Answering machine  

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An answering machine, also known as an answerphone (especially in UK and some Commonwealth countries), and sometimes/formerly ansaphone or ansafone or telephone answering device (TAD), is a device invented in 1935, by Benjamin Thornton, and independently in Switzerland by Willy Mueller. Thornton's device would be attached to a telephone and could be set to record a voice message from a caller. By utilizing a clock attachment, the machine could also forward the messages as well as keep track of the time they were made. Unlike voicemail, which can be a centralized or networked system that performs a similar function, an answering machine must be installed in the customer's premises alongside — or incorporated within — the customer's telephone.

While early answering machines used magnetic tape technology, most modern equipment uses solid state memory storage; some devices use a combination of both, with a solid state circuit for the outgoing message and a cassette for the incoming messages. Kazuo Hashimoto invented the first digital answering machine in 1983 with US Patent 4,616,110 entitled Automatic Digital Telephone Answering Device.