American Pickers: The Wizard's Castle

[Lexi]

Just watched an American Pickers TV episode (on History), titled "The Wizard's Castle" which featured a visit to an inventor's estate. W.J. Moore was identified as an early telelphone engineeer, whose company was the Moore Telephone and Cabinet Mfg. Co., who manufactured telephones in Michigan. Of interest to us is a photograph of him sitting in the back seat of his 1914 Cadillac! Off to the upper right hand area of the photograph there is fan presumeably for circulating air in lieu of AC, as well as a Candlestick telephone! An automobile telephone in 1914? I guess as Moore owned the company he could have one in his car but wonder how it operated? There is also a period automotive bud vase in this vintage shot and  also what appears to be privacy curtains. This is the oldest photograph that I am aware of that shows a telephone in an automobile and it was in a Cadillac. Supposedly the automotive telephone debuted in 1910, but not aware of any photos of that. Wonder where Moore's Cadillac is now? Moore himself appeared to be a fantastic inventor and an unsung hero of early 20th century technology. Would encourage members to watch this show as there is a lot of car and early transportion stuff featured. There was even an episode on a barn full of vintage Cadillacs in California. Think that one was called Cadillac Man. Thought the show was to go off the air but is still on with new episodes, thankfully. A great show which does cover Cadillac on occassion and in the background there is often Caddy stuff. Clay/Lexi

[dn010]

According to the web, the first phone from 1910 "...required them to pull over and connect long cables and rods to existing phone lines, but once everything was hooked up properly, they could reach a local operator and make their phone calls. It was a creative start!". Not sure if the phone in the photo is a prop or one of these phones that you could connect. Still pretty neat, I'll have to catch that episode.

[James Landi]

So interesting... would not be hard to imagine  telephone "access sockets" and designated parking.  Great stuff!  James