Antique Phonographs
- By Lawrence Bell
- Published 02/15/2010
- Articles
- Unrated
Lawrence Bell
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Antique phonographs literally burst onto the stage of history in December of 1877, an offshoot of Thomas Edison's attempt to save the content of telegraph transmissions for later use. The original concept was to emboss the dots and dashes of Morse code onto paper or tin foil so that a record of the characters transmitted would be created and able to be re-transmitted accurately and quickly.
Already aware that sounds could oscillate a thin diaphragm, Edison had a flash of inspiration. He determined to place a stylus, much like the telegraphy concept, upon the diaphragm, and thus be able to etch the effects of those sounds upon a soft material, such as tin foil. He quickly conceived a rough idea of the design of such a phonograph instrument, and in less than 2 days, his assistant, John Kreusi, had produced a working prototype.
Thomas Edison spoke the words of the nursery rhyme, "Mary had a Little Lamb", into the sound-gathering mouthpiece of his new phonograph. When the stylus was passed back over the grooves on the cylinder, lo and behold, his words were audibly repeated!
Imagine the amazement of the staff at The Scientific American Magazine when Thomas Edison casually walked into their offices in New York City on December 22, 1877. He placed the manually cranked device (seen on this page) on the desk, and it began inquiring about their health, lauded the new invention, and bid them a fond good night.
Despite publishing a list of practical uses for his new invention, it turned out that the difficulty of use and the fragility of the recordings (wearing out after only a few plays), contributed to a decline in interest for the phonograph among the public. Edison turned his attention to the invention of the incandescent light bulb.
Nevertheless, others took it upon themselves to improve Edison's invention. Alexander Graham Bell, his cousin, Chichester Bell, and Charles Tainter, having already gained fame by introducing the telephone, began working on the somewhat related technology of the phonograph. Both reproduced sound via the use of a diaphragm.
The Bells soon introduced the graphophone, replacing the "hill and dale" indenting needle approach with a more durable playback technology: the incising floating stylus. They also replaced the tin foil media with longer-lasting wax.
Edison rejected overtures from the Bells to collaborate and improve the phonograph, choosing instead to incorporate many of their ideas into the "New Phonograph", and by 1887 operate under the company name of Edison Phonograph Company. The "Perfected Phonograph" soon followed, reflecting Edison's experiments with new media combinations.
In 1890, Edison Phonograph Toy Manufacturing Co. produced for a short while a line of talking dolls, which are very rare and valuable today. The spring motor phonograph emerged in 1896.
Standardized cylinders, mass production of recorded cylinders (Gold Moulded), longer recording time, and cost reductions as seen in the model "Gem" of 1899, helped further the public demand for recorded sound. The Edison Concert Phonograph, which did not sell well, is a rare find these days, and was more expensive, but produced louder sound. Production ceased in 1912.
Also by 1912, competitors Victor (later RCA Victor) and Columbia had abandoned cylinder technology in favor of disks. Edison's Blue Amberol Record, a cylinder which was touted as unbreakable, was his final attempt to stave off disk competition.
For more than a century, Edison was thought to have produced the first recorded sound in history. However, in 2008, the First Sounds collaborative were able to take the work of French scientist, Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville, and his phonautograms, produced in 1859 and 1860, and convert his etchings on paper into audible sound for the first time. Although never intended to be audible, Martinville had experimented with the wave patterns of pitch and words as exhibited on paper. His 1860 song "Au Clair de la Lune" - now audible, is thought to be among the earliest audible records of mankind.
Already aware that sounds could oscillate a thin diaphragm, Edison had a flash of inspiration. He determined to place a stylus, much like the telegraphy concept, upon the diaphragm, and thus be able to etch the effects of those sounds upon a soft material, such as tin foil. He quickly conceived a rough idea of the design of such a phonograph instrument, and in less than 2 days, his assistant, John Kreusi, had produced a working prototype.
Thomas Edison spoke the words of the nursery rhyme, "Mary had a Little Lamb", into the sound-gathering mouthpiece of his new phonograph. When the stylus was passed back over the grooves on the cylinder, lo and behold, his words were audibly repeated!
Imagine the amazement of the staff at The Scientific American Magazine when Thomas Edison casually walked into their offices in New York City on December 22, 1877. He placed the manually cranked device (seen on this page) on the desk, and it began inquiring about their health, lauded the new invention, and bid them a fond good night.
Despite publishing a list of practical uses for his new invention, it turned out that the difficulty of use and the fragility of the recordings (wearing out after only a few plays), contributed to a decline in interest for the phonograph among the public. Edison turned his attention to the invention of the incandescent light bulb.
Nevertheless, others took it upon themselves to improve Edison's invention. Alexander Graham Bell, his cousin, Chichester Bell, and Charles Tainter, having already gained fame by introducing the telephone, began working on the somewhat related technology of the phonograph. Both reproduced sound via the use of a diaphragm.
The Bells soon introduced the graphophone, replacing the "hill and dale" indenting needle approach with a more durable playback technology: the incising floating stylus. They also replaced the tin foil media with longer-lasting wax.
Edison rejected overtures from the Bells to collaborate and improve the phonograph, choosing instead to incorporate many of their ideas into the "New Phonograph", and by 1887 operate under the company name of Edison Phonograph Company. The "Perfected Phonograph" soon followed, reflecting Edison's experiments with new media combinations.
In 1890, Edison Phonograph Toy Manufacturing Co. produced for a short while a line of talking dolls, which are very rare and valuable today. The spring motor phonograph emerged in 1896.
Standardized cylinders, mass production of recorded cylinders (Gold Moulded), longer recording time, and cost reductions as seen in the model "Gem" of 1899, helped further the public demand for recorded sound. The Edison Concert Phonograph, which did not sell well, is a rare find these days, and was more expensive, but produced louder sound. Production ceased in 1912.
Also by 1912, competitors Victor (later RCA Victor) and Columbia had abandoned cylinder technology in favor of disks. Edison's Blue Amberol Record, a cylinder which was touted as unbreakable, was his final attempt to stave off disk competition.
For more than a century, Edison was thought to have produced the first recorded sound in history. However, in 2008, the First Sounds collaborative were able to take the work of French scientist, Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville, and his phonautograms, produced in 1859 and 1860, and convert his etchings on paper into audible sound for the first time. Although never intended to be audible, Martinville had experimented with the wave patterns of pitch and words as exhibited on paper. His 1860 song "Au Clair de la Lune" - now audible, is thought to be among the earliest audible records of mankind.