The phonograph is a device, invented
in 1877, for the mechanical recording and reproduction of sound. In its later forms, it is also called
a gramophone (as a
trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910), or, since the
1940s, a record player. The
sound vibration waveforms are recorded as
corresponding physical deviations of a spiral groove engraved, etched, incised,
or impressed into the surface of a rotating cylinder or disc, called a "record". To recreate the sound, the surface is similarly rotated while a
playback stylus traces the groove and is therefore
vibrated by it, very faintly reproducing the recorded sound. In early acoustic
phonographs, the stylus vibrated a diaphragm
which produced sound
waves which were coupled to the open air through a flaring horn, or directly to the listener's ears through stethoscope-type earphones.
The phonograph was
invented in 1877 by Thomas
Edison. While other inventors had produced
devices that could record sounds, Edison's phonograph was the first to be able
to reproduce the recorded sound. His phonograph originally recorded sound onto
a tinfoil sheet wrapped around a rotating cylinder. A stylus responding to
sound vibrations produced an up and down or hill-and-dale groove in the
foil. Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory made
several improvements in the 1880s and introduced the graphophone, including the use of wax-coated
cardboard cylinders and a cutting stylus that moved from side to side in a zig
zag groove around the record. In the 1890s, Emile
Berliner initiated the transition from
phonograph cylinders to flat discs with a spiral groove running from the
periphery to near the center, coining the term gramophone for
disc record players, which is predominantly used in many languages. Later
improvements through the years included modifications to the turntable and its
drive system, the stylus or
needle, and the sound and equalization
systems.
The disc phonograph
record was the dominant audio recording
format throughout most of the 20th century. From the mid-1980s on, phonograph
use on a standard record player declined sharply because of the rise of
the cassette tape, compact
disc and other digital
recording formats. Records are still a favorite
format for some audiophiles and
by DJs and turntablists in hip
hop music, electronic dance music and other styles. Vinyl records are still used by some DJs and
musicians in their concert performances. Some electronic dance music DJs and music producers continue
to release their recordings on vinyl records. The original recordings of
musicians, which may have been recorded on tape or digital methods, are
sometimes re-issued on vinyl.
Edison presented his own account of inventing the phonograph.
"I was experimenting," he said, "on an automatic method of
recording telegraph messages on a disk of paper laid on a revolving platen,
exactly the same as the disk talking-machine of to-day. The platen had a spiral
groove on its surface, like the disk. Over this was placed a circular disk of
paper; an electromagnet with the embossing point connected to an arm traveled
over the disk; and any signals given through the magnets were embossed on the
disk of paper. If this disc was removed from the machine and put on a similar
machine provided with a contact point, the embossed record would cause the
signals to be repeated into another wire. The ordinary speed of telegraphic
signals is thirty-five to forty words a minute; but with this machine several hundred
words were possible."
"From my experiments on the telephone I knew of how to work
a pawl connected to the diaphragm; and this engaging a ratchet-wheel served to give continuous
rotation to a pulley. This pulley was
connected by a cord to a little paper toy representing a man sawing wood.
Hence, if one shouted: ' Mary had a little lamb,' etc., the paper man would start sawing wood. I reached the
conclusion that if I could record the movements of the diaphragm properly, I could cause such records to reproduce the
original movements imparted to the diaphragm by the voice, and thus succeed in recording and
reproducing the human voice."
"Instead of using a disk I designed a little machine using
a cylinder provided with grooves around the surface. Over this was to
be placed tinfoil, which easily received
and recorded the movements of the diaphragm.
Edison's early phonographs recorded onto a thin sheet of metal,
normally tinfoil, which was temporarily
wrapped around a helically grooved cylinder mounted on a correspondingly threaded rod supported by plain
and threaded bearings. While the cylinder was rotated and slowly progressed along
its axis, the airborne sound vibrated a diaphragm connected to a stylus that indented the
foil into the cylinder's groove, thereby recording the vibrations as
"hill-and-dale" variations of the depth of the indentation.[17]
Playback was accomplished by exactly repeating the recording
procedure, the only difference being that the recorded foil now served to
vibrate the stylus, which transmitted its vibrations to the diaphragm and
onward into the air as audible sound. Although Edison's very first experimental
tinfoil phonograph used separate and somewhat different recording and playback
assemblies, in subsequent machines a single diaphragm and stylus served both
purposes.
One peculiar consequence was that it was possible to overdub additional sound
onto a recording being played back. The recording was heavily worn by each
playing, and it was nearly impossible to accurately remount a recorded foil
after it had been removed from the cylinder. In this form, the only practical
use that could be found for the phonograph was as a startling novelty for
private amusement at home or public exhibitions for profit.
Edison's early patents show that he was aware that sound could
be recorded as a spiral on a disc, but
Edison concentrated his efforts on cylinders, since the groove on the outside
of a rotating cylinder provides a constant velocity to the stylus in the
groove, which Edison considered more "scientifically correct".
Edison's patent specified that the audio recording be embossed, and it was not until 1886 that vertically modulated engraved recording using
wax-coated cylinders was patented by Chichester Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter. They named their version the Graphophone.
The use of a flat recording surface instead of a cylindrical one
was an obvious alternative which thought-experimenter Charles Cros initially
favored and which practical experimenter Thomas Edison and others actually
tested in the late 1870s and early 1880s. The oldest surviving example is a
copper electrotype of a recording cut
into a wax disc in 1881.
The commercialization of sound recording technology was
initially aimed at use for business correspondence and transcription into
writing, in which the cylindrical form offered certain advantages, the storage
of large numbers of records seemed unlikely, and the ease of producing multiple
copies was not a consideration.
Verified recordings by the famous that have survived to the
present.
Alexander Graham Bell and his two associates took Edison's tinfoil phonograph and
modified it considerably to make it reproduce sound from wax instead of
tinfoil. They began their work at Bell's Volta Laboratory in Washington, D.
C., in 1879, and continued until they were granted basic patents in 1886 for
recording in wax.
Although Edison had invented
the phonograph in 1877 the fame bestowed on him for this invention was
not due to its efficiency. Recording with his tinfoil phonograph was too
difficult to be practical, as the tinfoil tore easily, and even when the stylus was properly
adjusted, its reproduction of sound was distorted, and good for only a few playbacks;
nevertheless Edison had hit upon the secret of sound recording. However immediately
after his discovery he did not improve it, allegedly because of an agreement to
spend the next five years developing the New York City electric light and power system.
The basic distinction between the Edison's first phonograph
patent and the Bell and Tainter patent of 1886 was the method of recording.
Edison's method was to indent the sound waves on a piece of tin foil, while
Bell and Tainter's invention called for cutting, or "engraving", the
sound waves into a wax record with a sharp recording stylus.
The work of the Volta Associates laid the foundation for the
successful use of dictating machines in business, because
their wax recording process was practical and their machines were durable. But
it would take several more years and the renewed efforts of Edison and the
further improvements of Emile Berliner and many others,
before the recording industry became a major factor in home entertainment.
Recordings made on a cylinder remain at a constant linear
velocity for the entirety of the recording, while those made on a disc have a
higher linear velocity at the outer portion of the groove compared to the inner
portion.
Edison's patented recording method recorded with vertical
modulations in a groove. Berliner utilized a laterally modulated groove.
From the mid-1890s until the early 1920s both phonograph cylinder and disc recordings and machines to play them on were
widely mass-marketed and sold. The disc system gradually became more popular
because of its cheaper price and better marketing by disc record companies.
Edison ceased cylinder manufacture in the autumn of 1929, and the history of
disc and cylinder rivalry was concluded.
In 1955, Philco developed and produced the world's first all-transistor phonograph models. Philco started to sell these all-transistor phonographs in the fall of 1955, for the price of $59.95.
The 1920s brought improved radio technology and radio sales, bringing many phonograph
dealers to near financial ruin. With efforts at improved audio fidelity, the
big record companies succeeded in keeping business booming through the end of
the decade, but the record sales plummeted during the Great Depression, with many companies
merging or going out of business.
Record sales picked up appreciably by the late 30s and early
40s, with greater improvements in fidelity and more money to be spent. By this
time home phonographs had become much more common, though it wasn't until the
1940s that console radio/phono set-ups with automatic record changers became
more common.
In the 1930s, vinyl was introduced as a
record material for radio transcription discs, and for radio commercials.
Booms in record sales returned after the Second World War, as
industry standards changed from 78s to vinyl, long-playing records (commonly called
record albums), which could contain an entire symphony, and 45s which usually
contained one hit song popularized on the radio – thus the term "single" record – plus
another song on the back or "flip" side.
By the 1960s, cheaper portable record players and record
changers which played stacks of records in wooden console cabinets were
popular,
The turntable remained a common element of home audio systems
well after the introduction of other media, such as audio tape and even the early
years of the compact
disc as
a lower-priced music format. However, even though the cost of producing CDs
fell below that of records, CDs remained a higher-priced music format than
either cassettes or records. Thus, records were not uncommon in home audio
systems into the early 1990s.
By the turn of the 21st century, the turntable had become a
niche product, as the price of CD players, which reproduce music
free of pops and scratches, fell far lower than high-fidelity tape players or
turntables.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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