Using a speaking tube to communicate with someone in another room or on another floor. From ''Natural Philosophy'' by A. Ganot, London, 1887. 

Deep in the archives, at the bottom of a 1931 newspaper page, we found a section titled, “Little Facts We Should All Know.”

The first fact involves an invention that most modern readers do not, in fact, know. 

“Why are we able to hear a great distance through a speaking tube?” the snippet reads before explaining the science: “When we speak into a tube, the sound waves cannot scatter, but must travel within the tube, and so we can hear at a much greater distance.”

Relics of the speaking tube can still be found in old houses, including some of the many Victorians around San Francisco. In some cases, the tube has been removed, leaving a curious small hole in the wall where it once protruded. 

“I’ve been to several houses that have them. People value stuff like that again,” said Bonnie Spindler, a Bay Area-based real estate agent and expert in all things Victorian. “Things that don’t need electricity I think are making a comeback. … People are trying to get off the grid. All these conveniences that you don’t need power for, it’s kind of fresh in an old-fashioned way.”

A speaking tube in a North Beach apartment.

A speaking tube is exactly what it sounds like: a narrow pipe made of lead, galvanized metal or brass that extends from one spot in the house to another. Fresh milk outside? The delivery man could call into the tube and alert the residents. Requiring a cup of tea? You could simply speak into the tube and summon a servant to your room. 

The speaking tube was invented around the 1780s, and many iterations and inventions followed. They were found in not just upper-class homes but also middle-class abodes. Victorians, you may not know, loved technology and convenience.

“It was considered a convenience,” Spindler said. “The Victorians were all about efficiency, so they added a lot of things like this to their homes, as many technological advances as possible.”

They often came equipped with a device to alert the person at the other end that you wish to speak. Bells, buzzers and knockers were put to this use. 

In addition to their presence in the home, speaking tubes were also employed on ships, in automobiles and even in hospitals. An ad in a 1907 newspaper lists a speaking tube among the advertised limousines’ amenities: “Upholstered in the best of Morocco, equipped with clock, electric lights, speaking tube, curtains, glass front and all the comforts of a modern car.” 

Waiter in restaurant speaking to kitchen through a speaking tube. Print published Wurtemberg c1850. (Photo by: Photo 12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The speaking tube, like many home conveniences of yore, eventually went out of fashion. The advent of the telephone and electronic intercom system replaced the simple tube. While speaking tubes were in use up through the 1940s, they were redundant by the 1950s. 

But Spindler sees these sorts of historical relics coming back. Especially amid the pandemic, Spindler said, she’s seen a new appreciation for the room and its conveniences.

“People embraced hygge, the coziness of being home,” she said. “Moody maximalism came back into fashion. It’s granny chic in a way.” 

In terms of the speaking tube, it’s all about “people appreciating these things that they don’t understand, that they don’t know why they’re there.” 

Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE features reporter.