calsfoundation@cals.org
November 25, 2009
Freeman Owens of Pine Bluff (Jefferson County), shown here in 1915, invented the Phonofilm, the first synchronized sound and film camera. He filed a patent application in June 1923. His employer, Dr. Lee De Forest, also filed for the patent. Owens lost the rights in a legal decision stating that the company owned all rights to inventions made by the inventor.