Editing Thomas Edison (section)

===Phonograph===
[[File:Edison and phonograph edit1.jpg|thumb|Edison with the second model of his phonograph in [[Mathew Brady]]'s studio in [[Washington, D.C.]] in April 1878]]
Edison began his career as an inventor in [[Newark, New Jersey]], with the automatic repeater and his other improved telegraphic devices, but the invention that first gained him wider notice was the [[phonograph]] in 1877.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edbio.html |title=The Life of Thomas A. Edison |work=The Library of Congress |access-date=February 24, 2013 |archive-date=January 20, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110120001520/http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edbio.html |url-status=live }}</ref> This accomplishment was so unexpected by the public at large as to appear almost magical. Edison became known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park".<ref name="Wizard"/>

His first phonograph recorded on [[Tin#Applications|tinfoil]] around a grooved cylinder. Despite its limited [[sound quality]] and that the recordings could be played only a few times, the phonograph made Edison a celebrity. [[Joseph Henry]], president of the National Academy of Sciences and one of the most renowned electrical scientists in the US, described Edison as "the most ingenious inventor in this country... or in any other".<ref>Edison, Thomas A. 1989. ''Menlo Park: The early years, April 1876 – December 1877''. Edited by P. B. Israel, K. A. Nier and L. Carlat. Vol. 3, The papers of Thomas A Edison. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Doc. 1117</ref> In April 1878, Edison traveled to [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] to demonstrate the phonograph before the National Academy of Sciences, Congressmen, Senators and [[Rutherford B. Hayes|President Hayes]].<ref>Baldwin, Neil. 2001. ''Edison: Inventing the century''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 97–98.</ref> ''[[The Washington Post]]'' described Edison as a "[[genius]]" and his presentation as "a scene... that will live in history".<ref>"Genius before science". ''The Washington Post'', April 19, 1878.</ref> Although Edison obtained a patent for the phonograph in 1878,<ref>Edison, Thomas A. 1877. ''Telephones or speaking-telegraphs''. US patent 203,018 filed December 13, 1877, and issued April 30, 1878.</ref> he did little to develop it until [[Alexander Graham Bell]], [[Chichester Bell]], and [[Charles Sumner Tainter|Charles Tainter]] produced a phonograph-like device in the 1880s that used wax-coated cardboard cylinders.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}