(Louis Meulstee’s web site)

Portuguese OGME Fullerphone

Information retrieved  from ‘História das Transmissões Militares’ (History of Military Signalling); a blog from the Portuguese Transmission History Commission (CHT). https://historiadastransmissoes.wordpress.com/

(Permission for publication photographs requested and still pending)

By a decree of 17 January 1917, Portugal decide to organise two separate expeditionary forces for the Western Front. The Corpo Expedicionário Português (CEP) – Portuguese Expeditionary Corps was placed under the operational command of the British First Army in the Artois/Flanders front. Armament and further equipment, including training, was British. Noted was the use of British Fullerphones Post Office Mark 235 and Trench W by the Portuguese forces.

After World War 1 maintenance and repair of Portuguese Army equipment was the responsibility of the General Engineering Material Offices (OGME), located in Lisbon, in the parish of Belém, which received damaged material from the user units.

This included several models of trench telephones, telephone switches, heliographs, Fullerphones, signal lanterns, etc.

A small portable version of the Fullerphone, which included a telephone, was constructed in the early 1940s by OGME.

The well-constructed instruments with carefully crafted pieces, were packed in very good-quality leather cases. They were in use relatively shortly, and when World War II ended the Portuguese Army was gradually equipped with American and English material.

The OGME Fullerphone, shown below, which belongs to the collection of Luiz Fernando Dias, is an example of what was produced in the 1940s.

General view of the Fullerphone constructed by OGME in Portugal.

Front panel view of the Portuguese OGME Fullerphone.

This model did not had the potentiometer feature.

Detail view of Fullerphone single headphone and telephone handset.

Leather transport case of the OGME Fullerphone.