The Talking Machine Patent Archive

Patents you could hear

Volta laboratory

Technical patent drawing showing a vertical cross-section of a phonograph sound reproducer: a wax-coated record disk (F) sits on a metal disk (E) mounted on an arbor (D), with a jet-tube (151) aimed at the record's surface and connected through a branching tube (154) to a diaphragm-equipped ear-piece (156), all mounted on an adjustable vertical standard (150).REPRODUCING SOUNDS FROM PHONOGRAPH RECORDS.Alexander Graham Bell, Chichester A. Bell, and Sumner Tainter · May 4, 1886A hand-drawn patent illustration of a treadle-powered graphophone: an angled wooden frame supports a wax-tablet cylinder and gearing, with curved flexible speaking tubes ending in mouthpieces and an ear-trumpet horn arcing overhead, and a large foot-treadle wheel with spokes at the base of the machine.APPARATUS FOR RECORDING AND REPRODUCING SPEECH AND OTHER SOUNDSCharles Sumner Tainter · December 27, 1887