A D V E N T U R E S in C Y B E R S O U N DEdison's Phonograph or Speaking Machine of 1877
"This tongueless, toothless instrument, without larynx or pharynx, mimics your tones, speaks with your voice, utters your words and centuries after you have crumbled into dust, may repeat ever idle thought, every fond fancy, every vain word that you choose to whisper against the thin, iron diaphragm" In the 1850's Charles Cros developed the phonautograph, a device that recorded sound waves on a rotating cylinder. The phonautograph did not have the ability to playback the sound it recorded, but was sold as a labratory device to analyze sound.
 Patent Documentation, T. A. Edison, for Phonograph or Speaking Machine, February 19, 1878 Image Source: http://www.naples.net/~arzone/invent.htm - no longer active 09/98
Nearly 20 years later Thomas Edison began to develop a tinfoil phongraph or speaking machine. Edison drew up the plans and a prototype was built by his associate, John Kruesi. The machine constructed included a cardboard cylinder wrapped in tinfoil on a threaded axel. A mouthpiece and diaphram was connected to a stylus that etched the soundwaves on the tinfoil. To playback the recording a sensitive reproducer replaced the mouthpiece. To test the invention for the first time, Thomas Edison recited Mary Had A Little Lamb into the mouthpiece. Only half expecting success, he and Kruesi were startled when Edison's voice was heard upon playback. (Note that this version was re recorded for posterity in the 1920's) It's said that Kruesi then recited something in German into the machine to prove that it would store and playback anything recorded onto the tinfoil cylinder.
 One of Edison's First Phonographs, c.1877 A larger image is also available Image Source: http://www.tinfoil.com
On February 19, 1878 patent number 200,251 was issued to Edison's phonograph. Edison did not immediately think of using the phonograph to record music for amusement. He touted it's use as an office dictation machine. For a while Edison walked away from further development of the phonograph. Alexander Graham Bell began to make improvements on the design. By 1887 Bell's graphophone used wax cylinders and included a floating stylus for clearer sound. After Bell's improvements Edison began further development of the phonograph. Edison included putting a wax coating on the tinfoil and a battery driven motor that replaced the hand crank for more stable recording and playback. The cylinders had the ability to record 2-4 minutes of audio and around 1890 musicians began to record their sessions by setting up several phonographs to record at the same time. This procedure led to the explosion of coin-operated phonographs in arcades and stores where patrons could listen to a recording for a nickel. In 1895 Edison began mass manufacturing of the phonograph and continued to improve the original design, adding a large horn to amplify the sound. Of all his inventions the phonograph was Thomas Edison's favorite, saying that it did for the ears what the motion picture did for the eyes in that it put music in people's homes.
Source: naples.net/~arzone/invent.htm - no longer active 09/98
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