candlestick telephone

English

Western Electric candlestick phone from the 1920s

Noun

candlestick telephone (plural candlestick telephones)

1. (telephony) An early style of telephone with a mouthpiece (transmitter) mounted at the top of its stand, and a receiver that was held by the user to the ear during a call. When not in use, the receiver rested in the fork of the switch hook protruding to the side of the stand, thereby disconnecting the audio circuit from the network.

Synonyms

• candlestick phone
• daffodil telephone
• stick phone
• pedestal telephone
• pillar telephone