The Washington times., 1915-05-23
.PHONOGRAPH'S STORY
IS TOLD IN EXHIBIT
Original instruments and Steps
Toward Perfection Shown in
National Museum.

The story OF the photograph. Its IN
sention and It's development, Is told In
an exhibit in the National Museum
showing the original instruments and
the improvements that have brought to-
days universally known and universally
used music box" or talking machine.
When Thomas Edison perfected the
first talking machine. he did not apprs-
ciate its Importance independent OF the
telephone upon which he was working.
1t took outside influence and newspaper
stories to bring home the full import OF
the discovery.
The phonograph now is 1ounu III
homes, clubs, and offices, and remark
able feature Of it's popularity and use
fulpess is that these social and CONNER
cial uses have come about in less than
thirty-eight years At first, speech alone
was registered and repeated In the so
called talking machine, but a broader
field was soon opened, and To-Day the re.
production of vocal and instrumental
music has become the most popular Iea-
ture of this sound-reproducing lnstru-
ment
Available To All.
fortunately 1t has no very complicated
mechanism, a point which adds to its
life and tends to lower the cost Of man.
ufacture, thus making it available TO
the general public. fine series Of in
strumens and records is to be seen in
the division Of mechanical technology
Of the National Museum at Washington
The first invention connected with the
phonograph was the phonautograph OF
Leon Scott, in 1857, which had for lts
purpose the recording Of sound vibra-
tions upon a cylinder rotated by hand
and moved forward by a screw. The
vibrations were recorded on a carbon
coated cylinder by very light Stylus
attached to vibrating diaphragm
The record thus made could not be re-
produced, but was used merely to study
sound waves. The stylus and the VI
brating diaphragm became. however. I'M
portant features of the talking ma
Rudolph Koenig, was secured for the
Smithsonian Institution by Prof Joseph
Henry, in 1885. and deposited in the Mu-
seLm collections.
Discovered By Edison.
Mr.. Charles Cros has the honor Of
being the first to suggest the idea Of
mechanically reproducing speech; he
presented a paper to the Academy Of
Sciences Of Paris in 1877. but this pap~r
was not read until Thomas A Edison
had reproduced speech itself.
In the course of some experiments in
1877, conducted with telephone trans
mitter, Mr. Edison discovered he could
reproduce articulate speech. At this
time he never thought Of 1t indepen-
IDENTIFY, but simply as telephone re-
peater not unlike telegraph reeater
which would repeat messages on a sec
ondary circuit extending to a greater
distance than the initial vocal utter
ance would reach.
1t was not until one of his cola bO-
rators, Edward H. Johnson, who was
on a lecture tour demonstrating some
successful telephone experiments, men.
toned the telephone repeater invented
by Mr.. Edison. that anyone realized
what had actually been accomplished.
The Buffalo papers. however, In report
ing the lecture, announced the inven-
ton of the talking machine by Edison.
Made First Machine In "a Hours.
After featuring this in his next lee
ture. johnson Cancelled the remaining
ones. and hastened home to assist in
perfccting the machine. which he had
realized would be a compa ra lively SIM
pie thing to do. Arriving in Newark,
he exhibited the news clippings to Edi-
son and asked If he could make such
a machine. Edison replied that he
could, and after securing some material
in New York, they produced a machine
in tWeny four hours. 1t consisted of
a little revolving cylinder turned by
crank, simple vibrating daphra gm
and needle, and piece of tin foil which
they wrapped around the cylinder
The words. Mary Had Little
Lamb; were spoken into the machine,
and then it was Immediately set back
and the cylinder revolved again to see
II 1t would repeat the words. which it
did. not s clearly IS can be done today,
but quite distinguishably
Exhibited In 1878.
This was the original phonograph and
the starting point of an invention which,
Notwithstanding all Edison's other sue
cessful experiments, has carried his
maine and fame outside the more techni-
cal circles into the whole civilized
world.
The first machine completed for pub
lie exhibition was shown in 1878, after
being exhibited before President
Hayes at the White House, and the
National Academy of Sciences at the
Smithsonian Institution, and is now
on exhibition in the Museum at Ken
sington, but similar early machine
is shown in the National Museum.
The later Developments of the phon-
ograph are represented in a series of
Edison instruments in which the rec
ords are MADE on wax cylinders by a
steel stylus. and by inventions of DR..
Alexander Graham Bell, Chichester A.
Bell, and sumner fainter, in which
the record on the wax cylinder is
carved out by stylus terminating in
q cutting point. The first practical
machine Of this sort was produced by
them in 1887, and called the graphic
phone.
Kept Up To Date.
Another group of original apparatus
illustrates the talking machine called
the gramophone, devised by Emile
Berliner, first introduced in 1887, and
publicly demonstrated the following
year before the Franklin Institute of
Philadelphia. In this instrument the
sound vibrations are first recorded in
a delicate film of wax or fatty sub
stance spread on the surface of a
flat zinc disc. The lines thus traced
by the stylus are etched by means OF
chronic acid into the zinc to an even
depth. From this record a reverse
electrotype matriX is then made and
from it a large number of ndia-rub
Der copies are produced.
The Franklin Institute machine. a
collection Of Berliner's early expert
mental apparatus, and specimens
showing the various steps in the
manufacture of his records form part
OF the museum collection. The gramo-
phone was the fOrerunner of the Vio-
tor talking machine. examples Of
which, together with one of the latest
Edison machines and an electrically
Nzl ~ f, y l.