> Launched in 1971, the PhoneMate Model 400 was the first of its kind. What wasit?And the answer: an answering machine. The PhoneMate 400S. Photo courtesy: Toptriode, YouTube.Remember life beforemobile phones, when telephones were fixed to the kitchen wall? The PhoneMate 400was the first widely used telephone answering machine. It was big and heavy, butit screened calls and held up to 20 messages on a reel-to-reel tape.While the PhoneMate 400 seems clunky to our 2021 eyes, the ancestor to theanswering machine might seem even more like an alien apparatus. Thetelegraphone, as it was known, was the first to conduct magnetic soundrecording. On a wire, the invention recorded conversation by the magnetic fieldsproduced by sound. The magnetized wire could then be played back to hear therecording. This invention by Valdemar Poulsen was a novel introduction into theworld of audio recording. The telegraphone (1907). Photo courtesy: Library of CongressAfter thetelegraphone, there were a slew of other early 20th century inventions of thesame vein. Willy Müller, for one, created a three-foot tall machine thatfunctioned in the same fashion as an answering machine. Meanwhile, the Ansafonewas the first answering machine sold in the United States in 1960.Yet it was Casio Communications who is largely considered responsible for theinvention of answering machines as we know them today. Their PhoneMate 400 was a10-pound wonder of technological innovation, and the first commercially viableanswering machine. Learn more about the history of the answering machine here[https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-answering-machines-1991223#:~:text=Willy%20M%C3%BCller%20invented%20the%20first,the%20phone%20on%20the%20Sabbath.].