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N0KFQ > TODAY 19.02.17 15:13l 49 Lines 2227 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Feb 19
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Sent: 170219/1310Z 23626@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ6.0.13
1878
Thomas Alva Edison patents the phonograph
The technology that made the modern music business possible came
into existence in the New Jersey laboratory where Thomas Alva
Edison created the first device to both record sound and play it
back. He was awarded U.S. Patent No. 200,521 for his
invention - the phonograph - on this day in 1878.
Edison's invention came about as spin-off from his ongoing work
in telephony and telegraphy. In an effort to facilitate the
repeated transmission of a single telegraph message, Edison
devised a method for capturing a passage of Morse code as a
sequence of indentations on a spool of paper. Reasoning that a
similar feat could be accomplished for the telephone, Edison
devised a system that transferred the vibrations of a
diaphragm - i.e., sound - to an embossing point and then mechanically
onto an impressionable medium_paraffin paper at first, and then a
spinning, tin-foil wrapped cylinder as he refined his concept.
Edison and his mechanic, John Kreusi, worked on the invention
through the autumn of 1877 and quickly had a working model ready
for demonstration. The December 22, 1877, issue of Scientific
American reported that "Mr. Thomas A. Edison recently came into
this office, placed a little machine on our desk, turned a crank,
and the machine inquired as to our health, asked how we liked the
phonograph, informed us that it was very well, and bid us a
cordial good night."
The patent awarded to Edison on February 19, 1878, specified a
particular method - embossing - for capturing sound on
tin-foil-covered cylinders. The next critical improvement in
recording technology came courtesy of Edison's competitor in the
race to develop the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell. His newly
established Bell Labs developed a phonograph based on the
engraving of a wax cylinder, a significant improvement that led
directly to the successful commercialization of recorded music in
the 1890s and lent a vocabulary to the recording business - e.g.,
"cutting" records and "spinning wax" - that has long outlived the
technology on which it was based.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
Winlink: n0kfq@winlink.org
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