The Electrical Engineer, August 30, 1889, page 161:

NOTES.
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    The Theatrophone.--Paris ever seeks new sensations, and a telephone by which one can have the soupçons of theatrical declamation of half a franc is the latest thing to catch their ears and their centimes. This instrument is to be called the theatrophone, and is shortly to be placed on the Paris Boulevards. Anyone, on the payment of the modest sum of 5d., can be put into commmunication with a certain theatre and listen to the performance for five minutes.