Today in Technology History
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February 19
Exactly 125 years ago, Thomas Alva Edison obtained a patent on his favorite invention: the phonograph.
In 1877, Edison was trying to develop a machine that could transcribe telegraph messages and play them back, without requiring a person to retype the message. Realizing that the techniques he was developing might also be used to record telephone messages, he sketched a diagram and handed it to one of his assistants, who promptly built what would become the first device in history capable of recording sound. Edison famously tested the machine by recording and playing back the words to "Mary had a little lamb."
Edison named the machine the "phonograph," from the Greek words for "sound" and "writing." The first phonograph was quite different from the record players we are familiar with: a needle recorded sound on a tinfoil cylinder, and the same needle was used to play back the sound.
Edison immediately recognized many uses for his device, including "reproduction of music," "educational purposes" and "dictation without the aid of a stenographer" -- all of which he listed in his patent application in late 1877. He was awarded patent number 200,521 on February 19, 1878.
Edison made several improvements in recording technology in the ensuing decades, and he built successful businesses to exploit his work. However, his recording companies lost ground in the early 1900s because they continued to produce music on cylinders, which were much harder to store than the flat discs used by Edison's rivals.
Related links:
Click here to read an excellent history of the Edison phonograph, from the U.S. Library of Congress.
If you want to see Edison's phonograph patent, enter the patent number (200,521) in the box on this Patent Office Web site.
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