Joseph Beverley Fenby (1841–1903) was an English mechanical engineer[1] and inventor[2] 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).
[7][8] 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.