PHONOGRAPH
The phonograph was invented in 1877 by Thomas Alva Edison. Thomas Edison was a very important creator during the Industrial Revolution. Thomas Edison created a variety of things, such as the phonograph, the light bulb, motion pictures, and many more things. He had a total of 1,093 patents. But his favorite invention was the phonograph.
Edison was 30 years old when he invented the phonograph. He created the phonograph by accident. He created it while working on telegraphs and telephones. He noticed that when you played the tape of the machine really fast, it creates a noise, similar to a person's voice. He wondered if he could record this. He experimented with the diaphragm of the telephone receiver. He noticed that if you attached a needle to the diaphragm, the needle indent the tape when you talked. It indented the tape because of the vibrations when you spoke into the mouthpiece. Now that he could record a message, he needed it to playback. So he added a second needle to playback the message, and it worked. Then he tried the same thing using a stylus on a metal cylinder wrapped in tinfoil, and it actually recorded and played back a message.
So he sent a sketch of the machine to his mechanic, and the mechanic finished it within 30 hours. Then Edison filed for a patent on December 24, 1877, for his new machine. But, the patent wasn't issued until February 19, 1878. One month later, he created a company for his phonographs. He called it the Edison Speaking Phonograph Company. He received 10,000 for manufacturing and sales rights, then got 20% of the profits they made on the machine, making Edison very rich. The phonograph was sold at prices ranging from 10 to 200 dollars. Edison eventually lost interest in the phonograph, and then began his work on the incandescent light bulb. So, he sold it to Jesse H. Lippincott who gained control of the Edison Speaking Phonograph Company. Lippincott then turned it into the North American Phonograph Company on July 14, 1888.
The phonograph helped us in many ways. There were phonographic books for blind people, there were music boxes and toys, there were family records, so that families could record what they say, there were clocks that announced time, and it also had a connection to the telephone so that communications could be recorded. There was also one other thing that the phonograph helped with. Soldiers were now eligible able to bring music with them. In 1917, when the U.S. soldiers went to World War l, the Edison Speaking Phonograph Company made a special version of the phonograph. A lot of Army units bought these phonographs so that the soldiers could listen to music. The music cheered up the soldiers and reminded them of home. Thomas Edison was very proud that he helped out the U.S.
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