Watch Edison operating the first Tin-foil! (1920s Footage)

[phonogfp]

By the way, I have seen an old photo of this Original Tinfoil that shows the diaphragm was broken at some time - anybody knows about it?

Yes - there's a photo taken at the Paris exhibition of 1889 (it appears on page 175 in our book, Phonographica) showing the original Tinfoil with damage. A cut was made of this image - damage and all - and used in some turn-of-the-century Edison literature.

George P.

[Starkton]

Thanks for the information - I knew that the original Phonograph was stored in England for a while and Edison got it back sometime in the 1920s, but I was wrong for a year.

On August 12th 1927, at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the phonograph, Edison received only a model of the original phonograph. Several identical models, easily identifyable by its chacteristic base, were manufactured at the occasion. One was offered on ebay about a year ago, but the auction was closed early on.

By the way, I have seen an old photo of this Original Tinfoil that shows the diaphragm was broken at some time - anybody knows about it?

It appears that the original phonograph wasn't always treated carefully in South Kensington, to put it mildly. The diaphragm broke at some time and the reproducer was installed inverted. Due to lack of knowledge and care, nobody noticed the damage. In this condition the machine even made it on an official museum photo.