EOTO #1: The Phonograph

The phonograph was originally invented and constructed by Thomas Edison in December of 1877. Edison wanted a way to combine the likes of the telegraph and the telephone, which both had already been invented. The earliest version of the phonograph consisted of a diaphragm with an embossing point and a piece of paraffin paper. The idea was to create indentations on the paper to mark sound vibrations. As Edison continued to brainstorm, the paraffin paper was replaced by a metal cylinder with a piece of tin foil wrapped around it to catch the indentations. 

The machine had two diaphragm-and-needle units. One was used for recording sound, and the other was used for playback. In order to make it all work, someone had to speak into a mouthpiece, thus indenting sound vibrations on the metal cylinder with the needle and making a vertical groove pattern. When Edison was first testing out the invention, he spoke "Mary had a little lamb" into the mouthpiece, and marked the phonograph as a success once it played the words back to him. 

Thomas Edison filed for a patent on the phonograph on December 24, 1877, and finally got the patent issued on February 19, 1878. The phonograph was officially his invention, and it was the first and only working model of its kind. The only other recording of an invention similar to Edison's was written in a paper in April of 1877 by Charles Cros, a French Scientist. His work was not proven to actually exist and was only spoken of by theory. 

 Edison, ever-proud of his product, took it over to the Scientific American offices in New York City, where it piqued the interest of many and skyrocketed in popularity. Soon after Edison's visit to the offices, the phonograph was pictured in a series of newspapers and magazines. The Edison Speaking Phonograph Company came to be on January 24, 1878. 

After a while, the phonograph was less of an interest to the public, and Thomas Edison paused his work on the product to focus on inventing the incandescent light bulb. While Edison was busy inventing the light bulb, Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, took it upon himself to further improve upon Edison's phonograph. 

Bell and his brother, Chichester A. Bell, built a new and improved model of the phonograph, replacing some of its key parts with more convenient ones. They replaced the needle with a floating stylus and used a combination of different waxes to replace the tin foil since the tin foil would break apart after only a few uses. The Bell brothers dubbed their creation the "Gramophone", were issued a patent, and then proposed a collaboration with Edison.

 Edison declined and resumed his own work on the phonograph. By this point, he had invented the light bulb and had plenty of time to spend making the phonograph even better than the Bells did. Ironically, Edison pulled from the Bell brothers' idea of using wax rather than tin foil for his latest upgrade to the invention. Edison completed his revisions, and called his latest version the "New Phonograph". 

The phonograph was revised even further, with a later version called the "Edison Standard Phonograph". The Standard Phonograph was manufactured and sold in 1898 and became the first phonograph to have the Edison trademark design on it. The standard model cost $20 at the time and saw great success. 

The phonograph has continued to leave an impact on sound today, especially within the music industry. Over the years, it offered people the chance to listen to any kind of music wherever and whenever they wanted, completely on demand. Different genres emerged such as jazz and blues, songs became shorter (2-3 minutes in length), and the general public found themselves resonating with sound more than ever before. Thomas Edison did not invent music, but he built a strong foundation for music to be played on.