![]() Police boxes and posts were important tools for the Metropolitan Police from the late 1920s until the late 1960s. Sometimes the lamp was actually located away from the box itself, in a high visibility position to improve the chances of an officer being alerted from further away. These boxes employed a signalling line, which allowed a trigger from the police station to remotely operate an electromagnetic lever system that lit a red lamp on the roof designed to attract the attention of the officer on the beat. Some of the first boxes were eight-sided, pillar like and made from cast iron. Police box by Thomas Nugent, via Geograph Scottish boxes were red until the 1960’s / Pinterest His invention was soon adopted by the police as a communications device. The earliest form of police signal box obviously didn’t employ telephony but used morse code to send the messages. The history of the police box really starts in America where the telephone was patented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. The ‘cosy’ inside of the police box / Photo by Rightmove The same technologies that allowed the general public to make telephone calls from street kiosks also allowed police officers to keep in touch with their station. ![]() In attempting to stay one step ahead of the criminal, the Police began to exploit the newly invented telephone technology by setting up a pioneering network in Glasgow in the early 1890s, which allowed policemen to stay in touch via signal posts. A police box is set to go up for auction / Photo by Rightmove ![]()
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