Frank Lambert

Francois Lambert (13 June 1851 – 1937) was a French American inventor. Lambert is perhaps best known today for making the oldest sound recording reproducible on its own device on his own version of the phonograph. Lambert also invented 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.

In 1878 or 1879 he built his own version of Edison's sound recording device, the Phonograph, and recorded himself calling out the hours for an Experimental Talking Clock he was developing for the Ansonia Clock Company in Connecticut. However, the attempts to make a commercially viable "phonograph clock" proved unsuccessful.

After being restored by Aaron Cramer, Lambert's talking clock is currently at the National Watch and Clock Museum in Columbia, PA,

Lambert completed his main invention, a typewriter on which the keyboard consists of one single piece.