The gathering of “a score of merchants, brokers, publishers, and reporters” at 67 Green St. spotlighted in the Peterboro Transcript of Nov. 27, 1884, were there to hear the “new acoustic telephone, operated without the aid of electricity.”
The people around the “handsome man with a brown mustache” may not have been able to hear him whisper “Halloa, let me hear you sing,” but the other person in the conversation did.
“‘All right’ bawled the voice at the other end of the line. ‘I’ll sing” and half a second later the notes of the ‘Sailor Sweetheart’ floated from the box so distinct that it sounded as if someone in the next room was singing.”