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Payphone Story – Global History of Payphones and Phone Booths

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South African PHONE BOOTH- The Silentium

South Africa’s first public telephone call offices were established in telephone exchanges from 1897, housed in enclosed “Silentium” cabinets where users prepaid the Postmaster for calls. Kimberley opened the first public call office in 1898. An LM Ericsson magneto wall telephone, used in Pretoria between 1902 and 1910, is the earliest surviving example.

NameThe Silentium
Date1902 – 1910
ManufacturerDepartment of Posts and Telegraphs

The Silentium

In 1897, with the completion of the new General Post Office in Cape Town, the Postmaster General ruled that all telephone exchanges would include public call offices housed in “silence cabinets” (silentiums or even silence boxes)
Because these cabinets were housed indoors a coin box was not necessarily employed. The telephones were of the standard design in accordance with the type of exchange through which they worked. Calls could be made by paying the Postmaster a small fee in advance. Kimberley has the honour of establishing the first public “call office” in South Africa in 1898.
The earliest purpose-designed public pay phone in the Telkom collection, a magneto wall model, was manufactured by LM Ericsson of Sweden and used in Pretoria between 1902 and 1910.
Above- A Silentium housing a Gower/Bell telephone, c1890

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