Hygienic Telephone Disc, Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, Philadelphia, Pa., 1906

The Bellevue Stratford, Phila., Pa. Talk through this disc. Hygiene Telephone Disc. A new one for each guest occupying this room.

Talk through the Hygienic Telephone Disc and protect yourself from all germ disease. Replace when soiled. U.S. Patent, June 12, 1906.

To put on, bend up small corner on line and slide on mouthpiece. Mfg. by Hygienic Telephone Disc Co., Phila., Pa.

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Worrying about germs and the spread of diseases is nothing new, as this early twentieth-century "Hygienic Telephone Disc" demonstrates. Guests at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia could place one of these "Sani-Phone" discs--as they were also called--over the mouthpieces of the telephones in their rooms so they wouldn't contract tuberculosis or any other nasty bug. The discs used a wax paper-like film that was sandwiched between two layers of cardboard to keep germs away while letting sound through.

For a 1912 advertisement that shows how the disc was placed on the candlestick telephones of the time, see Sani-Phone Hygienic Telephone Discs Ad, World Almanac and Encyclopedia, 1912 (Internet Archive):