Editing Phonograph (section)

=== 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"/>