Skip to content

The Talking Machine Patent Archive

Patents you could hear

Browse Dates Inventors Types About

Friction drive

Patent drawing showing a mechanical reed organ with a treadle-driven fly-wheel shaft, bellows and wind-chest, and a perforated paper music-sheet passing over an action board between a music-roller and take-up roller, with detailed side and sectional views of the internal gearing and pawl mechanism.

Mechanical Musical Instrument.Elias P. Needham · November 4, 1879

United States patent drawings and specifications are works of the U.S. government and are in the public domain — they were never copyrighted. Download them, print them, frame them. Our commentary and descriptions are © 2026 The Talking Machine Patent Archive.

About · Terms · Privacy · Corrections welcome — this archive gets better when collectors write in.