Frank Lambert (inventor)

Francois Lambert (13 June 1851 – 1937) was a French American inventor. Lambert was long credited with making the oldest playable recording on a machine called the Phonograph, although since 2008 has now been surpassed by a phonautograph recording dating from 1860. Lambert was also famous for inventing a typewriter on which the keyboard consists of one single piece.

Work

Lambert was born in Lyon, France; he relocated to the United States in 1876 and became a U.S. citizen in 1893.

Twelve years after arriving in the U.S., Lambert, along with a friend John Thomson, founded The Thomson Water Meter Co. to manufacture their design of a water meter.

Lambert went on to build his own version of the sound recording device, the Phonograph.

Lambert recorded what was — until 2008 — considered to be the oldest extant recording, his Experimental Talking Clock. A recording of Au Clair de la Lune by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville from 1860 has been found to pre-date it.

Lambert completed his main invention, a typewriter on which the keyboard consists of one single piece. He sold it to the Gramophone Co. Ltd., for which he received USD$20,000.

Lambert's water meter company was sold outright to the Neptune Water Meter Co. and Lambert received USD$800,000.

Personal life

Lambert married twice, firstly with Jeanne-Marie Donval (whom he had five children with) who died from an unknown cause, then Jeannette Justine Lawson Ebbs.

When Lambert died in 1937, he left his estate to his second wife, USD$20,000 to his daughter Jeanne and USD$30,000 to his only grandchild, Martha.

References

* Frank Lambert's Biography [http://www.collectorcafe.com/article_archive.asp?article=670&id=1504]
* The Second Oldest Playable Recording [http://www.cylindersontheweb.angelcities.com/rare_recordings.htm]
* Information on Lambert's Phonograph [http://www.pong-story.com/lambert/]
* Description of Lambert's typewriter [http://www.typewritermuseum.org/collection/index.php3?machine=lambert&cat=ks]