The French telephone company, the "Société Générale des Téléphones" (or General Telephone Company) was a private company which operated a French telephone network from 1880 to 1889. The company was formed when two Paris-based telephone companies (associated with American inventors Frédéric Gower and Thomas Edison) with competing and incompatible telephone systems merged.
R.G. Brown, an American electrical engineer working for the Société Générale des Téléphones in Paris, introduced a handset design to the company. He described the telephone system, the Lartigue-Brown system, and he collected examples of telephone equipment they produced. Mr. Lartigue was the director of the company.
At the 1881 Paris International Electrical Exhibition the Société Générale des Téléphones demonstrated the "théâtrophone," a telephonic system, invented by Clement Ader, which was designed to allow subscribers to listen to live theatrical performances from home or a remote location.
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