Editing Answering machine (section)

== History ==
Most 20th-century answering machines used [[magnetic recording]], which [[Valdemar Poulsen]] invented in 1898.<ref>{{cite web |last = Dr Naughton |first = Russell |title = A d v e n t u r e s in C y b e r s o u n d |url = http://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/POULSEN_BIO.html |archive-url = https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20040302130000/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/13071/20040303-0000/www.acmi.net.au/AIC/POULSEN_BIO.html |url-status = dead |archive-date = 2 March 2004 |access-date = 27 May 2014 }}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>  The creation of the first practical automatic answering device for telephones, however, is in dispute. Starting in 1930, [[Clarence Hickman]] worked for [[Bell Laboratories]], where he developed methods for magnetic recording and worked on the recognition of speech patterns and electromechanical switching systems.<ref>{{cite web |last = Clemons |first = Elizabeth G. |title = Clarence Hickman And Charles Stoddard Papers, 1886–1999 |url = http://www.indianahistory.org/our-collections/collection-guides/clarence-hickman-and-charles-stoddard-papers-1886.pdf |access-date = 13 August 2015 |archive-date = 29 July 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160729061047/http://www.indianahistory.org/our-collections/collection-guides/clarence-hickman-and-charles-stoddard-papers-1886.pdf |url-status = dead }}</ref> In 1934, he developed a tape-based answering machine which phone company [[AT&T]], as the owner of Bell Laboratories, kept under wraps for years for fear that an answering machine would result in fewer telephone calls.<ref>{{cite book |last = Wu |first = Tim |title = The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires |publisher = Vintage Books |isbn = 9780307269935 |url = https://archive.org/details/masterswitchrise00wuti_0 |url-access = registration |access-date = 13 August 2015 }}</ref> 

Many claim the answering machine was invented by William Muller in 1935, but it may already have been created in 1931 by William Schergens whose device used phonographic cylinders.<ref name="google">{{cite journal |title = Popular Mechanics |journal = Popular Mechanics |publisher = Hearst Magazines |issn = 0032-4558 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4OIDAAAAMBAJ&pg=-PA96 |access-date = 24 January 2016 |date = July 1931 }}</ref> Schergens' device is featured in [[Behind the Mask (1932 film)]]. [[Ludwig Blattner]] promoted a telephone answering machine in 1929 based on his Blattnerphone magnetic recording technology.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/11/news/11iht-old11_ed3__0.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 1929:Answering Machine : IN OUR PAGES:100, 75 AND 50 YEARS AGO] New York Times, 10 October 1929, reprinted 11 October 2004, retrieved 7 November 2014.</ref> In 1935, inventor Benjamin Thornton developed a machine to record voice messages from the caller. The device reportedly also was able to keep track of the time the recordings were made.<ref>Chamberlain, Gaius (2012). [http://blackinventor.com/benjamin-thornton/ Benjamin Thornton]. blackinventor.com</ref> Although many sources maintain that he invented it in 1935, Thornton had actually filed a patent in 1930 (Number 1831331) for this machine, which utilized a phonographic record as the recording medium.<ref>''see'' [https://patents.google.com/patent/US1831331 Apparatus for automatically recording telephonic messages:US 1831331 A].  ''and'' [http://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pages/US1831331-0.png Apparatus for automatically recording telephonic messages: Figure 1, etc.]</ref>

A commercial answering machine, the ''Tel-Magnet'', offered in the United States in 1949, played outgoing messages and recorded incoming messages on a magnetic wire. It was priced at $200 but was not a commercial success.<ref>{{cite web |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ZiQDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA131 |work = Popular Science |title = Robot Takes Messages |date = May 1949 }}</ref>

In 1949, the first commercially successful answering machine was the ''Electronic Secretary'' created by inventor Joseph Zimmerman and businessman George W. Danner, who founded Electronic Secretary Industries in Wisconsin. The Electronic Secretary used the then state-of-the-art technology of a 45&nbsp;rpm record player for announcements and a [[wire recorder]] for message capture and playback. Electronic Secretary Industries was purchased in 1957 by General Telephone and Electronics.<ref>David L. Danner, IDEAMATICS, In., McLean, VA</ref><ref>The History Of Sound Recording, https://recordinghistory.org/technology/answering-machines/atts-first-official-answering-machine/ </ref><ref name="etcia">{{cite web |url = http://www.etcia.com/history.html |title = Corporate History |author = Electronic Tele-Communications, Inc |publisher = etcia.com |access-date = 24 January 2016 }}</ref>
Another commercially successful answering machine was the ''Ansafone'' created by inventor Dr. [[Kazuo Hashimoto]], who was employed by a company called ''Phonetel''. This company began selling the first answering machines in the US in 1960.<ref name=fcc>{{cite web |title = The History of... Answering Machines |url = http://transition.fcc.gov/cgb/kidszone/history_ans_machine.html |publisher = Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau |access-date = 27 May 2014 }}</ref> Another early model known as the Code-a-Phone was introduced in 1966.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_995222|title = Telephone Answering Machine}}</ref>

Answering machines became more widely used after the restructuring of AT&T in 1984, which was when the machines became affordable and sales reached one million units per year in the US.<ref>{{cite web |url = https://recordinghistory.org/technology/answering-machines/the-1980s-answering-machines-take-off-and-then-crashes/ |work = Recording History |title = The History of the Telephone Answering Machine |access-date = 6 March 2016  }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url = https://recordinghistory.org/technology/answering-machines/answering-machines-of-the-1960s/ |work = Recording History |title = The Answering Machine Industry Since Edison |access-date = 6 March 2016 }}</ref> The first post-breakup device went by the trade name of DuoPhone and was sold by [[Tandy Radio Shack|Tandy (Radio Shack)]]. This device and its successors were designed by Sava Jacobson, an electrical engineer with a private consulting business.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/04/prweb522451.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140405043340/http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/04/prweb522451.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 April 2014|title=Sava Jacobson, Inventor of the Modern Answering Machine, Dies at Age 87|website=PRWeb|access-date=2019-06-18}}</ref> While early answering machines used [[magnetic tape]] technology, most modern equipment uses [[solid state disk|solid state]] memory storage; some devices use a combination of both, with a solid-state circuit for the outgoing message and a [[Compact Cassette|cassette]] for the incoming messages.

James P. Mitchell displayed a working prototype of a digital outgoing message with a taped incoming system at an Iowa State University VEISHEA engineering openhouse in April 1982. This system won a gold award from the Engineering department.<ref>Mitchell's Iowa State University Digital Outgoing Answering System: https://news.engineering.iastate.edu/2016/04/21/veishea-project-could-be-first-answering-machine/</ref> In 1983, [[Kazuo Hashimoto]] received a patent for a ''digital answering machine'' architecture with US Patent 4,616,110.<ref>{{cite web |url = https://patents.google.com/patent/US4616110 |title = Patent US4616110 – Automatic digital telephone answering apparatus |work = google.com }}</ref> The first digital answering machine brought to the market was AT&T's Model 1337 in 1990; an activity led by Trey Weaver. Mr. Hashimoto sued [[American Telephone & Telegraph|AT&T]] but quickly dropped the suit because the AT&T architecture was significantly different from his patent.