The Tin Can Telephone

The tin can telephone is commonly used in elementary schools to teach sound vibration and the origin of telephone. Tin can telephone is a device or toy made up of two tin cans or paper cups connected by a taut string.

The toy works in such a way that when the string is pulled tightly and someone speaks into one of the cans, its bottom vibrates. The string also vibrates in the process transmitting the sound vibration to the other end. The bottom of the second can vibrates just like the first can, thus copying the sound.

As simple and common as it seems but do you know that the first recorded person who made such device was an English natural philosopher, architect and a person of great and varied learning?

In 1664 to1665, Robert Hooke connected cups with an inflated wire to experiment with the sound transmission. The device was sometimes called the "lovers' telephone". Four centuries later, when telephone became a common household appliance, lover’s telephone became a common tool to teach children about sound vibration in preschools and elementary schools.