The Phonograph Became An Industry
By supposedly following Edison's sketch (top),
John Kruesi built the first tinfoil phonograph, top right, in 1877.
Though improved by Edison in 1888 and thereafter, the phonograph
essentially remained the simple machine delineated in the original
patent drawings. Gathered around the 1888 model after a 72-hour stint of
modifications (bottom), are, seated from left, Fred Ott, Edison, Col.
George E. Gouraud; standing, from left, W. K. L. Dickson, Charles
Batchelor, A. Theodore E. Wangemann, John Ott, and Charles
Brown.
|
The original phonograph, as invented by Edison,
remained in its crude and immature state for almost ten yearsstill
the object of philosophical interest, and as a convenient text book
illustration of the effect of sound vibration. . . . In 1887 his time
was comparatively free, and the phonograph was then taken up with
renewed energy, and the effort made to overcome its mechanical defects
and to furnish a commercial instrument, so that its early promise might
be realized. The important changes made from that time up to 1890
converted the phonograph from a scientific toy into a successful
industrial apparatus. The idea of forming the record on tinfoil had been
early abandoned, and in its stead was substituted a cylinder of wax-like
material, in which the record was cut by a minute chisel-like gouging
tool. Such a record or phonogram, as it was then called, could be
removed from the machine or replaced at any time, many reproductions
could be obtained without wearing out the record, and whenever desired
the record could be shaved off by a turning-tool so as to present a
fresh surface on which a new record could be formed, something like an
ancient palimpsest. A wax cylinder having walls less than one-quarter of
an inch in thickness could be used for receiving a large number of
records, since the maximum depth of the record groove is hardly ever
greater than one one-thousandth of an inch. Later on, and as the
crowning achievement in the phonograph field, from a commercial point of
view, came the duplication of records to the extent of many thousands
from a single "master." . . . Another improvement . . . was making the
recording and reproducing styluses of sapphire, an extremely hard,
non-oxidizable jewel, so that those tiny instruments would always
retain their true form and effectively resist wear. . . . After a
considerable period of strenuous activity in the eighties, the
phonograph and its wax records were developed to a sufficient degree of
perfection to warrant him in making arrangements for their manufacture
and commercial introduction. At this time the surroundings of the Orange
laboratory were distinctly rural in character. Immediately adjacent to
the main building and the four smaller structures, constituting the
laboratory plant, were grass meadows that stretched away for some
considerable distance in all directions, and at its back door, so to
speak, ducks paddled around and quacked in a pond undisturbed. Being now
ready for manufacturing, but requiring more facilities, Edison increased
his real-estate holdings by purchasing a large tract of land lying
contiguous to what he already owned. At one end of the newly acquired
land two unpretentious brick structures were erected, equipped with
first-class machinery, and put into commission as shops for
manufacturing phonographs and their record blanks, while the capacious
hall forming the third story of the laboratory, over the library, was
fitted up and used as a music-room where records were made. Thus the
modern Edison phonograph made its debut in 1888, in what was then called
the 'aim proved' form . . . viz., the spring or electric motor-driven
machine with the cylindrical wax recordin fact, the regulation
Edison phonograph.
Frank L. Dyer and Thymes C. Martin. Edison: His Life and
Inventions, 1910
|