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The French Patents of Phonographic Industry
4241 patents related to phonograph, cylinder, recording and reproduction of sound,
between 1857 and 1934,
at the Institut National de la Protection Industrielle (French Patent Office).

The two following tables contain each four columns :
Patentees (legal entities or companies),
Patent number,
Short description, usually one sentence, in French
Year of issue in the INPI Bulletin (former BOPI : Bulletin de l'Office de la Protection Industrielle). Attention, this is not the date issue of the patent itself. I will provide this in the future, in an updated document, when data processing will be completed and verified.

These tables show simply the same datas in two manners :
1° : A sorting of the patents by the alphabetical order of the patentees. Click here.
2° : A sorting of the patents by the alphabetical order of descriptions Click here.
This second sorting could be replaced in the future by a more relevant index of themes, with keywords (like : "horn, motor, reproducer, wax formula", etc.), which will be contained in an additional column, in French and English. These documents are under PDF (portable document format), readable with the freeware Adobe Acrobat. To download here if not yet installed on your computer.

Two possible uses :
1° : These tables are ready to print. One can print a first file on a pile of sheets in recto, then use the back for the second document. You get thus a 226 pages reversible printed paper form on 113 sheets (if you do not make use of A4 size, you will need to configure before printing).
2° : One can simply "browse" on screen with the tools "following page", "preceding page ", etc of Acrobat. This makes possible to operate a research in full text, with the "Search" option (represented in Acrobat by a pair of binoculars). For example, by typing the word "pavillon" (which means "horn"), one can find all descriptions containing this word.

After having found the seeked patent, it is possible to consult it at the INPI , or even at you national Patent Office. One can order a photocopy of it for a moderate amount at the INPI in Paris. For more infos: www.inpi.fr

This work tends to exhaustiveness, but nothing is never perfect. Your comments are welcome. Current version: n°1, updated June 24, 2003. Classification by patentee here. Classification by descriptions here. Happy hunting!