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French born, American inventor best known today for making the second-oldest playable sound recordind, on his own version of the phonograph.
He relocated to the United States in 1876 and became a U.S. citizen in 1893. In 1878 he built his own version of the sound recording device, the Phonograph. Lambert recorded what was — until 2008 — considered to be the oldest extant recording. Lambert was also famous for inventing a typewriter on which the keyboard consists of one single piece. The Lambert has a one-of-a-kind design. Although it looks like an index machine, the Lambert is a keyboard typewriter. The circular keyboard is connected directly to a type disk that contains all characters. Upon depression of a key, the disk swivels to the right position, descends, and prints through an opening in the ink pad onto a printing surface the size of a lentil. The paper curls up around the wooden roller as typing continues. The end of a line is signaled when a little upright spring attached to the carriage flicks against a ball bearing, which then rolls through a tube to hit a bell. This odd little device was advertised as suitable "for almost everybody." Lambert made no money from either his inventions, but finally is became rich thanks to a water-metering device. When Lambert died in 1937, he left his estate to his second wife, to his daughter Jeanne and to his only grandchild, Martha.
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variant spelling:
LAMBERT, François
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History
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* 13.06.1851
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Lyon
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born
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1878
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Invention et test d'une horloge parlante (probablement le plus ancien enregistrement sonore existant dans le monde).
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1878
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Invention d’une machine à écrire.
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1878
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Invention du phonographe.
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29.06.1888
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Londres
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Premier essai d’enregistrement du phonographe au Crystal Palace avec la musique chorale de Haendel.
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12.07.1904
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Patent N°764, 603: Lambert's water meter.
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† 1937
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Brooklyn, USA
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died
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