Prototype Graphophone speaks again!

[TinfoilPhono]

In 1881 Alexander Graham Bell, his cousin Chichester Bell, and Charles Sumner Tainter took an Edison 'demonstration' tinfoil phonograph (built by Bergmann) and filled the grooves with wax, into which they incised the first wax recording, making the first prototype Graphophone. They deposited it in the Smithsonian on October 20, 1881. As Tainter said later, "We did this so that if Edison's company should get hold of out invention, through any leakage of information, before our patent was complete, we would have dated proof of what we had worked out." The machine remained sealed until October 27, 1937, when the box was opened. Supposedly the recording was played on that occasion, but that is doubtful. However when the machine was stored away Bell & Tainter put a piece of paper with the text of the cylinder written on it, mounted to the base with sealing wax. I believe that news reports were based solely on that transcription.

I saw the machine first hand when I was researching my book on tinfoil phonographs around 1998 or 1999. The indentations in the wax are remarkably deep and clear, and I always knew that somehow this could be recovered. In those days I was thinking in terms of a lightweight electric pickup. Today we have computer technology to unlock such hidden sounds.

At long last that technology has been used on the prototype machine and we can hear the recording with astonishing clarity. Check it out: http://www.firstsounds.org

Here are a couple of pictures I took when I studied the machine in the Smithsonian's archive.

[phonogfp]

That's a remarkably good recording for 1881! Great stuff...

Is this the earliest recording of a man's falsetto?

George P.

[Edisone]

Wow. My great-grandparents were between 3 and 7 years old in 1881 (Kitty, James, John Murdoch & Ellen in America, while Anders, Albert, Albertine & Louisa were still in Europe); hearing any sound from that time leaves me amazed. I'm a little less amazed at somebody's knowledge of spelling and Shakespeare when I see "then" used instead of "than". That little gripe aside, I hope that all obscure recordings will be recovered and shared with us.

ps - You must hear the absolutely bizzare, unearthly recordings of New York's Elevated Railway which Edison's people made on Phonautograph equipment. That might have been the first Urban noise study ever made.

[edisonphonoworks]

I am sometimes still puzzled by the fact, that Berliner gets credit for inventing the disc and lateral recording. It seems that Edison had a disc Phonograph in the 1870s, and Bell and Tainter also had a disc Graphophone in 1881, not only that it seems to me that lateral recording method should be given to Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, and Charles Cros. By the way the recordings are pretty remarkable I think, pretty clear especially the Edison Parlor Phonograph with the wax in the groove, so what kind of wax is in that groove? ozokerite, or paraffin? Is there notes on these experiments? I think a Ozokerite/Carnauba would of worked pretty well.

When was the first time this scanning method was used to recover historic sounds? 2008? I had predicted that it could be done sometime before 2000, in fact I think around 1997, on my webpage I mentioned, that non playable sounds specifically the phonautograph tracings could be scanned and converted to a wave file back then. And updated when this Idea became a reality thanks to David Giovannoni. (See prediction of scanning the phonautograph recordings on my website)

http://members.tripod.com/~Edison_1/id14.html

[estott]

I am sometimes still puzzled by the fact, that Berliner gets credit for inventing the disc and lateral recording. It seems that Edison had a disc Phonograph in the 1870s, and Bell and Tainter also had a disc Graphophone in 1881, not only that it seems to me that lateral recording method should be given to Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, and Charles Cros. By the way the recordings are pretty remarkable I think, pretty clear especially the Edison Parlor Phonograph with the wax in the groove, so what kind of wax is in that groove? ozokerite, or paraffin? Is there notes on these experiments? I think a Ozokerite/Carnauba would of worked pretty well.

When was the first time this scanning method was used to recover historic sounds? 2008? I had predicted that it could be done sometime before 2000, in fact I think around 1997, on my webpage I mentioned, that non playable sounds specifically the phonautograph tracings could be scanned and converted to a wave file back then. And updated when this Idea became a reality thanks to David Giovannoni. (See prediction of scanning the phonautograph recordings on my website)

http://members.tripod.com/~Edison_1/id14.html

I think that Berliner gets the credit because his system was simple and unlike the others his recordings were reproducable durable and interchangeable. Cros never took his system beyond the theoretical level and Scott's machine was only good for scientific demonstration. Edison's tinfoil disc machine certainly did work, but it had the same limitations as his cylinder models, and probably issues of its own - he put a lot of effort into developing it, then he put it aside.

[Starkton]

Remarkable sound!

I always wondered why the Volta crew completely stripped their "No. 1 Experimental" (= The Edison Speaking Phonograph Co.'s official description) phonograph.

By the way this was the worldwide first phonograph model sold freely from April 1878, price $30. Of course only after signing "the express agreement ... that the said phonograph shall not be used for public or charitable exhibitions, or for any public exhibition, show, or concert whatsoever, whether any entrance fee is required or not."