History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

This story takes us to Queen’s Park, Kilburn, Cricklewood and Colindale. It started when I came across an account of the Talkyphone in the Evening Standard of May 1913. I was intrigued as I had never heard the name before. The reporter had visited the International Electric Company (IEC) at 111-115 Salusbury Road in Queens Park. The factory was near the corner with Lonsdale Road but has now been replaced by a modern office block. The short newspaper article described the process of manufacturing the new domestic telephone. After the raw materials arrived, they passed to the machine shop with a ‘myriad of presses, punches, drills, milling and stamping machines’ which turned out ‘the hundred and one parts of the telephone’. These go to the plating and polishing shops, and the lacquering ovens. Finally, male and female staff assembled the completed instruments. It is not clear how well the Talkyphone sold as we could not find further references in the online newspapers.  Our research ...