The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Check out this link to the Smithsonian
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-cult ... 180957677/

Bad link? All I get is an ad. Maybe "Phoograph" is a different beast than the one we know and love?

Phooey!

I found it here:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-cult ... 180957677/

Best,
Fran

Sloppy and error prone article. Would have expected better by something with a Smithsonian affiliation.


"That changed in 1877 when Thomas Edison unveiled his phonograph. It wasn’t the first such device to record and play back audio, but it was the first generally reliable one: scratchy and nearly inaudible by modern standards, but it worked.:


What pray tell existed before the 1877 tinfoil machine? Besides the phonautograph, which wasn't an audio playback device.

I believe they were referring to the Phonautograph as the predecessor in the article. The writer of the article probably did not know that it couldn't reproduce sound due to poor research.

-Steve

oldphonographsteve wrote:I believe they were referring to the Phonautograph as the predecessor in the article. The writer of the article probably did not know that it couldn't reproduce sound due to poor research.

-Steve

I was thinking the same thing.

But, still, some valid points. It's good to remember that the early music recorded for the early consumers was, more or less, responsible for "educating" the general public to much of the music that was previously out of reach for the average.

Best,
Fran

Unfortunately, the "phonograph" initially was a wondrous thing, but look at "Music" today.Recording ended up really being wonderful for serious, i.e. " Classical " music but not , generally for the evolution of popular music into today's noise. It followed the same path as, first, AM radio then FM radio and then television. Popular music has never been better than its first 30-40 recorded years IMHO.

"Amen" to that!