SHOP STENTORPHONE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 12 October 1922, Page 2

SHOP STENTORPHONE

A LONDON INNOVATION Women shopping at barker's store in Kensington, London, recently were astonished to h'ear a clear voice, speaking apparently from nowhere, which gave a useful budget of store news. “Hullo, hullo, hullo !” it said. “Td-day’s best bargain is the toffee we are selling at 1/8 a pound. It is the kind we usually sell at 2 /-, To-morrow's bargain will be the best Bath ’chaps at 9Ad a pound. The next concert in the- -Terrace tea room begins at 4.30.” Above all the buzz of the store and the rumble of traffic outside the voice rose triumphantly. Puzzled ’ women turned to find ity but no* sign of a megaphone could be seen. Inside a little office an operator Was 'speaking in his ordinary conversational tones into the receiver of h telephonic apparatus, which transmitted the sound, enormously magnified, to all perils of the ground floor departments. Barker’s is the first shop to use this apparatus, and the experiment proved so successful that (he invention is being installed throughout every department of the establishment.