The Phonograph - 7

The Phonograph - 7

The invention of the phonograph was immediately followed, as usual, by the appearance

of several other incidental and auxiliary devices, some patented, and others remaining

simply the application of the principles of apparatus that had been worked out. One of

these was the telephonograph, a combination of a telephone at a distant station with a

phonograph. The diaphragm of the phonograph mouthpiece is actuated by an

electromagnet in the same way as that of an ordinary telephone receiver, and in this

manner a record of the message spoken from a distance can be obtained and turned into

sound at will. Evidently such a process is reversible, and the phonograph can send a

message to the distant receiver.

This idea was brilliantly demonstrated in practice in February, 1889, by Mr. W. J.

Hammer, one of Edison's earliest and most capable associates, who carried on

telephonographic communication between New York and an audience in Philadelphia.

The record made in New York on the Edison phonograph was repeated into an Edison

carbon transmitter, sent over one hundred and three miles of circuit, including six miles

of underground cable; received by an Edison motograph; repeated by that on to a

phonograph; transferred from the phonograph to an Edison carbon transmitter, and by

that delivered to the Edison motograph receiver in the enthusiastic lecture-hall, where

every one could hear each sound and syllable distinctly. In real practice this spectacular

playing with sound vibrations, as if they were lacrosse balls to toss around between the

goals, could be materially simplified.

The modern megaphone, now used universally in making announcements to large

crowds, particularly at sporting events, is also due to this period as a perfection by Edison

of many antecedent devices going back, perhaps, much further than the legendary funnels

through which Alexander the Great is said to have sent commands to his outlying forces.

The improved Edison megaphone for long-distance work comprised two horns of wood

or metal about six feet long, tapering from a diameter of two feet six inches at the mouth

to a small aperture provided with ear- tubes. These converging horns or funnels, with a

large speaking-trumpet in between them, are mounted on a tripod, and the megaphone is

complete. Conversation can be carried on with this megaphone at a distance of over two

miles, as with a ship or the balloon. The modern megaphone now employs the receiver

form thus introduced as its very effective transmitter, with which the old-fashioned

speaking- trumpet cannot possibly compete; and the word "megaphone" is universally

applied to the single, side-flaring horn.

A further step in this line brought Edison to the "aerophone," around which the Figaro

weaved its fanciful description. In the construction of the aerophone the same kind of

tympanum is used as in the phonograph, but the imitation of the human voice, or the

transmission of sound, is effected by the quick opening and closing of valves placed

within a steam- whistle or an organ-pipe. The vibrations of the diaphragm communicated

to the valves cause them to operate in synchronism, so that the vibrations are thrown

upon the escaping air or steam; and the result is an instrument with a capacity of

magnifying the sounds two hundred times, and of hurling them to great distances

intelligibly, like a huge fog-siren, but with immense clearness and penetration. All this

study of sound transmission over long distances without wires led up to the consideration

and inven- tion of pioneer apparatus for wireless telegraphy-- but that also is another

chapter.

Yet one more ingenious device of this period must be noted--Edison's vocal engine, the

patent application for which was executed in August, 1878, the patent being granted the

following December. Reference to this by Edison himself has already been quoted. The

"voice-engine," or "phonomotor," converts the vibrations of the voice or of music, acting

on the diaphragm, into motion which is utilized to drive some secondary appliance,

whether as a toy or for some useful purpose. Thus a man can actually talk a hole through

a board.

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."