EOTO: History of the Phonograph

 

The history of technology is an essential topic to understand and be familiar with. Without the history of the development of different technologies, we as a society would not be able to advance or learn from our past mistakes and achievements. We can gain an appreciation for how far we have come by taking a look into the past. For this post, I will be focusing on a piece of technology known as the phonograph which has since made a come back in a form you may be very familiar with.

History

The first experimental product of the phonograph was created in 1857 but the first fully functional and distributed piece of this technology was created by Thomas Edison in 1877. The phonograph was a by product of Edison's telegraph and telephone. Edison realized the potential for sound waves and put it to the test to see if it was capable of being idented into a physical form and be replayed over and over again. Edison tested this theory with a "diaphragm which had an embossing point and was held against rapidly-moving paraffin paper" to record the nursery rhyme, "Mary had a Little Lamb." The vibrations of his voice made indentions into the cylinder wrapped with tin foil which could be they played back by one of the two needle units. Edison was able to further advance his invention with the help of his mechanic, John Kruesi. 

In 1878, the Edison Speaking Phonograph Company was created where Edison received $10,000 for the manufacturing and sales rights with an additional 20% profits. This company eventually died out because of the lack of interest in the machine. This was until Alexander Graham Bell came into the picture in 1880 who helped redesign the phonograph by using wax instead of tin foil. He also used a floating stylus instead of rigid needle so that the cylinder itself wouldn't be indented. 

Later in 1888, with this new design, another company was formed called North American Phonograph Company. Created by Jesse H Lippincott, this company was the monopoly of phonograph companies until he fell sick and Edison ended up gaining control of the company. He eventually forced it into bankruptcy so he could buy back the rights of his invention. From that point further, Edison was able to continue to improve on his design before he was stopped by the use of a cylinder model which limited his capacities of mass production. A more detailed timeline can be found as the The Library of Congress.

Impact

Even though Edison stopped at the cylinder, the concept of the phonograph continued to grow. In 1887, Emil Berliner created a new shape and way to record the sound waves. This was to make multiple grooves into a flat disk that could be shaped into a model and remade over and over again. This led to the creation of the record and eventually the Gramophone, a new version of Edison's phonograph. With this invention, record were able to hold longer recordings and have longer play backs. The RPM or revolutions per minute increased as well, making it more popular by the day. As it continued to modernize, it gained more features such as speakers or amplifiers.

These are what modern day knows as Vinyl. While I won't be going in its history in detail, it is important to note where it started from. In present time, vinyl has made a come back where many people have had the desire to own their own player and records. Modern artist are being combined with a historical music device that was originally not even made for music. This demonstrates how history  is capable of connecting with the present and why it is important to know the origins from which something had come from.