The psychic telephone was an instrument invented by F. R. Melton of Nottingham, UK, consisting of a box containing a rubber bag connected with a pair of earphones from a wireless set

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

. The idea was that, if a medium

Mediumship

Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...

 inflates the bag with her breath and then seals it, the bag takes the place of the medium and directs voices to be heard through the earphones in the medium's absence.

Harry Price

Harry Price

Harry Price was a British psychic researcher and author.-Early life:Although Price claimed his birth was in Shropshire, he was actually born in London in Red Lion Square on the site of the South Place Ethical Society's Conway Hall. He was educated in New Cross, first at Waller Road Infants School...

 subjected the instrument to a thorough test in the National Laboratory of Psychical Research

National Laboratory of Psychical Research

The National Laboratory of Psychical Research was established in 1925 by Harry Price, at 13 Roland Gardens, London, S.W.7. Their aim was 'to investigate in a dispassionate manner and by purely scientific means every phase of psychic or alleged psychic phenomena'.The honorary president was The Lord...

. He concluded that it did not work.