Edison Televoice Writer

The Televoice was a remote dictation system. Instead of every executive having a bulky recording machine on their desk, they each had a specialized "Televoice" station that looked just like a standard 1950s desk phone. Instead of a dial, it had buttons on the base (or sometimes on the handset itself) that allowed you to "Start," "Stop," and "Correction" (to mark a mistake for the secretary). It was wired to a central recording unit (usually an Edison Voicewriter) sitting on a secretary’s desk in a completely different room. Some versions allowed you to buzz the secretary to give specific instructions before you started dictating. But you could not use it to make calls.