A phonofiddle is a class of stringed musical instruments that are played with a bow and use a phonograph type reproducer as a voice-box.
The sound producing diaphragm may be a metal cone as in the Stroh violin or a mica sheet as in the instruments made by A. T. Howson, London and the Stroviols company of Britain.
On 4 May 1899, Johannes Matthias Augustus Stroh applied for a patent in Great Britain, GB9418 titled Improvements in Violins and other Stringed Instruments which was accepted on 24 March 1900.
Then on 16 February 1901 he applied for a second Great British patent, GB3393 titled Improvements in the Diaphragms of Phonographs, Musical Instruments, and anologous Sound-producing, Recording and Transmitting Contrivances.
His failure to register his inventions in the USA allowed John Dopyera and Geo Beauchamp to subsequently obtain US patents for the tricone and single cone designs used in National brand instruments.