The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-06-14
HOW THE pHoNoeRApH GREW.
Edison's Story of the Instrument for
Recording Sound Waves.


From the Pittsburg Chronicle Telegraph.
"The father of the phonograph," said
Thomas A. Edison last night, just before
he went east, "was a revolving telegraph
key which punctured piece of tin foil"
"How did this lead you to a discovery of
the manner in which the sound OF the
human voice could be stored away and re-
| produced at willg'
Il was making some experiments more
| than ten years ego when it first came to me.
| The telegraphic key that | speak OF was an
| automatic arrangement which moved IN
circle and recorded on tin foil the charac-
tiers of the Morse alphabet n manner
which permitted their reproduction by an
other needle which passed over the indented
record. After a number of experiments
| with this apparatus it suggested itself to me
one day that perhaps could make the voice
record itself by means of diagram. l ex-
perimented for some time and at last sue
ceeded in placing record OF the voice on foil
| which could be heard through reproiucer,
and then the photograph was born. 1t was
not possible with the old photograph to
make an accurate record of the sibilate or
Kissing sound produced by the utterance of
some of the consonants. This prevented a
faithful record of speech.
The record of clear vowel and sibilant
sounds looks something like this, the small
collection of curves being the kissing
sound land he drew on a scrap Of paper
series of large and small curves.
For some years l gave my attention
almost entirely to the electric light and
other matters, and did not perfect the pho
nograph until within comparatively recent
period. / then began making the recorder
more and more delicate, and changed the
form Of that which received the record from
AT D. al, Nkar %a-iaI fras,
foil to wax. AS the machine now Is l re-
gard it as in the main satisfactory, although
am constantly making improvements In
| its mechanism, taking away complicated
parts and simplifying its working.
81 have made some changes within few
days which do away with the present adj
justment of the recorder and render 1T SIM
pie. Now all you have to do is to lower the
point of the recorder upon the face of the
cylinder, turn little arm, and the machine
is ready TO record. have been making ex-
periments with hundreds of substances for
cylinders. There is difficulty in getting
something strong enough to 60 safely
through the foreign mails. 0. those for
eign MALL. What wreckers they are. l
have adopted as test the throwing of
box containing a cylinder at a wall 10 or 20
feet away, aud if the cylinder does not
break more than once in six times it is
success. Cylinders for the domestic mails
and ordinary use will in the future be made
of asphalt, which is cheap and strong and
takes a good record The speed of repro
duction and general usefulness of the ma
chine will constantly increase. Besides this
l have completed a motor which will run
six months without being replenished. 1t
is without rival A Frenchman invented
it and died before it was completed, and
ran across it and bought the rights"
You have succeeded in storing sound.
Have you been able to turn sound into
| powerp
"Yes, that has been done"
"You have also process by which you
can reproduce handwriting by electrical
| apparatusw
ooh. yes. There are several such inven-
| tons. They do not work successfully, how
ever, in a commercial sense, at present"
"Will it be possible to invent something
which will connect a writing and printing
apparatus with the photograph 30 that a
written or printed result will aut 0matically
follow dictation upon the monograph"
sit will take couple OF centuries of evo-
| luton to produce a brain to do this, |
| think, said the great inventor, with laugh
"When I first found the photograph l
thought had come upon something which
| would do all that was required in tde way
of recording and reproducing speech in con-
| nection with automatic processes, but | soon
| found an inSurmountabe difficulty. Sup
pose say hello in full chest voice, hello
in squeaky nasal tone, and again hello
! in ordinary conversational voice, what is
| the result! Three entirely different records
| are made. The same word does not make
the same record, and it is almost impossible
| to duplicate a tone. Even if the tone of
| Inference is more or less the same, If you
cnance to turn your head in the least, or
| change your position in any way, the same
| sound makes different records when exam
| ined under microscope. There can be no
mechanical arrangement which will distin-
| guish between the differences and bring
order out of chaos. If the same words al
ways made the same record then there
would be no trouble, and by means of vi
brating diaphragms and mechanical effects
| these records could be produced in the way
| you suggest. As tits, however, it require
the human ear and the human brain to
be part of the machine which deals in re-
produced sounds in order TO pick out proper
| meaning.
'Taken as it is have great faith in the
photograph, and think it will become as
useful as the telephone. 1t will be the means
to aiding business men, OF giving pleasure
and recognition to the whole community.
In a few days we will have cylinders con-
tanning songs, music, speeches. and other
! interesting matter ready for the public. So
| far as | know neither Sawyer nor Man has
claimed the photograph yet" and he
| laughed in his genial way at this allusion to
the big electric light suit,