Phone Mate 400 Answering Machine (1971)

✅ Phone Mate 400 

🥇First Commercially-Successful Residential Answering Machine 

The PhoneMate Model 400, introduced in 1971, was the first commercially successful answering machine designed specifically for the average home. Enclosed in a heavy, wood-paneled cabinet that weighed a substantial 10 pounds, it bypassed standard cassettes in favor of a miniature reel-to-reel tape system that could hold up to 20 incoming messages. Because it debuted before federal regulations allowed consumers to freely plug their own gadgets into phone lines, early owners actually had to pay their local telephone company a monthly "coupler" fee just to legally connect the machine. The device featured a distinct, mechanical "message received" flag that would physically pop up to notify you of a missed call, along with a specialized earphone jack for private listening. Its success was so profound that it essentially invented the social phenomenon of "call screening," turning a clunky wooden box into a cultural staple that is now preserved in the Smithsonian Institution.

Source: eBay.com