- F. B. Fenby
F. B. Fenby was an inventor in
Worcester, Massachusetts , who was granted a patent in 1863 for an unsuccessful device called the “Electro-MagneticPhonograph ”, making him the first to use the term "phonograph", even beforeThomas 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 forplayer piano rolls (1880s), as well asHerman Hollerith 's punch card tabulator (used in the 1890 census), a distant precursor to the moderncomputer .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
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