# Thomas Edison's Ghost Telephone **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 18, 2012, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-edisons-ghost-telephone/635111 "2012-09-18T22:47:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2012, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-edisons-ghost-telephone/635111/22 "2012-09-19T14:33:50Z")
it’s conceivable that he would work on a ghost phone. his other inventions had ghostly applications. phonograph to record and preserve ghostly sounds. telegraph improvements to spread the news of ghost sitings quickly. electric light to not get caught in the dark by ghosts. movie camera and projector to preserve ghost images. chair with extra rear tilting legs, to sleep sitting up for faster escape from ghosts. electric hammer to rapidly beat ghost with as he was older and had less strength. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2012, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-edisons-ghost-telephone/635111/23 "2012-09-19T14:34:38Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Wow, did you make a telecommunications joke? I may have been the only person to get it, since I used to work in the field. Nope. So did I. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2012, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-edisons-ghost-telephone/635111/24 "2012-09-19T15:57:29Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > Nope. So did I. Same here and I never worked in the field.. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2012, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-edisons-ghost-telephone/635111/25 "2012-09-19T16:01:05Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Same here and I never worked in the field.. Me too. And though I’ve had some overlap with the telecommunications field, I didn’t hear it there. It’s pretty common in general culture, though probably less so in the modern cellular era. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2012, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-edisons-ghost-telephone/635111/26 "2012-09-19T16:02:41Z")
Yes, it’s true. Edison designed the phone so he could learn authentic Kung-Fu from Native American spirit guides, and thoroughly kick Tesla’s ass. The myth may come from an interview Edison gave to [Scientific American](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voice_phenomenon#History), where he was asked whether his device could communicate with spirits. > [@](#): > > So popular were such ideas that Thomas Edison was asked in an interview with Scientific American to comment on the possibility of using his inventions to communicate with spirits. He replied that if the spirits were only capable of subtle influences, a sensitive recording device would provide a better chance of spirit communication than the table tipping and ouija boards mediums employed at the time. However, there is no indication that Edison ever designed or constructed a device for such a purpose. If Edison’s reply was sincere, it seems he believed in or did not discount the possibility of the existence of ghosts. Or possibly he just spotted another marketing opportunity… > [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Same here and I never worked in the field.. Likewise. Most people have heard of a trunk call, even if technically they aren’t quite sure what it is. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-edisons-ghost-telephone/635111/27 "2012-09-19T16:34:50Z")
One can find this rather amusingly hyperbolic article from “Modern Mechanix”, Oct. 1933: [http://blog.modernmechanix.com/edisons-own-secret-spirit-experiments/](http://blog.modernmechanix.com/edisons-own-secret-spirit-experiments/) What it boils down to is a claim that Edison thought that if spirits existed, they would manifest some physical presence which could be detected. So he set up a beam projector and and a photocell in room with mediums summoning spirits, and waited for the spirits to register by crossing the beam. They didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2012, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-edisons-ghost-telephone/635111/28 "2012-09-19T16:42:53Z")
> [@cornflakes](#): > > Gee, you two make a twisted pair… It was quite an exchange. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2012, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-edisons-ghost-telephone/635111/29 "2012-09-19T16:43:42Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > it’s conceivable that he would work on a ghost phone. his other inventions had ghostly applications. > > phonograph to record and preserve ghostly sounds. > telegraph improvements to spread the news of ghost sitings quickly. > electric light to not get caught in the dark by ghosts. > movie camera and projector to preserve ghost images. > chair with extra rear tilting legs, to sleep sitting up for faster escape from ghosts. > electric hammer to rapidly beat ghost with as he was older and had less strength. Considering that 50% of the movies I watch have dead people starring in them it must have worked. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2012, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-edisons-ghost-telephone/635111/30 "2012-09-19T16:44:44Z")
> [@Edward\_The\_Head](#): > > History Detectives did a piece on a [PsychoPhone](http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigation/psychophone/) that they thought was a device Edison invented to record the afterlife. Honestly I can’t remember how it turned out, but there’s a video in the link. I remember that one: it wasn’t intended to be a talk-to-the-dead device but was a phonograph-like device that would repeat self-improvement mantras while the [del]sucker[/del] subject slept. Oh, and I got the trunk call reference only because I read a Hercule Poirot mystery where a person inadvertently reveals that they had spent significant time in America though they denied (or didn’t reveal) it by referring off-hand to a long-distance phone call as such (US usage) rather than as a trunk call (UK usage). ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2012, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-edisons-ghost-telephone/635111/31 "2012-09-19T16:44:57Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Wow, did you make a telecommunications joke? I may have been the only person to get it, since I used to work in the field. Was that a magnetic field? ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2012, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-edisons-ghost-telephone/635111/32 "2012-09-19T16:50:24Z")
BTW, in the late 19th and early 20th century, belief in spiritualism was not that uncommon. Believers included some rational scientific types such as William Crookes, Alfred Russel Wallace and Lord Rayleigh. And some hardheaded industrialists such as Henry Ford. The whole thing appealed to the mind set of educated Victorians, and the popularity survived into the 20th century. (It was Ford, BTW, who insisted on capturing Edison’s last breath in a glass tube, providing a plot point for the Tim Powers novel mentioned above.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-edisons-ghost-telephone/635111.md?page=1)