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String Can Telephone:
You will need:

2 tin cans with one hole punched in bottom
string


How to:

1) Prior to the meeting, punch a hole in the bottom of each tin can using a nail and a hammer.
2) Thread string through hole in bottom of can and knot.
3) Pull string taut to 'talk' over the telephone.
For other pseudo-outdated technological investigations, please visit the String Can Phone blog

Need more StringCanPhone? Join the tribe!
Let's Talk Science! gives you the history and science.
food for thought: another Half-Bakery project.
from the brightly-colored folks at DK books.: ADULT HELP ADVISED. uses a button
PBS Zoom instructions, with kids' feedback. uses paperclips.
Panasonic answers that important question: How do string phones work?
So does How Stuff Works. actually, so do most of these links.
Mike, aka Mr. Engineer, has produced a movie on making a "wireless phone," and warns
"Tin cans can be VERY sharp."
Check out his other movies!
Moms and Dads, take note!: A Moment of Science
this spring-phone "Works better than the string version you had as a kid." Although they note it's in bad condition.
This set of stock photo images of cellphones includes kids on tin can phone.
Another stock photo.
Thing BIGGER: the Bucket Phone.
Even Alltel thinks they're a good idea.
Tammy thinks they are only make believe telephones, but a good art project, nonetheless.
But MIT says it enables spoken communication between two spacially separated people in an elegant and amazingly simple way.
Incubus put them in their Anti-Gravity Love Song.
These nitpickers don't think the network shown in 3 Ninjas would work. Nor is it hi-tech "just because it's connected to a rotating pole."
Professor Putter has put together a tin-can Telefax. Perhaps.
Michael Morgan thinks you could use them marketing (scroll down).
Wired had a proposal for a worldwide tin-can phone network.
It's CAT 5 compliant and is easily upgradeable to CAT 6!
Commando Theater!. They also like to Saran-wrap cars.
Jen Allen used one in this exhibit.
Building one might just help you to understand the communication evolution.
And handy when you're in a Medieval Gameshow.
And definitely feature in a typical 1940s Boy's room.

Okay. Who's ready for the QUIZ.