Editing Phonograph (section)

== Improvements at the Volta Laboratory ==
{{Main|Volta Laboratory and Bureau#Sound recording and phonograph development}}
[[Alexander Graham Bell]] and his two associates took Edison's [[tinfoil]] phonograph and modified it considerably to make it reproduce sound from wax instead of tinfoil. They began their work at Bell's [[Volta Laboratory]] in Washington, D. C., in 1879, and continued until they were granted basic patents in 1886 for recording in wax.<ref name="Newville">Newville, Leslie J. [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30112/30112-h/30112-h.htm Development of the Phonograph at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604180947/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30112/30112-h/30112-h.htm |date=2011-06-04 }}, United States National Museum Bulletin, [[Smithsonian Institution|United States National Museum]] and the [[Museum of History and Technology]], Washington, D.C., 1959, No. 218, Paper 5, pp.69–79. Retrieved from ProjectGutenberg.org.</ref>

Although Edison had [[Thomas Edison#Beginning his career|invented the phonograph]] in 1877, the fame bestowed on him for this invention was not due to its efficiency. Recording with his tinfoil phonograph was too difficult to be practical, as the tinfoil tore easily, and even when the stylus was properly adjusted, its reproduction of sound was distorted, and good for only a few playbacks; nevertheless Edison had discovered the idea of [[sound recording]]. However immediately after his discovery he did not improve it, allegedly because of an agreement to spend the next five years developing the [[History of electric power transmission#Early high voltage exterior lighting|New York City electric light and power]] system.<ref name="Newville"/>

=== Volta's early challenge ===
Meanwhile, Bell, a [[scientist]] and experimenter at heart, was looking for new worlds to conquer after having patented the [[telephone]]. According to [[Sumner Tainter]], it was through [[Gardiner Hubbard|Gardiner Green Hubbard]] that Bell took up the phonograph challenge. Bell had married [[Mabel Gardiner Hubbard|Hubbard's daughter Mabel]] in 1879 while Hubbard was president of the Edison Speaking Phonograph Co., and his organization, which had purchased the Edison patent, was financially troubled because people did not want to buy a machine that seldom worked well and proved difficult for the average person to operate.<ref name="Newville"/>

=== Volta Graphophone ===
{{See also|Graphophone}}
[[File:Transcription using cylinder phonograph.png|thumb|left| A 'G' (Graham Bell) model Graphophone being played back by a typist after its cylinder had recorded dictation.]]
The sound vibrations had been indented in the wax that had been applied to the Edison phonograph. The following was the text of one of their recordings: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamed of in your philosophy. I am a Graphophone and my mother was a phonograph."<ref>''[[The Washington Herald]]'', October 28, 1937.</ref> Most of the disc machines designed at the Volta Lab had their disc mounted on vertical turntables. The explanation is that in the early experiments, the turntable, with disc, was mounted on the shop lathe, along with the recording and reproducing heads. Later, when the complete models were built, most of them featured vertical turntables.<ref name="Newville"/>

One interesting exception was a horizontal seven inch turntable. The machine, although made in 1886, was a duplicate of one made earlier but taken to Europe by [[Chichester Bell]]. Tainter was granted {{US patent|385886}} on July 10, 1888. The playing arm is rigid, except for a pivoted vertical motion of 90 degrees to allow removal of the record or a return to starting position. While recording or playing, the record not only rotated, but moved laterally under the stylus, which thus described a spiral, recording 150 grooves to the inch.<ref name="Newville"/>

The basic distinction between the Edison's first phonograph patent and the Bell and Tainter patent of 1886 was the method of recording. Edison's method was to indent the sound waves on a piece of tin foil, while Bell and Tainter's invention called for cutting, or "engraving", the sound waves into a wax record with a sharp recording stylus.<ref name="Newville"/>

===Graphophone commercialization===
[[File:Graphophone1901.jpg|thumb|A later-model Columbia Graphophone of 1901]]
[[File:Edison Phonograph 1AA.webm|thumb|thumbtime=0|Edison-Phonograph playing: ''Iola'' by the Edison Military Band (video, 3 min 51 s)]]
In 1885, when the Volta Associates were sure that they had a number of practical inventions, they filed [[patent]] applications and began to seek out investors. The [[Volta Graphophone Company]] of Alexandria, Virginia, was created on January 6, 1886, and incorporated on February 3, 1886. It was formed to control the patents and to handle the commercial development of their sound recording and reproduction inventions, one of which became the first [[Dictaphone]].<ref name="Newville"/>

After the Volta Associates gave several demonstrations in the City of Washington, businessmen from [[Philadelphia]] created the American Graphophone Company on March 28, 1887, in order to produce and sell the machines for the budding phonograph marketplace.<ref name=ERS/> The Volta Graphophone Company then merged with American Graphophone,<ref name=ERS>Hoffmann, Frank W. & Ferstler, Howard. [https://books.google.com/books?id=xV6tghvO0oMC&pg=PA1167 Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound: Volta Graphophone Company] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170307014143/https://books.google.com/books?id=xV6tghvO0oMC&pg=PA1167 |date=2017-03-07 }}, CRC Press, 2005, Vol.1, pg.1167, {{ISBN|041593835X}}, {{ISBN|978-0-415-93835-8}}</ref> which itself later evolved into [[Columbia Records]].<ref name="Schoenherr2005">Schoenherr, Steven. [http://homepage.mac.com/oldtownman/recording/graphophone.html Recording Technology History: Charles Sumner Tainter and the Graphophone] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111223045342/http://homepage.mac.com/oldtownman/recording/graphophone.html |date=2011-12-23 }}, originally published at the History Department of, [[University of San Diego]], revised July 6, 2005. Retrieved from University of San Diego History Department website December 19, 2009. Document transferred to a personal website upon Professor Schoenherr's retirement. Retrieved again from homepage.mac.com/oldtownman website July 21, 2010.</ref><ref name="EWB2004">Encyclopedia of World Biography. "[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404700543.html Alexander Graham Bell] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100105200232/http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404700543.html |date=2010-01-05 }}", Encyclopedia of World Biography. Thomson Gale. 2004. Retrieved December 20, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com.</ref>

A coin-operated version of the Graphophone, {{US patent|506348}}, was developed by Tainter in 1893 to compete with ''nickel-in-the-slot'' entertainment phonograph {{US patent|428750}} demonstrated in 1889 by Louis T. Glass, manager of the Pacific Phonograph Company.<ref>[http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a21127/how-the-jukebox-got-its-groove/ How the Jukebox Got its Groove] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170126074647/http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a21127/how-the-jukebox-got-its-groove/ |date=2017-01-26 }} Popular Mechanics, June 6, 2016, retrieved July 3, 2017</ref>

The work of the Volta Associates laid the foundation for the successful use of [[Dictation machine|dictating machines]] in business, because their wax recording process was practical and their machines were durable. But it would take several more years and the renewed efforts of Edison and the further improvements of [[Emile Berliner]] and many others, before the [[recording industry]] became a major factor in [[Entertainment center|home entertainment]].<ref name="Newville"/>

The technology quickly became popular abroad, where it was also used in new ways. In 1895, for example, [[Hungary]] became the first country to use phonographs to conduct [[folklore]] and [[Ethnomusicology|ethnomusicological]] research, after which it became common practice in ethnography.<ref>István Kollega Tarsoly: A magyar folklór történetének korszakai, <nowiki>https://mek.oszk.hu/02100/02185/html/550.html#551</nowiki></ref>