Frederik VII’s megaphone

Frederik VII applied this megaphone, made of nickel silver, on board the steam schooner “Falken” (The Falcon). The ship was the monarchs private property, but was equipped and maintained by the Royal Danish Navy. The megaphone was used to address the ships crew, 16 men in total.

The 19th century was stamped by industrial enterprise and nickel silver was no exception to this. The alloying of copper, nickel and zinc is an artifical material from industrial production. It resembles silver in style and characteristics but contains no elemental silver.

As Frederik VII’s helmet of aluminium, displayed in the same room, the megaphone illustrates the king’s interest in modern inventions and the technological developement.