The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I was watching television this morning and they were discussing a book titled "Atlas Obscura". One of the obscure items they discussed was the private room that Mr. Eiffel built in the Eiffel Tower. In a picture they showed of the room was the phonograph that Thomas Edison gave to Mr. Eiffel which I believe is a Perfected Phonograph. Here is the picture they showed of the room. I hope you enjoy it.

Rich Gordon

That photo must have been taken when they were cleaning the wax figures -- Edison is turned away from the phonograph and Eiffel is nowhere to be seen. Here's a picture as it can be seen through the window.



Here's the autographed back side of a menu for a luncheon in the tower that Eiffel held in Edison's honor on Sept. 10, 1889, the occasion on which Edison gifted the Perfected Phonograph. The third signature is the composer Charles Gounod, who was invited to join the group for coffee and cigars in Eiffel's apartment at the top.

Those wax figures are eerily lifelike!

Looks real but what happened to the horn?? Tom B

These machines did not use horns, the only time a horn was used was for Recording musical compositions. Listening was mostly with listening tubes with either glass ear cups, celluloid, or hard rubber tips. The recorder/ reproducer also changed during 1888-1889. The first ones used metal recording and reproducing points, the recorder chisel shaped, while the playback stylus was a blunt rounded over curved wire, the resulting groove being square, and sound waves saw tooth shaped. The next incarnation in late 1888, used metal styli in the shape of the cupped, rounded recorder, and balled playback stylus, by mid 1889, the regular sapphire recording and reproducing stylus was used, on both with articulated hinged weights. By late 1889 the familiar Standard speaker came out, and the cumbersome spectacle was dispensed with.

Similar to my comment regarding the Crescent Reservoir, a Search of the APS Knowledgebase will reveal 7 articles that contain the phrase "Eiffel Tower". The first article referenced is a September 2004 issue of In The Groove that features an article on this specific thread. Another article in a 1979 issue of The Talking Machine Review references the Eiffel Tower, in conjunction with some diary entries, although I did not explore entirely.

Very interesting post! Thanks for the pictures!
Bob

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