The Talking Machine Patent Archive

Patents you could hear

Electric reader mechanism

An 1877 patent drawing showing a large coiled, printed music sheet feeding through a slotted guide into an angled reading apparatus with metal comb-mounted spring 'reader' fingers, gears, rollers, and multiple insulated wires leading off to electromagnetic actions housed in a wooden cabinet frame.IMPROVEMENT IN ELECTRO-PNEUMATIC MUSIC-PLAYING APPARATUS.William Ford Schmoele and Henry Schmoele, Jr. · April 10, 1877