Joseph Beverley Fenby (1841–1903) was an English mechanical engineerUK, Mechanical Engineer Records, 1847-1930 for Joseph Beverley Fenby and inventor who designed a device 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).
Fenby was born in Liverpool,England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915 to Joseph Fenby (of Beverley, Yorkshire) and Thomasina Bolton Fenby.1861 England Census He was baptised 14 December 1841.Liverpool, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1906 He was granted a patent on 13 January 1863 (Brit. pat. 101) for an unsuccessful device called either the "Electro-Magnetic Phonoscope" or the "Electro-Magnetic Phonograph".Godwin, George (18 July 1863). The Builder, v. 21, p. 522 (via Google Books). Accessed 2014-05-09. If the latter name is correct, it could make Fenby the first to have coined the word "phonograph", long before Thomas Edison did so for his very different invention. Fenby's concept detailed a system that would record a sequence of piano or organ keyboard strokes onto paper tape. Although no model or workable device was ever made, it could be 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.
Fenby is also known for other inventions, notably the "Fenby folding chair", patented in the United States in 1881 () and an associated camp stool (). The chair became known as the Tripolina and inspired many similar designs.
He died in 1903, in King's Norton, England, aged 60.
References Oliver Read, From Tin Foil to Stereo: Evolution of the Phonograph (1959) 2nd edition 1976: coauthor Walter Welch, Indianapolis: Howard W. Sams & Co.,
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