HIS FIRST PHONOGRAPH.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 16, Issue 93, 2 December 1902, Page 2

HIS FIRST PHONOGRAPH.

HOW EDISON WON A BET

A remarkable incident in connection with the experiment test of Edison’s first phonograph has just narrated for the first time.

It is 25 s'ears since the great wizard first felt convinced of the possibility of recording voice expressions. He was working on telephone

improvements at the tijjje' and when he expressed his belief, his manager. Mr. W. Carman, betted him a box of cigars that he could not prove it. Edison accepted the wager, and at the end of three days he had evolved his first phonograph. It was, says Edison’s manager, a crude affair compared to the later ones. The cylinder was of iron, covered with platinum foil. A fine, screw thread matched a similar thread on another cylinder, and the machine was worked by hand. It proved successful and the first words repeated by the instrument were those of the classic old .bit of doggerel, commencing with : Mary had a little lamb, Its fleece was white_ as snow, , And everywhere that Mary went The lamb was sure to go.

Edison worked on the phonograph off and on for two or three years after that, and then gave it up. The wax cylinder used to-day was not his idea, and the old foil cylinders, though he greatly improved them were never satisfactory. They were usually unfit after the first or second using as the foil did not retain the impression accurately. There were about 50 phonographs made on the model of the first one, and they resembled it closely. The original mashine was destroyed in succeeding experiments but there are still a few of the others in existence. After all it was a simple task that was assigned to the first phonograph Its modern dutit.; are in comparison complicated in the extreme, for whereas it started out as a toy, the phonograph is now an important feature of commercial life.

•* I say, is that there the new novel you advised me to read ? ” said the cabman to the librarian. “ Yes ” replied the librarian. ” That is the one.” ” Well,” said the

cabman ” you can just take it back. There are 9 people in the first chapter who hired cabs and each of them when he got out flung his purse to the driver. Now when I want that sort of literature I’ll go to Jules Verne and get it pure.