| History of the
Phonograph  The earliest known invention of a
phonographic recording device was the phonautograph,
invented by Edouard-Leon Scott and patented on March 25,
1857. It could transcribe sound to a visible medium, but
had no means to play back the sound after it was
recorded. The device consisted of a horn or barrel that
focused sound waves onto a membrane to which a hog's
bristle was attached, causing the bristle to move and
enabling it to inscribe a visual medium. The first
version made recordings onto a lamp-blackened glass
plate. Later versions, such as the one shown here, used a
medium of lamp-blackened paper on a drum or cylinder. The
phonautograph was primarily a laboratory curiosity for
the study of acoustics, used to determine the vibrations
per second for a musical pitch and to study sound and
speech.
 The first practical phonograph that
could play back the sounds it had transcribed was
invented by Thomas Alva Edison in 1877. The recording
medium was a small metal cylinder wrapped in tin foil,
which was mounted on an axle that could be rotated. Next
to the cylinder was a mouthpiece with a diaphragm. A
needle attached to the diaphragm was placed against the
cylinder. As someone spoke into the mouthpiece, the
cylinder was rotated. The sound waves made the diaphragm
and needle vibrate, which in turn made dents in the foil
-- the dents representing the original sound waves. The
first sounds recorded on the phonograph were Edison's
words "Mary had a little lamb."
To play the sound back, another needle attached to a
diaphragm was placed against the cylinder. As the
cylinder was rotated, the dents in the tin foil made the
needle and diaphragm vibrate, producing sounds roughly
similar to the originals.
 Edison had intended his phonograph to be
used primarily as a dictating machine in offices and,
therefore, did very little to improve upon the device.
But Edison was not the only inventor working on
phonographic-type devices. In 1885, two Americans,
Chichester A. Bell and Charles S. Tainter, invented the
Graphophone. It had a cardboard cylinder coated with wax
instead of a metal cylinder wrapped in tin foil. The
mechanism for recording was similar to that on Edison's
machine, except that instead of dents the recording
needle produced grooves.
 While the
graphophone reproduced sound with much greater accuracy
and clarity than Edison's phonograph, the wax-coated
cylinders had to be stored carefully to prevent the wax
from being damaged. What's more, each cylinder had to be
individually recorded, making them too expensive for the
general public to enjoy. In 1887, Emile Berliner, who had
come to the United States from Germany, invented the
Gramophone, which used a flat disk instead of a cylinder.
He also invented a process for mass-producing the disks,
which he called Records. Mass-production greatly reduced
the cost of individual records, making it possible for
the general public to buy them, meaning that millions of
people now had the ability to hear some of the most
popular singers of the day without having to travel to a
major venue to see them in person.
Early phonographs had spring motors and had to be
wound by hand to be played. The motors sometimes ran too
fast or too slow, making the music sound odd. The needle
mechanisms of such phonographs did not respond to low
bass or high treble notes, and so bass drums and violins
could not be heard clearly. In the mid-1920's,
manufacturers began to produce phonographs with electric
motors and amplifiers that made them easier to play and
greatly improved their sound quality.
Until 1948, all commercial records were played at 78
rpm. They were made of a shellac and clay mixture and
were easily broken. LP records were developed at the
Columbia Broadcasting System Laboratories under the
direction of Peter Goldmark, an electrical engineer, and
Columbia Records Inc. introduced the LP record to the
public in 1948. Unbreakable plastic LP records created a
demand for high-fidelity phonographs, and stereophonic
phonographs and records were introduced in 1958. By the
late 1960's, almost all new phonographs and records were
stereophonic.
Questions or comments about this
page?
Steven E. Schoenherr. "Charles Sumner Tainter and
the Graphophone." Recording Technology History.
2000. history.acusd.edu/gen/recordings/graphophone.html
Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording
Industry. Library of Congress, American Memory. memory.loc.gov/ammem/berlhtml/berlhome.html
The History of the Phonautograph. www.phonautograph.com
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