Witnesses were astonished by this invention, considering it magical. From that moment, Edison began to be referred to as the “Wizard of Menlo Park, New Jersey,” where he resided.
November 29, 1877 – Thomas Edison Unveils His First Invention: The Hand-Cranked Phonograph
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an inventor and entrepreneur who developed numerous devices that significantly impacted life in the 20th century. A journalist dubbed him the “Wizard of Menlo Park.” He was one of the first inventors to apply mass production principles to the creative process, thus being credited with creating the first industrial research laboratory.
Many inventions attributed to him were not entirely his original ideas; however, once the first patents were modified, they became his (the most famous being the light bulb), which were essentially the work of many individuals within his company. Nevertheless, Edison is regarded as one of the most inventive minds in history, holding 1,093 patents in the United States under his name, as well as patents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany (a total of 1,500 inventions worldwide).
On November 29, 1877, he introduced his first invention to the public: the hand-cranked phonograph. Witnesses were astonished by this invention, considering it magical. From that moment, Edison began to be called the “Wizard of Menlo Park, New Jersey,” where he lived. His first disc-playing machine recorded sound on tin foil cylinders, resulting in low sound quality, and it destroyed the recording groove upon playback, so it could only be heard once. In the 1880s, a redesigned model used wax-coated cardboard cylinders created by Alexander Graham Bell, Chichester Bell, and Charles Tainter. This prompted Thomas Edison to continue working on creating his own “perfect phonograph.”
By wrapping tin foil around a cylinder and using a vibrating needle to trace varying depths of grooves based on sound vibrations, he successfully recorded the song “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Using a needle and diaphragm, Edison was able to reproduce the recording. While researching electric light bulbs, he momentarily forgot about this invention. Only later, when he regained his passion for sound reproduction, did he invent mass-produced cylindrical tubes by creating a solid mold of the original cylinder through electroplating.
In 1887, Edison continued to mass-produce the cylindrical phonographs. This process lasted until 1890 when he utilized a type of wax that shrank when cooled, allowing for easy removal from the mold. By this time, a phonograph invented by Emil Berliner, based on Edison’s principles, began to dominate the market. The key difference was that it recorded sound vibrations on zinc discs instead of cylindrical tubes. This device was called a gramophone, which produced grooves on the flat surface of the disc. Sound was recorded through constant-depth spiral grooves on a flat disc. Berliner referred to this type of disc as a record.
Early records and cylindrical phonographs produced sound of similar quality, although theoretically, Edison’s cylindrical tubes had a recording/playback duration of 2 to 4 minutes at a speed of 160 revolutions per minute, while Berliner’s discs ran at 60 revolutions per minute for 2 minutes. This was just enough time to record a single song! Recording and playback were done entirely mechanically, with a large, shiny metal horn present. During recording, the horn gathered sound to create sufficient pressure for the needle to record. Conversely, during playback, the horn was used in the opposite direction to amplify the sound to a level that could be heard.
Although cylindrical phonographs and discs coexisted during the first decade of the 20th century, it became apparent that discs were easier to mass-produce. By 1913, records became dominant, and cylindrical phonographs ceased production. Dance music became popular, and various musical genres quickly emerged to meet demand. Edison began designing thick records intended for dance music, featuring grooves oriented vertically, spinning at 80 revolutions per minute.
