F. B. Fenby

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F. B. Fenby was an inventor in Worcester, Massachusetts, who was granted a patent in 1863 for an unsuccessful device called the “Electro-Magnetic Phonograph”, making him the first to use the term "phonograph", even before Thomas Edison. His concept detailed a system that would record a sequence of keyboard strokes onto paper tape. Although no model or workable device was ever made, it is often seen as a link to the concept of punched paper for player piano rolls (1880s), as well as Herman Hollerith's punch card tabulator (used in the 1890 census), a distant precursor to the modern computer.

[edit] References

• Oliver Read, From Tin Foil to Stereo: Evolution of the Phonograph (1959) 2nd edition 1976: coauthor Walter Welch, Indianapolis: Howard W. Sams & Co., ISBN 0672212064