loudspeaking telephone

Modern technology has produced fast transport and centralised industry. A somewhat less desirable side-effect is that close relations have tended to become distant relations. Instead of gathering around the fire as in the `good old days`, we tend to gather around the telephone. This means of communication suffers, however, from one major flaw: Ma Bell never intended it as a vital link between whole families. The system itself and all the legal restrictions involved with it are geared to private conversations between two individuals. The solution to the problem? A loudspeaking telephone.