TALKING MACHINE ROMANCE

CHARLES CROS

IMPROVEMENTS

I ■ . ■ \ THOMAS EDISON - \ ,'■■■

"MAKE THIS"

"Truth's" Special Gramophone Section

Evolution of Gramophone From Days of Edouard Scott de Martinville, and Edison's Genius

HOW WORLD RECEIVED DISC MUSIC

The "Romance of the Gramophone." That is no stock phrase but a matter-of-fact description of the evolution of one of the greatest cultural and pleasure-giving discoveries of the age. Where the germ of the first sound reproduction idea had its origin, no one can say with certainty, but m bringing the recording of sound on the disc to its present state bf perfection, some of the greatest minds which the world has seen have played their part. . * • ■ Foremost among them stands the creative genius of Thomas Alva Edison who, to-day, well beyond the allotted span, has seen the marvellous conception which he first gave practical form, bring music to the four corners of the world and take its place among the greatest of his inventions.

ALTHOUGH the first practical working model of a talking machine came from the mind of Edison, many other names are associated with the evolution of sound reproduction and recording. Even m the remote legends of China., and Ancient Egypt* there is f mention of. talking images and talking boxes which may have been the fore- ' f runners of the modern grand. But leaving legend out of the picture, we have definite proof that the fundamental idea of the gramophone was conceived as early as 1856 by a Frenchman named Edouard Jean Scott de Martinville, a descendant of a Scottish Jacobite family, who m 1857 deposited "• with the secretary of the Academy of Sciences m Paris, the explanation of .-an invention which he called the "phonautograph." This device did not pretend to reproduce sound, but it showed that de Martinville had grasped 1 the first principle of recording — the fact that sound sets up air vibrations which it ' is possible to record' on a solid substance. For various reasons, however, de - Martinville failed to develop 1 his discovery which was incidentally very

[--sceptically received by the scientific authorities, and to-day practically .all that remains of hia work, is a few. of « his models as m museums. But while de Martinville was working m somewhat inconclusive fashion, another Frenchman, Charles Cros, deposited with the Academy, the specifications for a machine, which was to 'both record and reproduce sound. V Whether- Crete's machine /would have his expectations, w^ll riever be .determined for he died before he could put it into operation, but from the specifications -and, the inventor's ex-, planatidn; as '. deposited . with the Academy, it appears probable that he had grasped the idea on which Edison was simultaneously working on the other side of. the world. /.■ Edisdn at this time was not definitely 'Searching after the . invention of a talking ,' machine, but was rather endeavoring _,t6 improve, upon Alexander GraharivVß*irß:Vihvention"' o£rthe ;tele--phone, 'and it was from the great invento.rß..reßearch m this direction, that the phonograph arid later the gramo-V phone, [finally had their being. Strangely, enough, - .'another I !.'-' " great pioneer of the talking, ma- - chine-^-Emile Berliner, who invented the gramophone as an . improvement ! upon the phono-graph—-was also at this time- experimenting m improvements to telephone communication. It has never been satisfactorily es-

tablished exactly what combination of fortuitous circumstances first gave Edison the ideayof the phonograph, but certain it is that on July 18, 1877, he Wrote '"m his working notebook the following passage: ' . . " "Just tried experiment with diaphragm having an embossing point and held against! paraffin paper moving rapidly. The speaking vibrations are indented nicely and there's no doubt that 1 shall be, able to store up and reproduce automatically at any future, time, the human voice perfectly." -* But although Edison had the germ of his great invention m his mind, it took -public opinion to awaken him to the possibilities of the idea — an idea which so far, he regarded only as a possible development to be introduced into" the mechanism of the telephone. ! Fortunately he had told his friend, Mr. Edward H. Johnson, the 'principles of his theory and equally fortunately Mr. Johnson did not keep it to himself but m his capacity v as a quasi-publicity agent, outlined it to several public meetings which he was addressing on Edison's inventions.' The first of these lectures was delivered at the city of Buffalo and both Edison and Johnson were astonished at 4he avidity with which the public assimilated the idea, of a talking machine, yv So accurately was Edison's idea grasped by at least one Buffalo jour- '». i — — 'm — — -j'= ■

tialist, that the next morning he told the world ;ithat;,"Mr. Edison's wonderful instrument;. 'will- articulate speech with all the perfection of the human voice. "■' v Johnson quickly realized that the i public had grasped possibilities which [even the inventor had overlooked, and proceeded back poste haste- to Edison's aboratoryand laid the paper clippings b-fore his chief with the remark, "Look n' the trouble you have gotten me li-.0." "That is so. They are right. This is what it is, a talking machine," quietly' remarked Edison I when he had read the reports. ■ Once he had realized the possibility of the idea, the inventor lost no ie, but sent Johnson straight off to .-v York to purchase the materials • ;h which to make a working model . the machine which he had conceivcl m his mind. Then he sat down at ii table and sketched out on a piece f paper the first practical representa»n of a phonograph, with the laconic : otruction to, his mechanic, John Lveusi, "Make this." Kreusi-was a very clever workman nd he carried out Edison's instructions aithfully, but at the same time improving, the mechanical construction

I where he saw that this could be done. Through it all, however, he was very sceptical of the success. of the idea and did not conceal his feelings from the inventor. Nevertheless he carried out the job with all despatch, and finally on August 13, J 877, delivered the completed model to Edison. To our modern ideas, educated m terms of cabinets '-and table" grands, it was a very crude little contraption, but torday that original model is one of the most highly prized exhibits at the famous South Kensington Museum, London. But having received the completed machine, Edison had still to decide upon the most suitable material for recording and finally discarded paraffin wax m favor of tin-foil. This tin-foil was wrapped round the cylinder on the machine and when all was m readiness, Edison -» recited into the recording disc, the incongruous .Words from the "Mary Had a Little Lamb" nursery rhyme. ...'-.» To the impatient and sceptical observers, all thait appeared as a result of this, was a scratch on the surface of the tin-foil,, but Edison knew that this scratch meant. a very great ,deal v Ist dead silence he commenced turning the crank handle of the cylinder and to the amazement of everyone present, the well-known verse, m the voice bf the inventor, sounded forth from the machine. Thus was the first talking machine evolved and for Weeks afterwards it was the eighth wonder of the world. Crowds flocked to see it and it was m the headlines of all' the papers ' of the: country. Finally 1 the inventor was compelled to. have a number of. machines made m order to meet thY public- demand': to hear the marvellous instrument, and tbr. day these quaint first models m all their • pristine simplicity, are of considerably more valueV'.-as. curios ...than, their resplendent brethren as practical machines. v/v 1" ■" - -'-V -V' : ''v ■ But having .'cjarriedV'mattersV.so . far, Edison became . -immersed ;in his • researches <ihto the electric 7 light problems; and it was ; -not-- for .

another ten years that he turned his attention to the phonograph. In this period, hoWever, other agile minds had seized upon the possibilities of the invention and Alexander Graham Bell, of telephone fame, with his cousin, Chichester Bell, and his associate, Charles Sumner -Tainter, invented another recording substance which . had wax as its principal ingredient. This gave very much improved - results and this Bell-Tainter machine was marketed under the name of the "graphophone, by a strong company formed for the purpose. This revived Edison's interest, and the opposition camps proceeded to "have the law on each other" for infringements of patents. After a tremendous expenditure m litigation, however, they were both awarded one dollar apiece as damage and the matter was dropped for the time being.

Edison then settled down to improve upon his original design and- after four years of unremitting search, finally succeeded '.m evolving a suitable substance for recording purposes. He also introduced an electric driving motor and other features which made the machines a much more commercially attractive proposition. By this time the Graphophone Company had struck trouble, being compelled to go into liquidation and Edison proceeded to form the National Phonograph Company as an organization to record and reproduce music by means of the Edison patents. So far, no mass production process for reproducing copies of. records had been discovered, but this.; WaS presently invented and; the problem of duplication solved, 7'f . With .these -ihiprovements,. price re ductiohs/were 'effected and the result; was a tremendous demand for this neW. wonder of science. Exhibitions of model instruments

were given abroad before scientific societies and a number of prominent personages had their voices recorded. All this was good publicity, but for some unexplained reason, the export of phonographs from America for sale abroad was prohibited for some years by the company. In fact, the first few instruments sold m England and Ireland had to be smuggled out of the States. The phonograph as it • Was being manufactured at this period, however, was still very imperfect and -the next great development came with the advent of Emile Berliner, who introduced the gramophone principle. Previously, after the Edison idea, all records had been cylindrical m shape, but Berliner introduced the idea of recording on the disc and thus placing a more even pressure upon the needle. To do .this he went back and studied de Martinville's "phonautograph" and after a great deal of careful research, succeeded m producing an instrument which - was admittedly a great ' advance upon the phonographs then m use. From this point onwards, the,fundamental principles having, been firmly established, the story of the gramophone is one of commercial expansion and of refinements m construction. Gradually the disc idea superseded the cylinders until to-day it is m universal use and Edison has placed on the market his own disc machine m order to compete with his rivals. From the Berliner patents the Victor Talking Machine Company came into being m America and later virheh Berliner sold his English patent rights, the Gramophone Company was formed m England. This, company With its various ramifications is now known as the His Master's Voice Company, while there has grown up "m opposition to it; m America, the • 'well*knb\fliiV ' Columbia Company. ' All yiese^ast^orgahiiations have brought t]s:s<a»Y*a|^^ of science aria^^^l^^in'.f.perfecjtirig their yy; ajld^^l^mrtfagV;. Vthe world's ■ best until Vvto-diay .the gramophone has- "beenV 'deV.elqped to ."'a remarkable stage of perfection. , V - — :■.:•. . . jym^wW^ ';