 He was granted his first United States patent on the mechanism at the age of 21, in about 1899 and put his proposals and patents before the Mills Novelty Company in about 1903.On 27 March 1905 Henry Sandell filed an application for a United States patent for an electric self playing violin.The patent was granted, as number 807,871, on 19 December 1905 and assigned to Mills Novelty Company.