The First Answering Machine?
Hmm. PhoneTel http://phonetel.com/html/welcome.html (external link) says that the AnsaFone in 1960 became "the first commercially viable Telephone Answering Device offered for sale in the United States." The key phrase is for sale. The Bell System leased equipment to customers, it did not sell their products. Thus, while the AnsaFone may have been sold first, it was not the first answering machine. According to Amos Joel, the Bell System started work on "machine type service" in 1950, with trials in New York and Cleveland. Western Electric later produced for the Bell System the first true answering machine, the WE1A, using magnetic coated drums.
Read more about AT&T's equipment at this link: http://www.bellsystemmemorial.com/autoanswer.html (external link).
The AnsaFone pictured below is from the Roseville Telephone Company telephone museum: http://www.rosevilletelephone.com/museum/ in Roseville, California. Click here or on photo to enlarge. Roseville always changes their URLS without telling anyone. I'm giving up linking to them.
The AnsaFone has U.S. Patent Number 3,376,390. Look up the 12 page patent document by going to the U.S. Patent and Trademark office: http://www.uspto.gov (external link)
