Skip to content

The Talking Machine Patent Archive

Patents you could hear

Browse Dates Inventors Types About

Pneumatic-era electric player

Front elevation of a piano's interior mechanism showing rows of cylindrical electromagnets, transmission rods, and a perforated paper roll assembly mounted beneath an open keyboard, with a small electric motor and driving wheel at upper right.

SELF-PLAYING MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.Harold W. Shonnard · June 26, 1906

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.