V 



THE EDISON PHONOGRAPH 



IF a popular vote were to be taken to decide what 

 invention was considered the most wonderful of 

 all those produced during the latter part of the 

 nineteenth century, it is probable that the majority of 

 votes would be cast in favor of the phonograph. The 

 X-ray apparatus for photographing through opaque 

 substances, and the telephone, would surely come in 

 for a large vote. But to most persons, nothing quite 

 so much approaches the realm of the miraculous as the 

 little instrument, small enough to be carried in a 

 good-sized coat pocket, which reproduces accurately 

 all manner of sounds from violin notes to steam sirens. 



It seems superfluous to say that the inventor of this 

 marvelous instrument is Thomas A. Edison. The 

 name "Edison phonograph" has become generic as 

 well as descriptive. 



On the 3ist of July, 1877, Edison first applied for a 

 patent on his "speaking phonograph." It was by no 

 means the first instrument ever made upon which words 

 could be recorded. Even as early as 1856, Mr. Leo Scott 

 produced what was known as a "phonautograph"- 

 an instrument so arranged that the vibrations made by 

 sounds were recorded on smoked glass, or some other 

 similar substance, by means of a needle attached 



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