CHANCE DISCOVERY

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 163, 5 April 1933, Page 6

CHANCE DISCOVERY

Invention of Phonograph

This, in his own words, is how Edison invented the talking machine; —

“I was engaged upon’a machine intended to repeat Morse characters,” he says, “which were recorded on paper by indentations that transferred, their message to another circuit'automatically When passed under a tracing-point connected with a circuit-closing apparatus; ■ : v _

“In manipulating this machine I found that when the cylinder carrying the indented paper was turned with great swiftness, it gave off a humming noise from the Indentations—a musical, rhythmic sound resembling that of human talk heard Indistinctly. This led me to try fitting a diaphragm to the machine, which would receive the vibrations or sound waves made by my voice upon an impressible material placed on the cylinder. The material selected for immediate use was paraffined paper, and the results obtained were excellent The indentations on the cylinder, when rapidly revolved, caused a repetition of the original vibrations to reach the ear through- a recorder, just as if the machine Itself were speaking. “I saw at once,” concludes Edison, “that the problem of registering human speech so that it could be repeated by mechanical means as often as might be desired was solved.”