Edward H. Amet

Edward Hill Amet (November 10, 1860 – August 16, 1948) was an American inventor and electrical engineer, best known for his contributions to the early motion picture industry.

His inexpensive 'Echophone' (originally known as the Metaphone, "meta" an anagram of his name) was the first cylinder phonograph with a distinct tone arm.

The first Metaphones did not use a coiled spring for tension on the glass tube, but simply used an over-hanging weight to maintain contact between the stylus and the record - a bubble-level was inserted in the base which could thus be raised and lowered with a vertical adjustment screw.

[1] In 1894, Amet teamed up with Waukegan, Illinois, theater manager George Kirke Spoor to finance a new projector, the magniscope.

He made a series of war films, shooting footage from staged military camps and using miniatures in a bathtub to simulate naval battles.