A Standard  size Bakelite mouthpiece with inside (female) threads. This mouthpiece fits a  Viaduct Paddlephone.

The mouthpiece on the left is an 'oversized' design, as compared to the standard size mouthpiece  on the right. This piece came from a 'Central Telephone Mfg.'  fiddleback wall Telephone.

 

Because of the rough use by customers of the early paystations, the thicker bakelite coating and metal threads were developed for a longer lifecycle.

There are no markings on this mouthpiece, but its design is unmistakenly 'Whisper It'  in style. You will see another version of this mouthpiece  in the 'Glass Sanitary Mouthpiece' section of this website.

 

Colored bakelite mouthpieces  were manufactured for various reasons, including 'White' for medical or hospital use, and  'Red' for emergency use. The 'White'  mp is an original bakelite version,  and the 'Red' mp is a reproduction created by  Mr. Ray Kotke.

 

The 'oversized' mouthpiece  on the left mounts to a 'Wonderphone' telephone transmitter. You can see it is significantly larger than the standard mp shown next to it. Go to the candlestick section of this website to see a 'Wonderphone' transmitter mounted to an upright desk telephone.

 

Advertisers would create promotional items for use with the telephone. Here a celluloid sanitary cover clips over the front edge of a standard size mouthpiece and gives the user the Name and number of the local ‘Furniture Maker and Undertaker’.

 

This is a 'Glass' mouthpiece with inside metal adapter manufactured by 'Burns American Electric' as a 'Germ Proof' mouthpiece. It was thought that during the tuberculosis and influenza epidemics of the late 1800 and early 1900's that the disease was being spread by an infected individual using the telephone and passing the germs to the next unfortunate user. It was thought that these mouthpieces could be boiled in hot water to sterilize  and kill the germs. One of the major drawbacks to glass mouthpieces was their fragility when the telephone table would be  bumped, and the phone would topple over, breaking the mouthpiece.

 

Here is a Glass mouthpiece manufactured by 'The Commercial Appliance Co.'  of Chicago. This particular mouthpiece has an adapter that would fit different threaded transmitter faceplates.

 

This is a 'Flint  Sanitary Mouthpiece' that has an unusual adapter. There are metal fingers attached  to the adapter that hold the mouthpiece in place.

 

This 'Maxim' glass mouthpiece used a more universal adapter  that could be seen on several different manufacturer's products.

 
 

This large 'Red Cross Germ Proof' glass mouthpiece has a heavy flat lip embossed with patent dates of May 1910. The heavy metal adapter has a gauze type gasket to prevent glass breakage. This  reproduction of an extremely hard to find original Red Cross mp, was made by Mr. John Infurna.

 

This unknown manufacturer used the more universal adapter on this mouthpiece. There is some embossed lettering on the  glass, but it is so weak, that it is illegible.

 

The Whisper "It" Sanitary Glass Mouthpiece proclaimed in its advertising that.... being built on scientific lines allows speaking in low tones...the small sound reflector enables secrecy in conversion even to the point of a whisper....as it concentrates sound waves on the transmitter diaphragm thus enabling the    lower tones to act like as  loud speaking.

 

Here is a mouthpiece made of porcelain that was used for much the same purposes as the Glass mouthpieces.  It enabled the user to 'Sterilize' the unit to help prevent the spread of disease.  This is a "Burns Automatic Electric' mouthpiece.

 
 

This unknown manufacturer porcelain mouthpiece was fitted  with metal threads. The metal threads prevented breakage of the fragile porcelain threads during repeated removal and installation.

 

Another example of an 'Advertising style' porcelain mouthpiece. The front lip was flattened during manufacturing, then embossed with the name of your company. This particular porcelain mouthpiece is also much larger than a standard mouthpiece shown to its right.

Many porcelain and glass mouthpieces were produced with no distinguishable markings  as to the manufacturer. Here are two different porcelain mouthpieces that fit into this category.

 
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