Skip to content

The Talking Machine Patent Archive

Patents you could hear

Browse Dates Inventors Types About

Sumner tainter

Patent drawing of an early wax-cylinder phonograph showing a large flywheel-driven cylinder mounted on a wooden base, with a recorder arm bearing a flaring elliptical mouth-piece and tapering tube feeding into a diaphragm and stylus assembly that traces the rotating tablet.

APPARATUS FOR RECORDING AND REPRODUCING SOUNDSSumner Tainter · May 4, 1886

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.