

Years before commercial radio stations wirelessly transmitted theater opera music to home radios, a wired system was operating on the other side of the pond.

Clément Ader, a French engineer, designed the first private telephone network in Paris, France, in 1879.

He also engineered a telephonic dual-channel audio system for the first broadcast of live stereophonic sound.

Ader’s transmission system used a listening device he invented called the theatrophone (the theater phone), which worked over telephone wiring.

The magneto-electric theatrophone used soft iron metal in each of the two receiver’s diaphragm earpieces, which increased electromagnetic induction, sustained current flow, and provided quality sound wave reproduction.

In 1881, Ader demonstrated his stereophonic electrical audio reproduction system during the World Expo that took place in the Palais de l’Industrie (Palace of Industry) building in Paris.

A mile away inside the Opéra de Paris (Paris Opera House), Ader wired 12 telephone microphone transmitters on the stage floor along the front footlights where the audience would not see them.

Several Leclanché 1.5-volt direct current dry-cell batteries (invented by French scientist Georges Leclanché in 1866) powered the microphones that would pick up the voices and movements of the singers and actors performing on the stage.

The microphone wiring passed through electrical amplifiers and induction coils within Ader’s transmission circuit and continued through an empty water pipe leading into the Palais de l’Industrie building. From there, the wiring ran to four portico gallery rooms, where it made connections to several theatrophones.

Each theatrophone was equipped with two earpieces used by the person listening to music playing inside the Paris Grand Opera House.

The left earpiece retransmits audio from microphones from the left side of the theater stage, and the right earpiece retransmits the audio sounds from the right side.

People in the Palais de l’Industrie location listening on the theatrophones were astonished and described hearing the actor’s voices and movements on the stage as if sitting in the audience at the Opéra de Paris building.

“This phenomenon is very curious. It approximates to the theory of binaural audition and has never been applied, we believe, before to produce this remarkable illusion to which may almost be given the name of auditive perspective,” the Dec. 31, 1881, Scientific American magazine wrote about the theatrophone listening experience.

By 1890, Ader’s engineering work led to the Compagnie du Theatrophone (Theatrophone Company) in Paris, which began live-streaming audio connections from theater performances over telephone lines to its paying subscribers.

These connections were established and monitored by switchboard operators.

The Theatrophone Company signed contracts for the commercial delivery of live music and other audio content with leading play theaters, opera houses, vaudeville clubs, café chantant (cafe-concert) locations, and church Sunday services.

An agreement with the Paris telephone exchange provided cross-connection wiring for new and existing subscribers and business locations to the Theatrophone Company.

The telephone exchange installed special six-conductor cabling from each theater location at the Theatrophone Company switchboard, located on the lower level of the Rue Louis-Grand building in Paris. It served as the central distribution hub for connecting audio content providers with paying subscribers.

To use the service, a subscriber asks the local telephone exchange operator to connect them to the Theatrophone Company.

The Theatrophone Company switchboard operator connects with and asks the subscriber which theatre location they want to listen to.

The operator then plugs the subscriber’s line patch cord into the round, metallic brass spring jack wired to the theater’s location, connecting the subscriber with the desired theater’s performance audio.

Above the switchboard, rows of printed cards display regularly updated performance schedules and times for each theater.

Each theater has several jacks on the switchboard, so multiple subscribers can be plugged into audio content using their regular telephone or the theatrophone and its dual earpieces.

A subscriber can end the theaters audio by signaling the Theatrophone Company’s switchboard operator. Also, the local city exchange switchboard operator can break into the live stream audio to connect with the subscriber for an emergency call.

On July 2, 1892, Scientific American magazine reported 100 theatrophones installed in Paris.

“A Paris Wonder” is the title of an article from Oct. 2, 1892, in the Minneapolis Sunday Tribune newspaper describing the theatrophone.

People deposited coins in specially-designed theatrophones installed at hotels, cafes, railway stations, and other public locations to listen to live performances.

“Like gas from a gas jet, one can turn on music to flow for any desired time and pay for it according to the measure of the meter,” the Minneapolis Sunday Tribune article stated.

The Theatrophone Company obtained direct telephone trunking with exchanges outside Paris to provide live telephonically transmitted audio theatrical performances in France and other countries.

By 1932, the popularity of home radios had become the preferred method for listening to live theater and musical performances. As a result, the Theatrophone Company ceased operations.