The Phonograph - 5

The Phonograph - 5

Another important change was in the nature of a reversal of the original arrangement, the
cylinder or mandrel carrying the record being mounted in fixed bearings, and the
recording or reproducing device being fed lengthwise, like the cutting-tool of a lathe, as
the blank or record was rotated. It was early recognized that a single needle for forming
the record and the reproduction therefrom was an undesirable arrangement, since the
formation of the record required a very sharp cutting-tool, while satisfactory and repeated
reproduction suggested the use of a stylus which would result in the minimum wear.
After many experiments and the production of a number of types of machines, the present
recorders and reproducers were evolved, the former consisting of a very small cylindrical
gouging tool having a diameter of about forty thousandths of an inch, and the latter a ball
or button-shaped stylus with a diameter of about thirty-five thousandths of an inch. By
using an incisor of this sort, the record is formed of a series of connected gouges with
rounded sides, varying in depth and width, and with which the reproducer automatically
engages and maintains its engagement. Another difficulty encountered in the commercial
development of the phonograph was the adjustment of the recording stylus so as to enter
the wax-like surface to a very slight depth, and of the reproducer so as to engage exactly
the record when formed. The earlier types of machines were provided with separate
screws for effecting these adjustments; but considerable skill was required to obtain good
results, and great difficulty was experienced in meeting the variations in the wax-like
cylinders, due to the warping under atmospheric changes. Consequently, with the early
types of commercial phonographs, it was first necessary to shave off the blank accurately
before a record was formed thereon, in order that an absolutely true surface might be
presented. To overcome these troubles, the very ingenious suggestion was then made and
adopted, of connecting the recording and reproducing styluses to their respective
diaphragms through the instrumentality of a compensating weight, which acted
practically as a fixed support under the very rapid sound vibrations, but which yielded
readily to distortions or variations in the wax-like cylinders. By reason of this
improvement, it became possible to do away with all adjustments, the mass of the
compensating weight causing the recorder to engage the blank automatically to the
required depth, and to maintain the reproducing stylus always with the desired pressure
on the record when formed. These automatic adjustments were maintained even though
the blank or record might be so much out of true as an eighth of an inch, equal to more
than two hundred times the maximum depth of the record groove.
Another improvement that followed along the lines adopted by Edison for the
commercial development of the phonograph was making the recording and reproducing
styluses of sapphire, an extremely hard, non-oxidizable jewel, so that those tiny
instruments would always retain their true form and effectively resist wear. Of course, in
this work many other things were done that may still be found on the perfected
phonograph as it stands to-day, and many other suggestions were made which were
contemporaneously adopted, but which were later abandoned. For the curious-minded,
reference is made to the records in the Patent Office, which will show that up to 1893
Edison had obtained upward of sixty-five patents in this art, from which his line of
thought can be very closely traced. The phonograph of to-day, except for the perfection
of its mechanical features, in its beauty of manufacture and design, and in small details,
may be considered identical with the machine of 1889, with the exception that with the
latter the rotation of the record cylinder was effected by an electric motor.
Its essential use as then contemplated was as a substitute for stenographers, and the most
extravagant fancies were indulged in as to utility in that field. To exploit the device
commercially, the patents were sold to Philadelphia capitalists, who organized the North
American Phonograph Company, through which leases for limited periods were granted
to local companies doing business in special territories, gen- erally within the confines of
a single State. Under that plan, resembling the methods of 1878, the machines and blank
cylinders were manufactured by the Edison Phonograph Works, which still retains its
factories at Orange, New Jersey. The marketing enterprise was early doomed to failure,
principally because the instruments were not well understood, and did not possess the
necessary refinements that would fit them for the special field in which they were to be
used. At first the instruments were leased; but it was found that the leases were seldom
renewed. Efforts were then made to sell them, but the prices were high--from $100 to
$150. In the midst of these difficulties, the chief promoter of the enterprise, Mr.
Lippincott, died; and it was soon found that the roseate dreams of success entertained by
the sanguine promoters were not to be realized. The North American Phonograph
Company failed, its principal creditor being Mr. Edison, who, having acquired the assets
of the defunct concern, organized the National Phonograph Company, to which he turned
over the patents; and with characteristic energy he attempted again to build up a business
with which his favorite and, to him, most interesting invention might be successfully
identified. The National Phonograph Company from the very start determined to retire at
least temporarily from the field of stenographic use, and to exploit the phonograph for
musical purposes as a competitor of the music-box. Hence it was necessary that for such
work the relatively heavy and expensive electric motor should be discarded, and a simple
spring motor constructed with a sufficiently sensitive governor to permit accurate musical
reproduction. Such a motor was designed, and is now used on all phonographs except on
such special instruments as may be made with electric motors, as well as on the
successful apparatus that has more recently been designed and introduced for
stenographic use. Improved factory facilities were introduced; new tools were made, and
various types of machines were designed so that phonographs can now be bought at
prices ranging from $10 to $200. Even with the changes which were thus made in the two
machines, the work of developing the business was slow, as a demand had to be created;
and the early prejudice of the public against the phonograph, due to its failure as a
stenographic apparatus, had to be overcome. The story of the phonograph as an industrial
enterprise, from this point of departure, is itself full of interest, but embraces so many
details that it is necessarily given in a separate later chapter. We must return to the days
of 1878, when Edison, with at least three first-class inventions to his credit--the
quadruplex, the carbon telephone, and the phonograph --had become a man of mark and a
"world character."