#11: Early Headphones

There are a ton of different earbuds and headphones on the market today. People can listen to their devices with everything from barely-there buds to giant noise-canceling headphones. As far as headphone technology goes, the women in these photographs ran so we could walk. These strange contraptions were a very early version of the headphones we have today.

Ezra Gilliland invented these “hands-free” telephones sometime in the late 1880s. They were invented to help telephone switchboard operators work more efficiently. These things look incredibly heavy and uncomfortable, but at least the user’s hands would be free! Gilliland was just working with what he had, but we’re sure glad these don’t exist anymore.